Drawing a Professional Elephant

Phase 1: Rough Planning

In the first stage, you are not attempting to create an ideal elephant. You are only transferring the thought of an elephant onto paper. Begin by using very light pressure and applying it solely with the blue ballpoint pen. Try to create messy and uncertain lines. Begin by creating simple shapes that will help you comprehend your body – it is an enlarged curved body, smaller body is the head, one long curve for showing directions of the trunk, and simple vertical lines showing legs. Your ear may also be created in the shape of a soft and messy flap without focusing on details.

Phase 2: Clear Outline

Now, when everything in the rough form appears just right, continue with making your elephant more defined. Go through your drawing and work on solidifying the best lines, rather than redrawing the entire image. Now define the head and trunk, and make sure your legs have proper width so your elephant appears heavy. At this point, variation in pen pressure is expected, with varying levels of darkness and light. Note at this point that little details in terms of shadows are needed; only in select spots is form defined.

Phase 3: Creating Form through Shading

At this stage, the drawing begins to have the appearance of realism. To make the shadows and volume on the drawing, use repeated strokes of the pen along with cross-hatch technique. While creating shadows on the drawing, make sure you follow the path of the body of the elephant for it to appear realistic. Where the shadows are darker on the body like the part below the waist, between the legs, behind the ears, and below the head on an elephant, more layers of ink should be added for it to appear more realistic.

Phase 4: Final Detailing

The last step involves patience and refinement. Add depth to the darkest areas of shading to create more contrast and add details such as the texture of the skin, the trunk creases, and the ear and leg folds of the skin. The objective involves balancing light and darkness to make the elephant look three-dimensional and complete with light and darkness. The last step requires patience to ensure all the lines drawn are meaningful, and the paper texture comes through clearly in the ink lines.