How to Draw a Pelican

In this drawing lesson, we will show you how to draw a pelican – a rather interesting and unusual bird with a memorable appearance.

We have previously shown you how to draw birds many times, but the process of drawing a pelican is quite different from the process of drawing other birds.

Before starting the lesson, it should be remembered that the pelicans are quite different. They can differ in both colors and appearance details. But using the steps from this lesson you can draw any pelican.

In this drawing tutorial, we will show and tell you everything you need to know in order to learn how to draw a pelican.

How to Draw a Pelican

Step 1 – Sketch the Guidelines

Start with the outline of the head and torso. The head in the first step looks like a small oval, and the torso looks like a big one. These ovals will serve as guidelines for us to draw the pelican in the next steps.

Step 2 – Draw the Neck

Now use two long lines to draw the neck and connect the head and torso of the pelican. Note that the neck should extend slightly more towards the torso.

Step 3 – Draw the Tail

Further, go to the back of the torso and draw the pelican’s tail with a couple of short lines. Remember that you can check the proportionality of the pelican drawing by looking at it through a mirror.

Step 4 – Draw the Beak

Now go back to the pelican’s head to draw a long beak. The upper part of the beak should be straight and the lower part should have a slight curve at the junction of the head and neck.

Step 5 – Draw the Details of the Beak

Separate the head of the pelican from its neck with a short line. Next, separate the top of the pelican’s beak from the bottom with a long line.

Step 6 – Draw the Eye

Now let’s draw the eye of the pelican. First sketch out the outlines of the eye using an oval shape. Next, draw a small round pupil inside the outline of the eye.

Step 7 – Draw the Wing

Use a long and smooth line to depict the wing of the pelican. To make the wing look more natural, draw feathers at the end.

Step 8 – Draw the Legs

Now draw the feet of the pelican. The feet should be small and resemble those of a duck. If you are not sure about the proportionality of your pelican drawing, you can move away from it slightly to see the mistakes.

Step 9 – Draw the Feathers

Now let’s get to the texture of the feathers. Using lots of short, U-shaped lines draw the feathers on the wing. You can also draw the texture of the feathers on other parts of the pelican’s body.

Step 10 – Erase the Guidelines

To make your drawing of a pelican look really beautiful and complete, erase all auxiliary guidelines. You can darken the lines of your drawing of the pelican to make it more expressive.

Step 11 – Color the Pelican Drawing

We decided to use light gray and dark gray for the feathers, dark gray for the legs, orange for the beak, and yellow for the eye.

Try to draw some beautiful background for your pelican. This will give the whole artwork a more voluminous and lively look. You can also try to draw some beautiful animals in the background. You can visit our Animals category to learn how to draw other animals.