Cartoon drawing is the most accessible art form for children — simple shapes, bold outlines, and exaggerated expressions create characters that communicate instantly. This collection of easy step-by-step cartoon drawings introduces beginners to the fundamental building blocks of cartoon design, using characters that kids already love as the starting point.

🖍️ What You Need

  • Pencil and eraser
  • Bright coloured markers — the bolder the better for cartoons
  • Black fine-tip pen for outlines
  • White paper (larger sheets give more room to experiment)

Easy Step-by-Step Cartoon Drawings

  1. The round cartoon face (the foundation) — draw a circle. Add two large oval eyes in the upper half. A simple curved nose. A wide smile. Two small circular cheeks. This basic face is the starting point for dozens of cartoon characters — the details you add on top determine who it is.
  2. Cartoon SpongeBob square — a rectangle with rounded corners and small bumps around the edge (the porous texture). Two round eyes with irises, two buck teeth showing below a big smile, freckle dots on each cheek, and a square pants waistband at the bottom.
  3. Cartoon Pikachu — round body, pointed ears with black tips, two brown horizontal stripes on the back, large red circles on the cheeks, a lightning bolt tail. Yellow throughout with darker yellow for the ear bases.
  4. Cartoon Doraemon — a perfectly round head, small round cat ears with no inner detail (they are vestigial), a large white face oval, big round eyes with a tiny pupil each, a round red nose, a wide smile with no visible teeth, and the distinctive pocket on the tummy.
  5. Cartoon Shin-chan — very large round head, tiny dot eyes low on the face, large flat nose, wide grin with small square teeth, five thick hair spikes on the forehead. Short chubby body.
  6. Cartoon fish — an oval body tapering at the tail, a forked tail fin, a round eye with a highlight dot, a smiling mouth, and three curved lines on the side for gill marks. Add scale pattern with overlapping C shapes.
  7. Practice the expression range — take any of the above characters and draw them 4 times with different expressions by changing only the eyebrows and mouth shape.
💡 Parikshet's Tip: Professional character designers follow the '3-second rule': if someone cannot identify a character in 3 seconds from its silhouette alone, the design needs more work. Pikachu passes — the lightning tail and ear shape are unmistakable. Test your cartoon designs by filling them solid black and checking if they still read correctly.

🌟 Did You Know?

The first cartoon character to become a global icon was Felix the Cat, created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer. Felix predated Mickey Mouse by nearly a decade. What made Felix revolutionary was his ability to use his own detached tail as a prop — an early example of cartoon characters interacting with their own design elements. Mickey Mouse debuted in 1928 with the first synchronised sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie.

The Universal Cartoon Character Checklist

Before finishing any cartoon character drawing, check these:

  1. ✅ Readable silhouette — can you tell who it is in solid black?
  2. ✅ Clear expression — what is the character feeling? Is it obvious?
  3. ✅ One unique feature — what makes this character different from all others?
  4. ✅ Bold outline — the black outline should be thick and confident, not tentative
  5. ✅ Consistent proportions — head-to-body ratio stays the same in every pose

🎯 Try This: Draw a Cartoon Character Family Portrait

  1. Choose 4 of the cartoon characters from this guide.
  2. Draw them all together as a group, arranged from tallest to shortest.
  3. Give each character a pose that shows their personality.
  4. Add a background: a simple landscape, a classroom, or a stage.