How To Make A Giraffe 101

By ,

This week, The Daily Post wants me to detail a three to five step process, and illustrate each of the steps with something visual. I’m going to show you how I draw stuff on the computer in Illustrator. Today, we’re going to make an animal. How about a giraffe?

Contrary to the title, this post probably won’t help you draw a giraffe.

I’m not going to draw a realistic giraffe. I’m going to do one in my own style. Here are some other animals I’ve drawn (note the goldfish), so you have an idea of what style we’ll end up with:

animals

They’re all different, but together, they represent my drawing style. When you see them all together like that, you can probably guess that they were done by the same person.

Let’s get started with our giraffe.

Step 1: Research

It may seem like overkill to research giraffes when I’m just doing a simple giraffe drawing, but when drawing something that exists, I find it’s best to look at the real thing for inspiration lest you end up with a giraffe with the head of a lion. This picture gives a pretty good idea of what they look like from the front and side:

Giraffe+wallpapers+2

Image from fanpop.com.

They are strange looking, aren’t they?

Step 2: The Body

The main features of a giraffe are a roundish body, long legs and a very long neck. I’m going to start with those. I drew one leg and copied/pasted it three more times, which is why I love drawing in Illustrator. You cannot copy/paste like this when you draw on paper:

Picture 2

Then to draw the body and neck, and we have a basic giraffe body without a head:

Picture 9

Step 3: The Head

The heads are usually the hardest part. Generally, with the head, I do the same thing I did with the body, which is to pick out the most prominent features and start there. Let’s see what a giraffe head looks like:

They’re goofy looking.

I’m not trying to create an exact image of a giraffe head, but an overall impression of giraffiness, so some features will be exaggerated. They have a basically diamond-shaped head:

Picture 2

Big ears:

Picture 4

Weird knobby things on the top like antennas:

Picture 5

And little slits for nostrils:

Picture 6

Then, big eyes and details on the ears:

Picture 7

And Voila! Giraffe head. For all the parts of the head, I created one half and then copied, pasted and flipped it to create the other half so that it’s symmetrical. Now let’s put it on the body and see how it looks:

Picture 10

Yay! I’m pretty happy with it, but we’re not done yet. The giraffe doesn’t have any of its distinctive markings.

Step 4: The Pattern

I’m going to use a diamond pattern, which is really just a square turned 45° and copy/pasted a bunch:

Picture 11

Now to tuck in the ends so we are only coloring between the lines:

Picture 12

And finish the legs:

Picture 13

Step 5: Finishing Touches

I decided that the dark brown was too glaring for my giraffe so I changed it to a lighter orange. To finish it, I added details like hooves, a tail and a background color…

giraffe

…And we have giraffe! Giraffe is go. What should we draw next?

70 Responses to “How To Make A Giraffe 101”

  9. kirstenhwhyte

    You make it look soooooo easy. I was trying to use illustrator the other day to draw a cupcake and, well, lets just say I had to admit defeat and I wasn’t very graceful about it. All the little animals are so cute, I want to scoop them all up and hug them. Clutching the computer screen to my bosom as we speak. Makes it a little difficult to see what I’m typing, so I hope it comes out okay.

    Reply
    • goldfish

      HA! Illustrator does take a LOT of practice. Specifically, the pen tool. I was intimidated as hell when I first started messing around with it, but now I’m a master. It took a lot of practice to get there. Don’t give up!

      Reply
    • goldfish

      I really have no idea. Let’s look it up:

      “Both sexes have prominent horn-like structures called ossicones, which are formed from ossified cartilage, covered in skin and fused to the skull at the parietal bones. Being vascularized, the ossicones may have a role in thermoregulation, and are also used in combat between males.”

      The more you know!

      Reply
        • goldfish

          It can definitely be done with a regular mouse. Sometimes, at home I draw with my laptop mouse because I’m too lazy to plug in the Wacom. I wouldn’t bother investing in a Wacom unless you’re a professional.

          Reply
          • goldfish

            The same. I made your little stormtrooper in Illustrator with a regular mouse. Learning to use a Wacom is a skill all on its own. I mostly use my pen in Photoshop work like drawing in hair and adding details, not necessarily for drawing. The pen is pressure sensitive which is great for Photoshop, but not really needed for Illustrator. If you want to play, I’d recommend just using a regular mouse.

  16. Kozo

    So adorable, Goldfish. You could make some money by drawing the 12 Chinese Animals and making a calendar. You already have a dog, dragon, monkey, rabbit, and pig. Maybe a snake would be next, since it is the year of the snake. But I vote for a Fox next.

    Reply
  17. C. R.

    I’m sitting here wanting to clap my hands like a child. Not only am I delighted, I’m duly impressed. You make it look so simple to do, yet I know it is far from simple. In addition, as I scrolled and landed on the close-up “real” Giraffe I literally giggled out loud. Then when I read beneath where you said they were “goofy” I busted up entirely. Bravo!
    More please!
    How about a butterfly?
    Yeh yeh I know it’s not an animal but…

    Reply
    • goldfish

      Thanks. It’s not easy. I just lucked out that I got this one right no the first try.

      OK. I haven’t done any insects yet.

      Reply
      • C. R.

        I must apologize for something. I have admired your header graphic since I was introduced to you by Rara and although I have read several of your posts, I didn’t realize you created the graphic. I love your work!!! The fishy in particular conveys my attitude most mornings :p … I wish I had your talents. In my mind I have so many images I wish I could spit out onto the screen or some paper. I am an artist, but my medium is pencil and charcoal and I primarily do realist type sketches of people (mostly women).
        Can you suggest any free programs that i could play with to maybe teach myself a few things?

        Reply
        • goldfish

          Thanks! I created the header font, too. And where it says “welcome to the fishbowl” is just my handwriting.

          I use Illustrator, which is far from free, but I’m sure there are some comparable apps out there. People speak highly of Gimp, which does most things Photoshop does. And I’ve heard that http://inkscape.org/ has a decent Illustrator-like app. I really don’t know. I haven’t bothered with any of the others. The good news is, they’re free so if you don’t like them, no loss.

          Reply
  20. Ritu KT

    Fascinating! I love the giraffe, goldfish and every other animal in the collage you’ve shown above. Wish I could be that creative. I draw like a three year right-handed child drawing with a left hand :( And let’s not even talk about my digital drawing skills :((

    Reply

Say something nice.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Basic HTML is allowed. Your email address will not be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 878 other followers

%d bloggers like this: