How To Draw Ducks! (Patreon)

Since the Illustration Club prompt for this month is duck related I wanted to show you how to draw a few simple ducks in this little step-by-step tutorial. They’re simple to draw, super cute, and always make people smile!

I'll show you how to draw a duck in three different positions so that you can have a few poses to play with. Let's jump in!

Drawing a Standing Duck

Let’s start with a standing duck because this is quite a common pose.

1. First, draw a big egg shape lying on its side to be the body, and then a much smaller circle floating above it for the head. Line up the circle with the right hand edge of the egg.

2. Next, draw a line from the left side of the head circle straight down to the body, and then another one about two thirds of the way along the circle. You should now have two vertical-ish lines that will form the neck. You can also draw two pairs of short lines sticking down out of the middle of the body for the legs.

3. Then we’ll add two wedge shapes from the bottom of the legs for the feet, and add a duck bill and eye to the head.

4. That’s all of our guidelines drawn now, so we can go over those lines with our proper sketch. Start at the top of the duck bill and trace around the circle of the head and down the neck, and then across the top of the back. At the back corner of the duck, I like to add a few tufts of feathers, and then follow the body all the way back around to the bottom of the duck bill.

5. Trace over the eye and bill, and also the feet. Duck’s feet are webbed so they come to a bit of a point in the middle.

6. Now you can erase or hide the guidelines, and draw in a wing at the side of the duck. I like to draw it as several joined ‘U’ shapes, but you can experiment with stylising the wing in your own way if you like. And that’s it!

Drawing a Forward Facing Duck

Now that we’ve drawn a duck standing sideways, let’s draw one from directly in front.

1. Draw an egg shape again, this time standing up straight. Add a small circle floating above it in the centre.

2. Join the circle to the body like we did before, but angle the lines inwards a bit at the top. You can also add two pairs of short lines at the bottom of the body for the legs.

3. Add a wedge shape at the bottom of each leg, and then draw a duck bill on the head facing to the side a bit. Draw in two small eyes just above the bill.

4. Those are all the guidelines finished, now we can trace around them to create the final sketch of our duck. Starting at the side of one leg, trace around the side of the body, joining smoothly to the neck and then around the head and back down to the legs.

5. Now trace over the legs and feet, giving a bit of a point to the middle of each foot to show the webbing. Then you can trace over the eyes and the duck bill.

6. Next you can erase or hide the guidelines, and draw in some little wings at the sides of the body if you like. And they’re finished!

Drawing a Sitting Duck

I love to draw ducks sitting down among the flowers, so let’s draw that one next!

1. Start by drawing a large egg shape lying horizontal, with a small circle floating above it. This time we want the circle (head) to be much closer to the body than before, and instead of lining it up with the edge of the egg shape we want it to be a bit further in.

2. Next we can draw the lines of the neck, but this time they need to be angled, so start at the left hand side of the egg shape and draw a line up through the head at a diagonal. Draw another line parallel to that, lining it up with the side of the head.

3. Then we can draw an eye offset from the middle a little bit to the right, and a duck bill pointing down to the left.

4. Now that our guidelines are finished, we can trace over it with our proper sketch lines. Starting at the top of the bill, trace around the top of the head and down the neck to where it meets the body, and then across the top of the body. Again, I like to draw a few tufts of feathers at the back of the duck, and then you can keep tracing around the body back up to the duck bill.

5. Since we can’t see the legs on this duck, the only part left to trace over is the eyes and the bill.

6. Now you can erase or hide the guidelines, and draw a wing on the side of the body. I also really like to set the scene a bit to show where this duck is sitting, so I’ve drawn some grass and daisies. Maybe your duck is floating on the water, or sitting among some reeds?

I hope you enjoy drawing these little duckies! 🦆💖🌼