How to Draw a Cartoon Chicken

This simple tutorial will show you how to draw a cartoon chicken and convey the characteristic features of this bird’s appearance in a very simplified and generalized form for beginner artists.

Here we will use the basic principles of drawing cartoon animals that we regularly demonstrate from different perspectives. In this lesson, we will show how to depict the overall characteristic shape of a chicken and convey details such as the comb and other features of the head, while avoiding excessive detail.

In essence, this lesson presents a different approach compared to our realistic chicken drawing tutorial, simplifying all shapes and forms to the most basic yet still recognizable outlines.

How to draw cartoon chicken step by step

Step 1: Sketch the cartoon bird’s body shape

A chicken has a distinctly curved body shape that should be conveyed from the very first stages. Begin with the torso and sketch it as a curved geometric shape resembling a bean.

Step 2: Add the chicken’s neck and head

Another characteristic feature of a chicken’s body is its neck and head. Sketch them as another geometric shape attached to the previous one. At this point, you have created the basic outline of the cartoon chicken’s figure, onto which you will gradually add details.

Step 3: Draw the carton chicken eye and beak

Start with the details of the head and draw a cartoon eye of the chicken as a simple circle without any additional detail. Then, at the front of the face, sketch the beak as a slightly protruding triangle.

Step 4: Add the comb and wattle

On the upper part of the head, draw the cartoon chicken’s comb using a smooth, wavy shape. Directly under the beak, depict the wattle as another soft, curved form.

Step 5: Draw the cartoon chicken feather line

Another characteristic feature of a chicken is its feathers. Begin outlining them, but do not go into excessive detail. Draw a zigzag line separating the head from the torso to suggest the plumage in a simple way.

Step 6: Sketch the wing and tail

Now, in the center of the torso, sketch a wide wing in the form of an oval. At the back of the body, draw the tail feathers as a series of simple elongated oval shapes. The tail should angle diagonally upward.

Step 7: Illustrate the wing feathers

Refine the wing by drawing feathers as a row of elongated lines. For slightly more detail, you may add a second row of feathers, but still avoid getting too detailed.

Step 8: Draw the cartoon chicken upper legs

A chicken’s legs consist of two parts – the thighs and the lower legs. Start with the upper parts, sketching them with smooth lines, placing one visually in front and the other slightly behind.

Step 9: Draw the lower legs and toes

Now draw the cartoon chicken legs with the toes shown as protruding shapes. There is no need to draw claws or texture on the legs; in cartoon style, overall shape and minimalism are more important.

Step 10: Outline the cartoon chicken final contours

Erase all construction lines that show through the final outlines of your chicken drawing. Emphasize the final contours with darker, more defined lines to enhance the cartoon effect of the figure.

The cartoon quality of your animal drawing depends entirely on how much you are able to simplify and generalize the forms, as well as which details you choose to include or intentionally omit.

Another important factor in cartoon style is anthropomorphism. This is not mandatory, and in this cartoon chicken lesson you saw that it does not have strongly human-like features.

However, they can easily be added by making the eyes more human or introducing other expressive elements.

We applied a similar approach in our cartoon dolphin drawing tutorial, where we used the same principles of simple cartoon character drawing but made the character more anthropomorphic.

A comparable level of anthropomorphism was also demonstrated in our cartoon penguin drawing guide. All of these are expressive choices you can decide on when drawing a cartoon animal.

You may create a very simplified drawing without pronounced cartoon traits, or you can enhance them to make the character even more expressive and stylized.