Drawing A Cartoon Chef

In this cartoon chef how to draw lesson I'm going to give you a little bit more freedom than some of the other tutorials on the site.

Instead of going in and exactly detailing step-by-step what you need to do - you're going to make a framework that you can work from to make your own cartoon chef or any other kind of jolly character.

In the first step we'll create a basic framework or structure for the character. Because he is a chef we know that he should be pretty fat. At this point in the drawing you should only be concerned with the overall shape.

This chef is going to be wearing a hat. Don't worry too much about what that final hat shape will be. For now just place a rectangle on top of the head.

The last area of the character that needs fleshing out is the legs. Just use tapered rectangles for the legs right now.

Step Two
Start off by dividing the body up into different parts for the head, upper body and lower body. Also add feet, the tops of the arms, the top of the hat, and finally a dinner plate -- he's a chef after all and should be have some delicious food with him.

We're still just fleshing out the character here and not too concerned about any details. What's important here is a balanced structure that we'll start to add detail to the next step.

Step Three

The most important part about this step is the apron. As you start to draw the apron, think about the underlying structure that you created in step one in two. Your challenge is to understand, and then draw a piece of cloth that has been draped over that main body structure.

Also note the difference between the legs in step two and step three. Now that the apron is on the character to legs appear to flow more naturally into the rest of the body instead of looking like simple rectangles.

Cartoon Face Details
It doesn't matter which part of the face you start with, but if you're having difficulty then you may want to start with the nose and mouth because those parts are in the middle of the face and maybe a little easier to draw.

Step Four

It may appear as though a lot happened between three and four but in this last step all that has happened is that a bunch of smaller details have been added. You can think of the step three cartoon chef almost as a Mr. Potato Head Doll where you have a basic structure and on top of that you can put whatever details you want to get all kinds of different characters.

I encourage you in this final step to try making up your own details to finish the cartoon chef drawing. Think of what details you could add and then see how they look. Use the step four image as reference if you need but I think you should really give finishing off this lesson with your own style and ideas a shot.

Being creative and having the ability to draw things from your mind is essential if you want to become an artist. Give it a go and don't get discouraged if your first drawing doesn't look that great. Just keep working at it and it will come with more practice.