How to Draw Cheburashka

In this lesson, we will show you how to draw Cheburashka – one of the most famous and recognizable characters created in the Soviet Union.

You may ask “Who is this?”. Cheburashka (in Sweden – Drutten) is a famous Soviet character created by Eduard Uspensky in 1965.

Cheburashka, like a Matryoshka, is one of the most famous Soviet characters. By the way, here’s how the creator explains the strange appearance of the character – as a child he was presented with a defective soft toy, a cross between a rabbit and a bear with round ears. The parents told the kid that this is an unknown animal that lives among the palms in the rainforest.

Cheburashka is a creature that looks like a small bear with disproportionately large ears. Looks weird and creepy? Yes, we know. And today we are going to sketch this strange thing.

How to draw Cheburashka step by step

Step 1: Sketch the head and ears

To sketch the head of the cartoon toy, mark a simple circle first. Then draw two more circles on both sides of the circle to indicate the ears of the character (the ears can be round or oval, this is not important). The ears should be slightly smaller than the head.

Step 2: Draw the body and limbs of Cheburashka

Now sketch out the torso and limbs, marking the body in the form of a small cylinder. Then, using simple lines sketch out the arms and legs. The arms look like a couple of horizontal ovals, and the legs like two small bumps. Note that the body should be significantly smaller than the head.

Step 3: Sketch the facial guidelines

To draw a face of cheburashka, first sketch a vertical line of symmetry for the face – it divides the character’s head into two equal parts. Next, sketch out two horizontal lines that will help draw the top and bottom edges of the eyes. Next, draw the outline of the face in the form of a circle or oval.

Step 4: Draw the facial feature of Cheburashka

Using the guidelines from the previous step, sketch the eyes and pupils in the form of circles. The eyes should be placed symmetrically on both sides of the vertical line. After that, draw the eyebrows and mouth in the form of ovals. Next, draw the mouth in the form of a triangle.

Step 5: Finalize the head and paint the eyes

Erase all guidelines from the head of the character. After that, draw the texture of hair on the head and ears using uneven and jagged lines. Then, paint in the eyes, leaving small highlights inside them. Don’t forget to draw the inner lines of the ears.

Step 6: Complete drawing Cheburashka’s body

Now draw hair texture on the torso and limbs using dark and clear lines, similar to the outlines of the head and ears. Outline a small shape in the center of the chest as a circle with jagged outlines. Do not forget to erase unnecessary construction lines if they remain.

So we finished drawing Cheburashka (or Drutten, if you live in Sweden). We hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

As mentioned at the beginning, this character is a mix of different animals combined into a toy-like form, and it’s very important to convey that in the drawing.

To achieve this, use light, uneven, and slightly wavy lines to show the texture, and avoid giving the figure a body structure that looks too human.

It’s also important to maintain symmetry and correct proportions, regularly checking the overall drawing as you add new details.

For further improvement in drawing cartoon characters, we recommend visiting our Cartoons category, where you’ll find many tutorials on characters from various animated series from around the world.

If you want to sketch other popular soviet characters, we recommend you our lesson on how to draw a Matryoshka doll.