How to Draw a Fox Step by Step
This tutorial shows how to draw the head and face of a fox in fifteen steps with detailed illustrated examples and instructions.
Creating a realistic looking line drawing of a fox’s head and face can be quite difficult. This tutorial shows how you can simplify the process and makes it more manageable by starting with fairly basic outlines and working your way down to the more complex details. In addition to being helpful for this particular tutorial such a method can be very useful to drawing in general.
If you are going to be following along using pencils and paper (recommended) you should start with very light and easy to erase lines. The examples have been made darker just so that they are easier for you to see.
Step 1 – Draw the Shape of the Fox’s Head
Begin the drawing by making two straight intersecting lines, one vertical and one horizontal. Be sure that these are actually straight as the rest of your drawing can be off if they aren’t.
The vertical line will set the middle of the head and the horizontal line will be at the level of the eyes. The reason for making these is to act as guides that can help you insure that the drawing does not get skewed to one side and that different parts of the face don’t get misaligned.
Around these lines draw a simplified outline of the head as shown in the example.
Step 2 – Draw the Ears
Onto the outline of the head add the outlines of the ears. At this stage these will also be simplified and will not include any of the inner details or smaller bumps and curves.
Step 3 – Outline the Fur Pattern
Inside of the face add the lines to define the fox’s fur pattern that will transition from the lower part of it’s face into the eyebrows.
The “fur pattern” refers to the split between the orange fur foxes of this type generally have on top of the head and the white fur they have at the bottom.
Step 4 – Draw the Snout
Between the fur pattern line from the previous step add the the outline of the snout. You can start by drawing it’s bottom most portion (the somewhat rounded area around the nose) and then add each of the sides.
Step 5 – Place the Mouth
Towards the bottom of the snout draw a straight horizontal line to set the placement of the mouth. Afterwards you can also outline the inner shape of the snout.
Step 6 – Draw the Facial Features
Draw an outline of the eyes, nose and the organic shape of the mouth. You can erase the “placement line” from the preview step as you do this.
Step 7 – Draw the Small Details of the Face
Finally add the last set of details to finish the basic line drawing of the fox’s head.
These will be as follows:
- Inner parts of the ears and smaller curves near their outer/bottom parts
- Inner curves of the eyebrows
- Reflections inside the eyes (small oval shapes)
- Curves below the eyes
- Curves going from the upper part of the nose towards the snout
- Details of the nose (upper edge and hints of nostrils).
Step 8 – Finish the Facial Features
If you are happy with the way your drawing looks thus far you can begin darkening some of the lines and shading in some of the facial features.
The lines/parts that you will want to darken are ones that will not need to be changed in the later stages of the drawing.
Do the following:
- Fully darken the outlines of the ears
- Shade in the eyes (leave the pupils white)
- Darken most of the lines defining the snout
- Shade in the nose but leave a highlight along it’s upper edge and one for the bottom of each of the nostrils
Step 9 – Draw the Fur Along the Cheeks/Eyes
Add some fur along the cheeks and just a tiny bit near the outer sides of each of the eyes. To create this make a series of lines that create clumps of somewhat varying sizes and shapes as shown in the example.
You can erase the outlines of the cheeks after adding the fur.
Step 10 – Draw the Forehead Fur
Add the fur along the eyebrows and forehead. Make the lines that define it along the lower part of the eyebrows much shorter than those for the cheeks.
Erase the outlines of the eyebrows after adding the fur.
Step 11 – Draw the Fur Pattern Details
Add some fur along the pattern lines starting from just a bit below the outer tips of the cheeks. You can again make these lines fairly short.
Erase the pattern lines once done.
Step 12 – Draw the Ear Fur
Add some fairly large and long fur clumps inside of the eras as shown in the example.
Step 13 – Draw the Mane Fur
Finally add the fur clumps for the mane that will pretty much go around the entire outline of the head.
Make these smaller/shorter near the top/bottom and larger/longer near the sides. Erase the outline of the head once done.
Step 14 – Clean up the Drawing
At this stage your drawing should be pretty much finished. Make sure that everything looks good and clean up any left over outlines if needed.
Step 15 – Add the Whiskers & Finish the Fox Drawing
For this final step give the fox some whiskers. Try and draw them thicker near the base and thinner as they go away from the snout. You can also make them longer towards the top and shorter as they go down.
When finished you should be done with the drawing.
Conclusion
This tutorial shows how to make a realistic looking line drawing of a fox’s head/face. It does this by providing step by step examples of how you can start with simplified outlines and gradually add more and more details. Hopefully you’ve found the breakdown helpful and easy to understand.
For more similar tutorials also see the following:
- How to Draw a Wolf Face & Head Step by Step
- How to Draw a Lion Full Body Step by Step
- How to Draw an Eagle Head Step by Step
