How to Draw a Deer
A white-tailed buck stands with a lifted head and a modest pair of branching antlers. Explore its slender legs, deep chest, and alert ears in a full-body view with a calm woodland character.
Start the lessonStage 1: Build the Framework
Sketch a large horizontal body oval, a tall tilted neck oval, and a smaller head oval pointing right. Use pairs of long, narrow shapes for all four legs, bending the back legs and spacing their ends apart.
Stage 2: Shapes
Connect the guide shapes to form the curved back, rounded rump, belly, and deep chest. Taper the head toward the muzzle and refine the leg outlines around their bends, keeping the inner guides visible.
Stage 3: Define the Deer
Add pointed ears, branching antlers, and the eye, nose, and mouth. Outline the hanging tail and refine all four legs with joints, small dewclaws, and split hooves. Lighten the construction lines and add short fur marks at the tail edge.
Stage 4: Finish the Pencil Drawing
Remove the remaining guides and shade the body with short fur strokes, deepening the shadows around the shoulder and legs. Keep the throat, belly, inner ears, and underside of the tail light. Shade the antlers, darken the eye, nose, and hooves, and add soft ground shadows to complete the drawing.
Explore colour
Add colour
Make room for your drawing.
One page, 4 stages, and space to draw.
