How To Draw A Cute Duck (Patreon)

Hello again my lovelies!

I always really enjoy drawing little white ducks so I wanted to share with you the steps to drawing your own because they’re such fun characters and always look super cute!

Once you know how to draw your own duck they’re really fun to customise with human accessories like hats, scarves or jackets to add character to them, or you could draw them in a picnic scene like I did on Instagram recently 🥰

So let’s take a look at how to draw a basic duck shape, and then I’ll show you how I colour them in. By the way this is just my version of drawing a duck which is a bit simplified from a real duck shape!

Let’s start with drawing the form of our duck:

First we’ll draw some guidelines, so draw a large semi-circle on an angle like I have, and then add a small circle above the top right point (this will be the head).

Using those guidelines as a reference, draw a line around the outside of both guide shapes, adding a little curve to the neck when you’re bridging the gap between the body and the head. I also like to add a little extra bump or flick on the farthest point on the left because that’s going to be their back feathers.

Now we can add some features on the face, so draw a duck's bill pointing out to the right and two little eyes just above it.

Next, draw two skinny shapes for legs down the bottom of the body. The one on the right ends at the body (it doesn’t intersect so that it looks like it’s behind the body) and the one on the left intersects with the body a little and ends in a curve (so that it looks like it’s in front).

Draw on their feet at the bottom of their legs - their toes make an ‘m’ shape because their feet are webbed. Now is also a good time to add a smile to their bill and three ‘u’ shaped curves as their wing feathers like I have in the example.

And that’s it! You can remove the guidelines we drew in step one and our duck shape is all finished!

Now let’s add some colour! I’ll be drawing this one without the outlines but you could just as easily do the same process but keep the outlines we just drew. I've also included the colour palette that I used here.

We’re going to use the outlines from the last stage to use as a reference for our colouring so if you’re drawing digitally, reduce the opacity of the outline to about 20% and set the layer to ‘multiply’ blend mode. We’ll add all of our colour layers on new layers underneath the reference sketch. If you’re drawing traditionally you can draw again in colour but referencing your first sketch or redraw it very lightly.

For a white duck we need it to have a background colour so let’s start with drawing a circle in the background, making sure it covers the full body but it doesn’t need to cover the feet. Colour in the body white, and the bill and feet orange, using the sketch outline as a reference for their shapes.

Now let’s add some of the main details like the wing feathers, the eyes and the smile on the bill.

All of the main elements are in place now so we can remove the outline reference layer since we don’t need it anymore. Next, draw some finer details like smaller feathers to give the body texture, and some little horizontal lines along the legs.

Finally I like to add some shading using a texture brush, mostly under the wing and bill. I also add a heart in the middle of the empty space to the top left, and now it’s all finished!

So there you have it - now we have a cute white duck who’s ready for an adventure! Have fun adding character to this duck or putting them in different scenes, maybe they’re at a picnic, going for a swim or walking through a flower field?

Enjoy ❤️