How to draw a Giraffe: Pencil Sketching Guide

You know that Giraffes are the tallest mammals on this earth, but here are some interesting facts you may have not read about in your textbooks. 

• Giraffes need to drink water only once in a couple of days.
• Baby giraffes can stand up and even run within an hour of being born.
• Giraffes have hair-covered horns called ossicones.
• The giraffe's scientific name, Giraffa camelopardalis, comes from the ancient Greeks' belief that it looked like a camel wearing a leopard's coat.

You wanna know more interesting facts about these leggy herbivores then just google...for this isn't a post on how interesting giraffes are...rather it's a post on how to draw a Giraffe...nevertheless. I thought you would enjoy reading about some interesting facts...in fact, my students were amused when I told them about the above facts...they had so many more questions...little curious minds!

Anyways, without wasting our time any further, let's proceed with the sketching tutorial.

This post shows simple steps to draw the head of the giraffe and all you need is a paper and pencil. Just follow the steps closely and you will be done in a few minutes. You will note in some of the sketches below that I have just drawn a rough central line which I have probably erased later. These central lines have helped me to keep the proportions and angles in place.

I used an HB pencil to start the sketch as shown in picture 01. However, to add the textures to the giraffe's skin and the details later, I used a 2B pencil as shown in the steps in picture 02.

Picture 01: Steps to draw a giraffe head 

Picture 02: Steps showing pencil shading

Here's sharing a quick snapshot of the whole process shown above in a slideshow format. Hope it helps.

While you learn to sketch the above giraffe step by step, here are some more pencil sketches of a Giraffe, you can try on your own. The rules remain the same. Make a rough sketch, add the details one by one, maintain the proportions, and apply the pencil shading and textures.

Pencil sketch of a Baby Giraffe

Giraffe with a flower

Remember, the skill to making a good sketch is good observation too.

Hope this pencil tutorial was helpful.

Thank you for stopping by.

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