Who doesn't love kittens? They're so cute and fluffy! In this tutorial I will show you how to draw a fluffy kitten from scratch, with a bow on its neck for even more cuteness. As a bonus, I will also show you how to shade and color it quickly in Adobe Photoshop!
Disclaimer: this process only shows how to draw a kitten in one particular pose and style. If you want to draw a more realistic cat, check out this tutorial:
1. How to Sketch a Kitten's Body
Step 1
Start with a simple rectangle—this will be the main body of the kitten. You don't need to use a ruler for this; it's just a sketch.
Step 2
Draw a circle next to the rectangle. This will be the head. Again, it doesn't need to be a perfect circle.
Step 3
Imagine a cross in the center of the kitten's face, and then "move" it towards the direction the kitten is looking in.
Step 4
Draw a vertical line under the body to touch the "ground". Then sketch the perspective of the ground to know where to put the paws.
Step 5
Draw one set of paws...
... then the other one. Can you see now what we needed the perspective lines for?
Step 6
Finally, draw the tail.
2. How to Draw a Kitten in Perspective
Step 1
Draw the front of the kitten's shoulder. Leave some space for the neck.
Step 2
Draw the back part of the shoulder.
Step 3
Draw the other shoulder using the perspective lines as a reference.
Step 4
Draw the fluffy thigh...
... and create another one in the back.
Step 5
Draw stumpy legs reaching the ground.
Step 6
Attach paws to the legs.
Step 7
Add one more finger on the side. It should be roughly rectangular.
Step 8
Connect the hind legs with the thigh.
Step 9
To create the tail, cross its line with width-lines...
... then outline them.
Step 10
Finish the form of the body.
3. How to Draw a Kitten's Head
Step 1
Attach a teardrop-shaped muzzle to the circular head.
Step 2
Divide the muzzle into four parts.
Step 3
Draw a line across these parts to define its 3D shape—it's the outline of the muzzle seen in side view converted to this 3/4 view.
Step 4
Draw two lines from the middle of the muzzle towards the brow line.
Step 5
Draw the forehead, creating some space for the eyes.
Step 6
Put circular eyes in that space.
Step 7
Draw the triangular nose under the halfway point of the muzzle.
Step 8
Draw two lines going downwards the muzzle from the nose.
Step 9
Use these lines as guide lines for the smile.
Step 10
Draw the chin right under the smiling mouth.
Step 11
Go from the corners of the mouth and around the face to define its outline.
Step 12
Attach cat ears to the top of the head.
Step 13
Add details to the shape of the ears.
4. How to Draw a Ribbon Bow and Finish the Drawing
Step 1
Draw a collar around the kitten's neck.
Step 2
Draw the center part of the bow under the kitten's chin.
Step 3
Draw wavy sides of the bow.
Step 4
Copy the waves towards the center, creating the folds.
Step 5
Outline the folds.
Step 6
Finally, draw all the kitten details over the sketch. Feel free to go your own way here!
5. How to Prepare a Drawing for Digital Painting
We're done with drawing, and here's a bonus part, if you want to color your kitten digitally. You just need a graphics tablet and Adobe Photoshop for it, and a set of basic brushes, for example the one you can download here:
Step 1
Prepare your line art for digital work. If you've drawn it traditionally, clean it up and remove the background first:
Quick Tip: Clean Up Your Traditional Drawings in Photoshop
How to Remove a White Background in Photoshop
Step 2
Open your digital line art and create a New Layer underneath.
Step 3
Click the line art layer and lower its Opacity to make it only half visible.
Step 4
Take a hard, precise brush (for example Ink from my set), select a vivid color, and draw a basic outline of the kitten on that lower layer. Make sure the outline is closed!
Step 5
Use the Magic Wand Tool (W) and click the area inside the outline.
Step 6
Fill the area using the trick described in this one minute video:
Step 7
Lock transparent pixels for this layer. This way you'll be painting only inside the outline from now on.
6. How to Shade a Kitten in Adobe Photoshop
Step 1
Select a dark shade of gray, about 25%.
Step 2
Paint over the kitten body. Can you see how locked transparency keeps the color from crossing the outline?
Step 3
Select a brighter shade, about 50%.
Step 4
Take a brush with transparency controlled by the pressure of your pen (for example my Sketch Detail). Paint the body of the kitten, staying away from the lines.
Step 5
Take the Mixer Brush Tool now (hold the Shift key and press B four times). We need its default settings, so if you have used it before, open its menu and select Reset Tool.
Step 6
"Paint" over the shading with this tool to soften it. This is how it should look under the line art.
Step 7
Let's continue with another level of shade. This time make it quite bright, about 70%...
... paint the surface illuminated generally by the light source...
... and blend it with the Mixer Brush Tool.
Step 8
Take an even brighter shade (about 90%)...
... give more light to the directly illuminated parts...
... and blend it.
Step 9
Finally, pick white...
... give it to the brightest points...
... and blend it all.
Step 10
That was light. Now we need to add a special kind of shadow that will give detail to this lighting sculpture. Take the Lasso Tool (L) and select an area that's behind another object, for example the paw in the background.
Step 11
Take a very soft brush, a dark shade, and gently darken the area right behind the obstacle.
Step 12
Do the same with all the other blocked areas. Can you see how detailed it became?
Step 13
Hold the Control key and click both layers, and then right click them and select Merge Layers. We're going to paint right over them now.
Take that shading brush again and paint over the soft shades and the line art to cover them with patches of shades. Use the Eyedropper Tool (hold the Alt key while painting) to pick the shade from an area, and then paint over it. This is a great method to create the impression of fur.
7. How to Modify Your Digital Painting
Step 1
The best thing about digital painting is that it can be modified freely! So let's say we want to change the shape of our kitten's tail. Go to Filter > Liquify and use the Forward Warp Tool (W) to reshape it. Be careful—you have only one Control-Z in this mode!
This mode allows you do everything with the painting! I decided to make the eyes slightly smaller with the Pucker Tool (S).
OK... now they're too small, so I'd better modify the muzzle to fit them.
And the ears turned out too big for this big muzzle, so let's change them too.
I... think it looks more like a big cat now, so let's adjust the rest of the body to that bigger size as well.
Step 2
The neck is too short for this bigger kitty, so let's fix it. Use the Lasso Tool (L) to select the head and drag it to its new position with the Move Tool (V).
Step 3
Use the Lasso Tool (L) again to select the area that's missing from the body now.
Step 4
Go to Edit > Fill and select Content-Aware. Press OK and see the neck filled!
Step 5
After all these modifications, we need to adjust the shading too. So take your shading brush and paint it again.
8. How to Color a Digital Painting
Step 1
Shading is not everything! Let's add some color now. Right click the layer and select Duplicate Layer. Change the Blend Mode of the copy to Multiply. This mode makes the dark parts of the layer darken the colors underneath.
Step 2
Lock transparent pixels for the original layer. We're going to paint on it again.
Step 3
Take a soft brush and color the kitten freely. First the general colors...
... then the details.
Step 4
Our kitten is shaded, but it looks very dark. Let's add some light! Duplicate the upper layer again and change its Blend Mode to Overlay. This mode makes the bright parts of the layer lightening the colors underneath, but its dark parts work just like the Multiply mode...
Step 5
... so we need to make some adjustments. Right click the layer and select Blending Options. Go to the Blend If section and drag the upper black marker to the right. Can you see how the dark parts of the layer disappear?
Step 6
To make the transition smoother, hold Alt and split the marker. You can now drag both halves to achieve the effect you want.
Step 7
There's one more problem with the Overlay mode, though—it brightens both bright values and dark values the same, but black shouldn't reflect so much light, no matter how strongly you illuminate it! Blend If has a solution for this problem as well: just drag the lower marker to exclude the dark parts from the Overlay Mode.
This marker can be split as well.
If I got you intrigued by this powerful, yet relatively unknown tool, check out this quick tutorial to understand how it works:
Step 8
This shading is very rough, though, so we need to adjust it manually now. That's how it is with Photoshop—it does some magic, but in the end it's you who must create the painting!
Take your shading brush and paint the details using the Eyedropper Tool all the time to keep everything as suggested by the lighting.
Step 9
When you're done, you can create another level of detail by making the image bigger (Control-Alt-I)...
... and painting with a very small brush that wasn't available in that previous resolution.
Step 10
You're done! Now add some shadow and/or background, and save it in a smaller resolution to publish (nobody needs to see the "working" resolution). You can also experiment with sharpening for the final touch (Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen).
So Cute!
Now you know how to draw a kitten, and how to paint it quickly digitally using Adobe Photoshop. What? That painted kitten doesn't look like a kitten? How dare you! Wild bear-cats need love too...
Before you go, don't forget to check the date!
