How to Draw a Cute Cartoon Cat: Easy Step-by-Step

Note: All art by Chris Desatoff

Okay, who's ready to learn how to draw a cute little cartoon kitty cat? I've included easy step by step instructions for how to draw this kitten, and I've also offered some suggestions along the way as to how you can customize your own drawing and make some variations as we go.

Follow along with me as I show you how to draw this little guy, and be sure to comment at the end and let me know how yours comes out!

I like a kind of squished circle or oval shape for the kitty cat's head, but you can experiment with a more round or more square head if you like. In fact, try all three!

Add in those ears. Sometimes I like pointy ears, and sometimes I like nice fat, round ears, but this time I went right down the middle...kinda pointy but kinda round.

Eyes are always super-important! They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and I guess that's about right. The look of the eyes is what sets the mood, the feel, of your drawing. I used to fill entire pages of notebook paper with nothing but eyes, and I did this for years!

Really, the eyes are that important. For a silly cartoon look, I will usually make them different sizes and even slightly different shapes. Again, you can experiment with variations, making the eyes more like circles, squares, triangles...with rounded or sharp corners. Lately I've been favoring square-ish shapes with rounded corners.

Add in those details on the face. A simple upside down triangle works great for the nose, and a couple little slashes for whiskers.

Now, as we mentioned above, there are SO many ways to do the eyes. One fun way to do them is to make it look as though there is a block inside the head and you are seeing a part of it through the two eye sockets. The top edge of the pupils appears to connect, so it gives the illusion of a single shape tucked away in there.

As a variation, you can make it more of a ball shape instead of a block.

I almost forgot the inside of the ear, but let's pretend that I meant to save it until now...

The eyebrows finish off our eyes and face. You can experiment with the thickness, edges, etc. I like them nice and fat with rounded corners, and again - a little bit different shape and size between them...just like the eyeballs.

The mouth isn't actually necessary. Doesn't he look even cuter without it? I think so...

Very simple lines here. You can make the neck longer, if you want to. And you can add a little circle or diamond shape hanging from the collar. Some cats do have tags like that, but I left it out to keep it nice and simple.

The first time I drew this little guy, I made the shoulders too narrow, so that those arms came right down out of the collar and his shoulders were just basically the same width as the collar. So now I make sure that the collar is actually resting on something.

Bring his shoulders out to the side just a little, and then bring those front legs down.

Now, I used a square shape with rounded corners, but another great variation I like to do is to make them almost like fat mushroom tops...rounded on top and smushed flat on the bottom.

Originally, I made all four of his paws perfect circles, so try that variation too and see how you like it.

The rear paws are kind of set back behind the front paws, which is why they appear smaller and angled outwards instead of straight ahead like the front ones.

Okay, since our little kitty cat is actually squatting (the way that cats LOVE to do), we can't leave out his hind legs. Unlike his front legs, the rear legs are bent with the knees poking up above his big paws.

You can do all kinds of variations with the tail. I originally based this off of my cat Jojo. His tail was actually broken/bent since he was born, so the original drawings had a bent, angular tail, but here I drew it vary wavy and wormy-like.

Try it several ways to see which version you like best.

After drawing in the toes, you're technically done with drawing your cute, little kitty cat cartoon. But, since I take a photo and put mine up online, I went back over it with a heavier ink pen so it reproduces better.

Then I shot a pic with my cell phone and used the BeFunky app to crop it and adjust brightness and contrast. Lastly, I finished up with the Pinhole filter, followed by the Orton filter, and that's it! Not bad for a iPhone app!

You can color it in if you want too. Have fun!

Oh wait...I should mention here that learning to draw ANYTHING takes practice - lots of practice. I've been doing this since I was a kid (so, about 30 years now). I've drawn thousands of eyeballs and noses and mouths and eyebrows and whatever else over the years.

The best tip I can give you is this: ALWAYS DRAW IT AGAIN!

Even after all these years, the first time I draw something new...it's crap. I've been drawing this same cat in this same pose - I dunno - maybe close to 100 times. Seriously. There's all kinds of variations to play around with, and even if you simply try to draw it exactly the same way...it'll look better.

So draw it again.

Thanks for hanging out with me! I hope you learn to enjoy drawing this kitty as much as I do.