Free Tutorial: How to Draw an Owl

Unleash your creativity and learn to draw a majestic owl. Follow our step-by-step drawing tutorial and bring your artistic visions to life on paper!

Owls are majestic creatures, often referred to as signs of wisdom, change, and new beginnings. While they can be rare to spot in the wild, you can try your hand at creating an owl of your own design today! Following this tutorial will give you the guidance and tools needed to create your very own, realistic owl drawing!

Step 1: Construction

A.We start with the body of the owl, the circle overlaps with the body, that will be the head. Add also 2 simple shapes for the legs, with a light sketch of the claws.

B. Next we add the wings and tail, basically all the elements with feathers.

C. Now it's time for the feathers. The tail is simple, it's like a fan of feathers in a row. The wings are a bit different, even though we place the feathers in rows they do overlap, as suggested in the drawing above.

D. To draw the face, we divide the circle with a cross so that we can place the features. Owls have this beautiful line from the arch of the brow down to the beak, the eyes are slightly covered by it.

Step 2: Line Art

A. Now that you are done with the construction it is time for the line art. As you advance with the line art, start adding details, like feather textures. Make sure to follow the form of the body.

B. Lastly, play with some patterns. Preferably using a textured brush, add rows of dots and patterns on the wings and tail. Making the tips of the feathers black is a nice touch, also don’t forget the ‘’eyebrows’’.

Step 3: Colors

A. As for the colors, first add underneath your line art the color base, and then the shading. Now using a textured brush (this one is called noise brush) add a lighter shade on the tips of the feathers and face. Don’t forget about the tail and legs, you are trying to give more dimension to he owl. Then with a warm color add some nice touches over the wings and face. This color will go well with the golden eyes and beak.

Step 4: Final Product

And there it is, a majestic owl!

We hope you have had an easy time following along with this tutorial and invite you to check out extra resources on Domestika, including the printable PDF of this tutorial and a video making it even easier to follow along:

Online Drawing Courses, by Domestika
How to Draw a Realistic Cat Step-by-step, an article by Domestika
Drawing of Fantastic Animals in Graphite and Watercolor, a course by Cesar Caycho