Drawing a Friendly Cartoon Panda

This cute, plump cartoon panda is a lot of fun to make and also extremely easy if you follow these steps. There are lots of circles and ovals in this one as the panda is nice and round, so be sure to check the placement and size of each one!

Step 1 - Drawing Circles

Make a small oval (for the head) and then a much bigger semi circle below the top oval for the body.  Close the bottom semi-circle off with a curved line to finish off the body of the cartoon panda.

Step 2 - Creating Major Forms

Make two slightly elongated ovals on either side of the head oval. These will eventually form the arms. Both the ovals will be overlapping the body semi circle and one will be touching the head oval while the other one will have a small gap between the head oval and itself.

If the text confuses you, don't forget to see the examples and follow them as closely as possible with regards to the size and shape as well as the placement of the ovals.

Now we add two small lines going down from the sides of the head oval and touching the arm ovals and then add another curved line to join these two and you have the face of the panda taking shape. The last thing to add to the head is the two small circles at the top of the head for the small ears.

Step 3 - Adding Arms

In this step draw two small circles which will be the hands of the cartoon panda attached towards the inner edge of the arm ovals.  Again please see the example image for the placement.
Add a line on both the arms from the centre of the arm ovals touching the hand circles and the one on the other side of the hand circles.

Lastly, you should erase the extra lines from the face as shown, so that you can see the shape of the panda's face now.

Step 4 - Cleaning up and Adding Eyes

In this step first remove the extra lines except for the circle of the panda's stomach and then add little thumbs to the panda's hands with simple curved lines.

And now we move towards the panda's face. There is a circle in the centre of the face where the panda's mouth and nose will be created later.  Then you can draw two small ovals at the top of the centre circle which will be the eyes and yet smaller circles in them for the white dots.

Step 5 - Finishing up the Face

Pat yourself on the back for making it this far.  Next you'll come to the mouth and the nose of the cartoon panda.  Remember the circle that was made in the middle of the face of the panda? At the top centre of that circle draw a rounded triangle which will be the nose.

Below the centre circle, we make yet another rounded shape for the smiling mouth of the panda.
Within that we make a similar, much smaller shape for the tongue. We have the smiling panda's face ready!  Let's finish him up.

Step 6 - Adding a Touch of Personality

First, erase all the extra lines from the face of the panda.

Then take a look at the example and follow it to make one of the hands holding a small bamboo shoot with a couple of leaves and you have the panda ready, smiling and eating a bamboo shoot.  That's it - you're all done.  Grab some coloring tools and color in the dark parts to really bring the cartoon panda to life.