Draw a Cat Face

Part 2 of -
How to Draw a Cat

We started with this cat: (See Part 1: How to Draw a Cat)

Now we need to draw a face for it.

Draw a Cat Eye:

Complete all these steps on the same layer.

Make sure the “Drawing Object” option in the Toolbox is turned OFF.

Draw a green ellipse.
Add a contour to it using the Ink Bottle tool (click on the shape to add contour).
Select only the contour.
Move the contour down about a third of the ellipse.
Select the top part of the ellipse and delete it, select the line and delete it as well.

The Pupil:

Create a new layer.
Draw a black ellipse.
Give it a contour, move it to the left.
Select and delete the right side of the ellipse and the entire line.
Place the black pupil on top of the green iris. Resize if needed.
Create a new layer.
Draw a white circle in it.
Place on the top side of the eye.

To create the second eye, select all parts of the eye with the selection tool, hold down ALT, drag and release.

Nose and Mouth :

Draw a dark pink triangle, rotate it so it points down.
Draw a horizontal line, dark gray, stroke height 1.
First, curve it down using the black arrow.
Then hold down ALT, and “pull a corner” from its middle upwards.
Pull up the edges as needed.
Draw a smaller curve under this.

Drawing The Whiskers:

Draw straight lines at the sides of the face.

Styling options:

Make them lighter or darker as needed, so they show both on the cat and on the background.
They can be short and start from the sides of the head.
They can be long and start from the sides of the nose.
Make them curved or straight.

Adding Character to Your Cat

Where you place each part of the face greatly affects the character's expression.

Try bringing all parts closer.
Try setting them apart.
Play with the distance between the eyes.
Try bringing all parts up or down around the head.
Save your file and play with all the cat's parts until you find the one you like.

Happy Drawing!

Return To Part 1: How to Draw a Cat

P.S. About Symbols and Drawing objects:

It is entirely possible, and usually recommended, to make each part of the drawing a Drawing Object or Symbol.
This requires knowing how to navigate in and out of symbols, and was left out of this tutorial for the sake of simplicity.
You can learn basic principles of creating a Flash character with symbols in this Butterfly Animation Tutorial.

***While the principles have stayed the same, please note that these tutorials were written for Flash, which has now become Adobe Animate. I no longer update this part of the site. ***

For more ideas on how to draw a cat read this article on well known cartoon cats

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