How to Draw a Tiger Cub
1
Start by lightly sketching basic shapes and forms. Build the cub's head around a rough circle and add basic guidelines for its body and the rock in the foreground. Use a very light pencil for sketching. 4H and HB work well.
2
Make sure the lines are fairly clean and light before moving on to the next step.
3
Start lightly sketching in clean features on top of the basic sketch. Start with the eyes, muzzle, and ears then sketch in some of the main stripes.
4
Sketch in the rest of the tiger's stripes before sketching in it's outline and the outlines of the rock in the foreground.
5
Clean up the lines as much as possible. Don't worry too much if you can't get rid off all of the guidelines.
6
Use an HB pencil to add rough shading to the background and foreground then smooth over the shading with a blending stump/paper towel. Keep in mind that the overall texture of the shading depends mostly on the texture of the paper.
7
Use a 4H pencil to add some light base shading to the cub. This layer of shading serves mainly to differentiate between the white fur and orange/brown (gray) fur.
8
Start concentrating on the tiger's head. Use a 6B pencil to lightly sketch in dark shading to the top half of the tiger's head. start with the eyes then work outwards to the stripes and ears.
9
Go over the dark shading from the previous step with an HB pencil. Be sure to define the outlines and give the black stripes more natural fur-like direction. Use a 4H pencil to shade in the "gray" fur, ears, and define the outline. Add some very ligh
10
Concentrate on the rest of the body. Use a 6B pencil to roughly shade in the rest of the stripes/dark shading then go over the dark areas with an HB pencil. Go over the lighter areas/details with a 4H pencil.
11
Build up the background shading using a 6B pencil. Add rough shading then smooth over the shading with a blending stump. Adding graphite powder to the dark areas can make this process much easier.
12
Finish off the background by redefining the tiger and rock's outlines with an HB pencil and softening the shading with blending stump. Use a kneaded eraser and blending stump on the ground to bake in look a bit more varied and natural.
13
Add some detail to the foreground rock. Try to utilize stippling (lots of dots) to make the rock look more complex and natural. Use a 4H pencil to add groups of varying dots around the rock before adding darker dots and texture with an HB pencil.
14
Finish up the drawing by adding finishing touches here and the. Use a knead eraser to make highlights pop out more and a blending stump to smooth out any shading that ist too rough.
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September 20, 2014
Description: How to draw a tiger cub. Graphite used: 4H for sketching, details and light shading; HB for general shading; 6B for dark shading. Paper used: 140 lb cold press (watercolor paper).
