How to Draw a Cartoon Gorilla
(the Easy Way)

It's time to beat your chest and grab a bunch of bananas as you learn how to draw a cartoon gorilla! There's no time for monkey business, especially as a gorilla isn't a monkey at all – this mean-looking dude belongs the family of primates known as apes. So, grab your pencils, come out of the mist and let's get sketching!

STEP-1: Go go Gorilla! Sketching out the Basic Sh-ape!
The first part of learning how to draw a cartoon gorilla is to sketch out the basic sh-apes (geddit?) of our very own King Kong! First of all, draw a large teardrop shape as in our illustration, followed by a small oval on the right-hand side just a little above the middle. It may not look much like a gorilla yet, but once you've followed our easy steps, you'll soon be the king of the swingers!

STEP-2: Create a Rumble in the Jungle by Adding More Details
Now we've got our basic shapes, let's add to our cartoon gorilla by sketching in some instantly recognizable features!First of all, make the line at the top of the head jagged to represent fur. 

Then, draw a shape like a pair of sunglasses just above the small oval. While we're here, draw a box shape at the top of the oval as in our illustration - -this will eventually form our awesome ape's nostrils! 

For the next step in how to draw a cartoon gorilla, draw a small curved shape for the ear, followed by a hand with three fingers on the right-hand side of the body. Finally, draw another large, slightly jagged curve in the bottom left of the body for our big buddy's leg.

STEP-3: Let's Give Our Cartoon Gorilla Some More Features
Wow, our cartoon gorilla is really starting to look awesome! Let's now add some more features to this jungle giant to make our drawing really stand out! Remember the sunglasses shape you drew in the previous step? Let's now give our gorilla some eyebrows by drawing two short horizontal lines.

Next, draw two small shapes for the nostrils, followed by another small curve inside the shape you drew for the ear. Gorillas use their amazingly strong arms for swinging, climbing and beating their chests as a warning to others – this bad boy is not to be messed with!

Add the arm on the right-hand side by drawing a curved shape which meets up with the hand. Then, draw a short horizontal curve just to the left of this shape – our cartoon gorilla is now bending his arm! For the other arm, draw two vertical lines – one almost straight and the other made up of two curved lines. Finally, sketch in a foot at the bottom, followed by a curved 'W' shape to give our cartoon gorilla's body some form.

STEP-4: Adding Personality to our Jungle Giant
The next stage in learning how to draw a cartoon gorilla is to add some expression and personality to our awesome ape. Did you know that the DNA of gorillas is incredibly similar to humans?

So, let's start adding some features to our jungle relative by sketching in two small circles for the eyes, right beneath the eyebrows we drew earlier. Add two small dots in the middle of each for our big buddy's pupils. Next, draw a horizontal curve for the mouth – make this curve downwards at each end to give our jungle giant a mean expression! 

Then, draw a jagged line at the base of the arm on the left-hand side and the leg on the right to represent fur or hair, then add another curved line for the belly, followed by a belly button at the bottom. Finally, add some more detail to the left-hand foot by sketching in three toes.

STEP-5: Finishing Features of our Awesome Ape!
Get some bananas peeled and ready – our cartoon gorilla is nearly ready to swing down from the trees or scale a skyscraper! All we need to do now is draw the hand on the left-hand side, adding three fingers like the one on the right. 

Did you know gorillas have fingerprints similar to ours and have even been seen to create tools in the wild to help them cross rivers and go about their daily business? Finally, add another foot on the right-hand side, drawn as if seen from the side as in our illustration. Our cartoon gorilla is almost good to go!

STEP-6: Let's go ape With Color!
The final part of how to draw a cartoon gorilla is to go ape with color! Draw around the outline in dark brown, then rub out any lines you don't need.

Next, take your favorite orange pen and color in the body, leaving the ear, belly, face, hands and feet blank – we'll go crazy with those in a second. Use a light tan color for our jungle giant's face, then use a black pen for the eyebrows and nostrils. Then, use a darker tan for the ear, belly, hands and feet and use another darker shade for the belly button, inner ear and the toes on the right-hand foot. 

Our cartoon gorilla is ready to rock and he sure looks awesome! Now that you've impressed your friends and family with your epic artistic skills, why not try drawing some trees around our jungle giant? You could also draw some more gorillas to keep our big buddy company – just like us, gorillas love to hang out with their friends!