How to draw A Rabbit, Sitting

How to draw A Rabbit, Sitting

What you need

• Drawing paper Cartridge or sketch paper with a little tooth.
• Blue pencil A light blue col-erase pencil, or a very light HB.
• Graphite pencils HB and 2B; a 4B or 6B for the darkest darks.
• Kneaded eraser Press and lift; pinch it to a point for highlights.
• Sharpener A sharp point makes cleaner hatching.

Step by step

1. 
   01

   Placement

   Place it and measure

   A floor line, one curve for the back's arch, and ticks a head length apart: nose to rump is two and a half.

2. 
   02

   Big shapes

   Three masses

   An egg for the head, nose tipped down; a small circle for the chest; and a big circle for the haunch, the largest shape.

3. 
   03

   Construction

   Build the parts

   Eye high on the head, the ear a flattened tube, the hind foot long and flat, a cottontail. Arrows map the fur.

4. 
   04

   Construction

   Check, then correct

   Measure the ear against the head, nose to skull. It is one and a half heads long: a cartoon ear. Lift it; redraw it.

5. 
   05

   Construction

   Commit to the outline

   Graphite over the blue: firm under the chin, the belly and the haunch, light along the lit back. Then lift all the blue.

6. 
   06

   Light and shadow

   Shadows, the way the fur grows

   Light from the upper left. Hatch the shade side, laying every stroke the way the fur grows: back from the nose, round the haunch.

7. 
   07

   Details

   Fur, where the form turns

   A second layer of short hairs over the whole coat, darker in the shadows. Flick soft edges at the chest, cheek, rump and tail.

8. 
   08

   Details

   Eye, nose and mouth

   A big dark eye with a catchlight toward the light, pale fur round it; a nostril slit over the split lip, a sideways Y.

9. 
   09

   Finishing touches

   Darkest darks last

   4B for the darkest darks: the core of the haunch's shadow, the belly, the pupil, the nostril. Then whiskers, long and light.