Step by Step Drawing of a
Simple and Funny Cartoon Monkey

This cartoon monkey drawing tutorial is similar in style to my sheep drawing lesson, so if you've already completed that one you will see many similarities, especially in the basic construction of the shapes. Let's start creating a this funny monkey!

some examples of cartoon monkeys

The Head
Start with a circle for the head. You can use a protractor or other circular object to easily create a perfect circle. Draw another larger circle that overlaps part of the head circle.

Add two half circles to the sides of the head to make ears. Add an oval to the middle-lower part of the head to show the mouth area. Add two little eyes above the oval

Step 2 - Body & Arms
Draw two long skinny rectangles to form the arms. At the eng of the arms draw an egg shape to make the form of the hands.

When drawing a cartoon monkey keep the arms a little bit extra long. If you have a chance to go to the zoo and look at the monkeys in there you can see that their arms are generally proportionally longer than human arms. I have exaggerated the arms a little bit as you can see.

The Legs & Tail
Draw another two long rectangles to make the legs. At the end of the legs draw two rectangles for the feet. One foot is facing forward, so add three small circles to show the toes. The other foot faces the side. Draw one curved to at the end of that foot. The drawing to the right has little toenails added. Do as you wish with your own drawing, and don't feel like you need to follow this drawing exactly.

Draw a 'U' shaped curve along the bottom to show the start of the tail.

Finish off the end of the tail above the left shoulder of the monkey. If you have problems with this shape, think of it as two rectangles, with one on top of the other. Once you have your two rectangle shapes, simply draw a smooth line that goes around the outside edges of the combined shape.

Your cartoon monkey should be finished. This method of building the monkey can be modified to create many different kinds of monkeys. You could try squashing or stretching the head or body circles. Try long arms, or short arms. Try a different body shape, a new tail - whatever you can dream up!

One last thing that you can do to help your picture is give him a drawing a surface to stand on. You can do this either by adding a line under the feet of the character, or by drawing a shadow underneath him. This places your character 'somewhere' rather than having it just floating in mid air on the page. It's good to add a little shading like this to any drawing that you do, whether it's a cartoon, or a drawing of a realistic building.