Drawing Quirky Cartoon Monsters.
I’m Not Scared!

Cartoon monsters can be scary or funny, and many will take on a personality you never expected as you draw them. Perhaps you want to draw some that are not exactly the smartest cookies in the box. Let's take a look at drawing one of these with a few basic shapes in four short steps.

Step One: The Basics
As always, our cartoon monsters are going to start with a few basic lines and shapes that will act as a head and body. Start with a nice round circle for a head. At the top left side of the circle, begin an arc that curves around back to the right. Draw an arc with a deeper curve starting just left of center on the bottom of the circle, and connect the two arcs at the bottom with a straight line.

Step Two: Creating the Face and Arms
Obviously, cartoon monsters will have no personality if you just leave a round head, so we'll use the facial features to give our character. Draw another circle in the left center of the existing one for a small eye. Then, on cross the line of the circle on the right side with a big, bulbous eye, double the size of the other eye.

We're going to create a crooked rectangular jawline, drawing a line down from just inside the circle to the left of the inside body arc and another from the edge of the face just below the center of the bulbous eye. Connect these two lines with a very shallow arc, and draw a crooked rectangle inside that almost touches the outside "jaw" lines.

We'll also add arms to our little monster at this point, and here you can be a bit creative. My monster's a bit dopey, and he has loping arms that just kind of curve and dangle, ending in a wide opening so that I can add large hands later.

Step Three: Almost Scary
Now we're going to add features to our guy to make him more interesting. Inside the mouth, we're going to give them a few sharp teeth (simple "V" and "C" shapes spread wide - monsters don't go to the dentist!). Our monster is, again, going to be dopey, so the eyes won't be completely open.

Draw two lines horizontally just off center, and be sure they aren't parallel. Angled skinny rectangles complete eyebrows over the eyes, and a nose takes shape with two "C"s, one forward and one backward. Our monster has flared nostrils. The ears are simple - the right ear (on the left side) is in the shape of a squared off "C" and should be large. Since the left ear is mostly hidden from view, just give it a little point, like Mr. Spock's.

We'll add hands that probably have claws, so you can simply use three pointed V-shaped fingers. Also, keep in mind that the clothing worn by a monster probably didn't come from the Macy's sales rack, so give the bottom a frayed edge, using uneven zigzag marks.

Step Four: Finishing Touches
Legs are simple - our monster doesn't usually get a good workout, so the legs are skinny - each two straight lines close together, capped with simple thin, V-shaped feet.

The eyeballs are created with a couple of circles cut off by the droopy eyelids, and nostrils are little blobs inside our "C"s.

Inside the right ear, let's draw an opening shaped like a square "?". For finishing touches to show a lack of brain power, let's add a couple of stray hairs atop the head and a couple of lines of drool dripping from the mouth.

Do cartoon monsters need to be scary? Not at all, but you can play from here and learn to give your monsters different personality traits.