Out of a few ways to draw a lion, this one will let you achieve pretty impressive results without oversimplifying your drawing. With our easy step-by-step drawing guides, you’ll be able to check yourself at each stage using the provided grid lines.
Most importantly, after you master it yourself, you can teach your kids how to draw a lion easily and how to draw a lion cub cartoon. Use our free printable guides and follow easy step-by-step instructions.
Making a simple drawing of a lion
How to draw a lion in a standing position
Many people are interested to learn how to draw a lion in motion or a roaring lion. Sure, it is more fun to make such pictures.
Yet for beginners, drawing a lion in a static pose is a lot more beneficial and rewarding as you’ll see great results right away. Once you have learned all the basic proportions of a lion’s body parts, it will be much easier to draw these beautiful animals in motion.
Step 1 – Simple outline drawing of a lion’s torso
It is very tempting to start drawing a lion by outlining the lion’s mane and the head but the correct positioning of the body is more important at this stage. Make sure that the torso doesn’t go too much to the left of vertical line #2.
Step 2 – Draw a lion’s mane
Well, this simple outline drawing of a lion’s mane looks like a tree leaf that almost anyone is able to draw. Don’t worry – soon this tree leaf will turn into a lion’s head with the beautiful mane around it!
*Make sure that the horizontal line is a bit above the torso and check the overall proportions of the head and body.
Step 3 – Sketching the main parts of a lion’s face
Placing three main head parts correctly is important! Start from the big oval around the intersection of 2 axes and add two smaller ones below for the upper and the lower jaws. COnsequently, add placeholders for eyes, nose, and ears. Done!
Step 4 – Outlining lion’s paws and tail
Don’t make the lion’s legs too long – the paws should be standing on the ground on the horizontal line between numbers 6 and 7.
Step 5 – Detailing the lion’s face
Now it is time to bring more details to the upper jaw and the nose.
Step 6 – Eyes and ears
From the nose, we continue 2 vertical lines that smoothly bend around the eyes. Ears are not to be as smooth – use lightly jagged lines to add texture to your drawing.
Step 7 – Lion’s mane
Now it’s time to turn our ‘tree leaf’ into a real lion’s mane! Make it a bad hair day – your lion doesn’t have to look like it just went to a hair salon.
Step 8 – Fluffing lion’s torso
Add some hair to the shoulder area and the belly.
Step 9 – Adding hair to the tail and detailing the paws
Make sure you don’t add too much hair to the front of the lion’s paws.
Step 10 – Time to color our lion
You may use whatever earth color you prefer.
Step 11 – Finishing touches
Now it’s time to work on the lion’s mane and its face. The mane can be a bit darker than the body. Add some shadows and our lion is done!
Download our step-by-step easy printable guide for this simple drawing of a lion!
Do you want to learn how to draw a cute lion cub?
Teach the kids how to draw a lion cub easily! Younger kids for sure would prefer drawing this cutest little creature. As with an adult lion, we have a separate printable guide for this tutorial. Download it here.
Step 1 – Lion cub’s head
Since all babies have large heads, we’ll start by outlining it.
Step 2 – Paws and tail
We do not see much of a cub’s body, so we simply draw front and back legs and the cub’s tail.
Step 3 – Developing our lion cub’s face
Add little rough hairy lines on most of the cub’s face and make it smile.
Step 4 – Eyes and ears
Draw big wide-opened eyes and even bigger ears.
Step 5 – Paws time
Now it is time to draw front legs and paws.
*Don’t forget that the cub’s chest right below the chin should be in front of the legs.
Step 6 – Hind legs and tail
This one is the easiest – just make sure that the hind paws are not lower than the front ones.
Step 7 – Bringing some color
When you are adding color to your lin cub’s drawing, four colors would be enough to get started. The chest and the belly are usually lighter.
Step 8 – Finishing cub’s drawing
Leave places for highlights in the lion cub’s eyes – it will make them stand out more. Your little baby lion cartoon is cute and ready to be hanged on the fridge or your kids’ art gallery wall!
Download our “How to draw a lion cub” tutorial in PDF format here
We hope you liked our simple drawing of a lion and a lion cub tutorials and would be able to practice it a few times to get better results!
Check out more drawing tutorials:
If you like our lion drawing tutorial, learn how to draw a tiger, a shark, and a rose :
- How to create a nice drawing of a tiger for beginners
- Drawing a deer in 10 steps
- Drawing a shark in 9 easy steps
- How to draw a rose step-by-step guide for beginners
- How to draw a butterfly step by step easy and fast
Now you know how to draw a lion and a lion cub. Practice a few times for better results!
Don’t forget about art supplies for your drawings
