How to Draw a Duck Step by Step

by easylinedrawing

This tutorial shows how to draw a cartoon duck sitting on water in six steps. It includes basic drawing and coloring examples along with simple explanations.

Drawing a duck like the one in this example is fairly easy. As it’s being viewed from the side you only need to add one eye and one wing. Also as the duck is floating on water you don’t need to worry about drawing the feet at all.

Start the tutorial using a pencil and make thin and light lines as you will need to erase small parts of the drawing in some of the step. You can darken them in step fiver before coloring.

Step 1 – Draw the Outline of the Duck’s Head & Body

Begin by making an outline drawing of the duck’s head and body without any of the smaller details. The head should be somewhat round towards the top transitioning into the slightly narrower neck.

Draw the body with smooth curves but make it slightly flatter at the very bottom as part of it will be submerged in water. You can also draw a hint of the feathers to show the tail.

Step 2 – Draw the Beak

Draw the bill towards the lower part of the front of the head. You can erase a small portion of the head’s outline where the beak is attached and add it in.

Also be sure to draw the top part of the bill larger and slightly longer than the bottom.

Step 3 – Draw the Wing

In the middle/top of the body draw the wing with some splits on it’s end (similar to the tail) to give a hint of the feathers.

Erase the part of the body outline overlapped by the feathers when adding them.

Step 4 – Draw the Eye & Nostril

Towards the bottom/front side of the head (near the bill) draw the eye. As this is a cartoon looking duck make the eye quite large and make it’s shape somewhat like an upside down letter “U” with a light curve at it’s bottom.

Inside the eye draw the iris shapes almost exactly like the outline of the eye but smaller. Overlapping the iris add a small oval highlight (light reflecting from the eye).

You can also add a hint of an eyebrow above the eye with a tiny curve.

Finally also add a small oval shaped nostril to the upper part of the beak (close to the head).

Step 5 – Draw the Feather Pattern & Water

Add some water ripples around the duck to show that it’s floating and afterwards draw the pattern of it’s feathers.

Draw the water ripples as though they are sort of “wrapping around” the duck.

For the feather pattern you can add a little band like part around the neck along with a curve along the lower part of the chest.

Once done go over your drawing with darker pencil lines or a black pen/marker.

Step 6 – Color the Duck

To color the drawing you can use paints, colored pencils, makers or a combination of any of them.

Fill the different parts of the duck’s body as follows:

Bill – orange
Eye – dark brown
Head – green
Neck band – white
Chest – dark brown
Wing – light brown
Body – grey

Conclusion

It’s fairly easy to draw a duck from the side view, especially a simplified cartoon duck like the one in this tutorial. Hopefully you’ve had fun following along.

For more simple tutorial on drawing other types of birds also see: