How to draw an elephant

Drawing an elephant is made easy for kids with just a couple of simple shapes and our step-by-step tutorial

Perform some animal magic, transforming simple shapes into a drawing of an elephant. You won’t believe how easy it is to teach kids how to draw complex animals with our step-by-step picture guide.

Once you’ve got out your arts and craft supplies, why not sit around the table together to create your own animal masterpieces. Try out our other tutorials to learn how to draw a dog, doodle a crab or sketch a butterfly.

You will need:

• Colouring pens, pencils or crayons
• Paper

For craft supplies, check out Baker Ross

How to draw an elephant:

1. Begin by drawing a circle to form the elephant’s head, you can draw a whole circle here or copy our three-quarter circle as pictured below.

2. Now draw the elephant’s ear with a circle overlapping the first. If you want to make a more realistic elephant, copy our almost-circle shape that resembles a big elephant’s ear.

3. Draw a second ear just behind the first.

4. For the elephant’s body, draw a large oval to the right of the head and ears.

5. On the elephant’s head, add two curved lines for the trunk.

6. To draw the legs, add two rectangle shapes to the bottom of the oval body. For a more realistic look, make the rectangles slightly curved where the elephant’s knees would be.

7. Add the other two legs just behind the ones you’ve already drawn. Don’t forget to add some semi-circles at the bottom of the legs for the toes.

8. At the other end of the elephant’s body, add a pointy tail, finished off with a couple of dashes at the end to create a furry tip.

9. Now it’s time to colour the elephant in. We’ve gone for a simple grey colour but you can let your child experiment with all sorts of colours.

10. Once coloured in, take a slightly darker or black pen or pencil and draw in the lines again to give your animal some definition. You can add a small circle on the head for an eye and add a tusk or two. And that's how to draw an elephant!