How to Draw a Zebra, Draw a Realistic Zebra

Artist: finalprodigy / December 6, 2011
How to Draw a Zebra, Draw a Realistic Zebra

Step 1.


Start out by picking your pencils. I used an HB pencil for sketching/shading, a 4B pencil for dark shading, and a 4H pencil for light lines and shading. veryone keeps asking me where I get my pencils. If you go to finalprodigy.com and click on "art s   

Step 2.


Start out with a light sketch of the zebra head. Use the guidelines if you need them.

Step 3.


Your sketch should end up looking something like this. Try to erase any lines that you don't need.

Step 4.


Now roughly shade the snout and eyes. Don't worry too much about details right now. Shade in a few stripes on the head and neck. These will act as guides for the rest of the stripes.

Step 5.


While still using an HB pencil, shade in the nose, define the ear and lightly shade in the stripes on the head.

Step 6.


Now shade in the stripes on the neck and mane.

Step 7.


Use a 4B pencil to lightly shade in the background. DO NOT press down hard. Try sketching as softly as possible. After that use a blending stump to blend in your background.

Step 8.


Define the eyes and start work on the muzzle. The easiest way to make your shading as dark as possible is to lightly put down a layer of shading with a 4B pencil then go over that with an HB pencil. You can see the layer of 4B on the muzzle prior to    

Step 9.


Go over the muzzle with an HB pencil to darken and smooth out your shading. Use a blending stump very sparingly. You don't want to smooth away all of your texture. After that use the 4B to lightly shade over the forehead stripes.

Step 10.


Go over the forehead stripes using an HB pencil.

Step 11.


Use a 4B pencil to shade over the stripes over the rest of the head and ears.

Step 12.


Use an HB pencil to go over the stripes. Use a 3H pencil on the lighter ear hairs.

Step 13.


Use a 4H pencil to darken the center of the white stripes a bit. Leave the white around the edges. This will make the black stripes pop out.

Step 14.


Use a 4B pencil to shade over the neck stripes.

Step 15.


Use an HB pencil to go over the dark stripes and a 4H pencil on the light ones.

Step 16.


Use a 4B pencil to shade in the mane stripes. Make your lines follow the outward flow of the hair.

Step 17.


Use an HB pencil to go over the dark stripes and a 4H pencil for the light ones. Finish up the drawing by going over your details and smoothing out your background. Let me know how it turns out for you. Comments and questions are welcome!

Comments (1)
Cannaphile63 · 1 month ago
Loved this project... I'm a big fan.
  reply
Details
Artist: finalprodigy
Date Added: December 6, 2011
Steps: 17
Favorited: 38 (view)
Views: 0 in last hour, 9 in last day, 66 in last week, 103981 total
Comments: 1
Tags: how to draw zebras, draw realistic animals, how to draw a zebra, draw zebras, how to draw realistic, draw realistic, draw a zebra
Description: This is a tutorial that I've wanted to do for so long! Zebras are one of my favorite animals and are a real treat to draw. I hope you all enjoy this tutorial as much as I did!

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