How to Draw a Bull

Welcome to the fascinating world of artistic drawing! In this article, we will embark together on a creative and exciting journey to learn how to depict the majesty and strength of an iconic animal: the bull. Mastering the drawing of these powerful creatures can be rewarding and, more importantly, provide a better understanding of artistic expression. In this step-by-step guide, we will explore the essential techniques and tips for capturing the essence of the bull in features, body majesty and facial expressions.

So, get your pen and paper or your drawing app ready and let's start the journey towards creating incredible artistic representations of the majestic bull!

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A BULL?

To create a semi-realistic drawing of a bull, it is important to closely examine its distinctive features, such as the horns, facial expression, and musculature. Start with basic shapes to outline the body structure and emphasize the eyes to convey emotions.

Focus on the details and textures of the skin and fur, and pay attention to the anatomy of the horns and the posture of the animal. Constant practice will allow you to develop your own artistic approach and perfect your skills, enabling you to depict the strength and majesty of the bull in a striking and authentic manner.

DRAWING A BULL STEP BY STEP

As usual, let's start our drawing with basic geometric shapes. This way, we can partially preview the art before adding details. For the bull's face, draw a square and an inverted triangle of the same size as the square.

For the body, we draw three circles, a small one representing the head, a larger one representing the front of the animal and another circle representing the back of the animal.

For the muzzle, we will make a circle at the bottom of the triangle and two ovals on the sides of the square.

For the body, we will make lines connecting all the circles.

These geometric shapes do not have to be perfect, don't worry.

Let's now start to give more shape to the drawings. For the muzzle, we will make two small circles representing the eyes, and we will draw conical shapes for the horns. They can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so don't worry if they look different from the example.

For the body, we'll draw a circle at the end of the head where the muzzle will be. Another smaller circle inside representing the eye, and finally an oval at the opposite end representing the ear. For the bull's legs, let's draw two ovals for each leg. A smaller, rounder shape followed by a thinner, longer shape.

You can position the hoof in any way, but I recommend doing the same to add dynamism to the scene. We will also draw the animal's tail, with two parallel curves and an oval at the end.

Still working with geometric shapes, for the muzzle we make an oval inside the circle and two more ovals to outline the snout. We also draw a line just below to represent the mouth. For the body, we draw a triangle at the end of each foot to represent the hooves.

Note that the position of the triangle changes depending on the position of the bull's legs. We will also draw cone shapes on top of the head, representing the horns.

Now, let's start the actual drawing. If you are drawing on paper, lightly erase the initial lines. If you are using an app, reduce the opacity of the layer and start drawing on another layer.

We draw on the sketch with a darker colour. Note that it is not necessary to draw exactly on the original lines, the asymmetry is interesting. For the hind leg of the bull, we can push the lines a little further to start drawing in the muscles.

We now draw the lines for the bull's eyes, ears and muzzle. For the body, draw the lines for the legs and tail. Note that the tip of the tail is shaped like a brush. For the legs, you should also draw bulges representing muscles, because the bull is a very strong animal.

Now, on the muzzle, we draw the inner lines of the ears, some lion wrinkles near the eyes, nostrils and mouth. A good way to know where to place the lion's wrinkles is to look at reference photos of real bulls and see where the muscles are most evident.

For the body, let's draw lines separating the hooves from the legs, also draw the muzzle, ear, mouth, and eye. Note that we will not make the eye round, instead we will draw a line and a half circle, because the bull will be angry in this drawing.

We are almost finished with the lines. For the muzzle, we create circles inside the eye and some lines to add more detail to the horn. This gives some texture and makes the horn look like it is harder than the animal's skin. On the body, we draw the nostrils and horns. Note that one of the horns is located at the back and is therefore not completely visible.

Now, for the muzzle, we draw fur to add more realism to the drawing. Erase small sections around the face and ears and make small bumps on these parts.

For the body, we draw some lines representing the muscles. Remember that the bull is a strong animal and the lines need to be tough and firm. We will also add a circle for the eye, erase the line that crosses the horn, and make small details on the horns, as we did before.

Finally, we erase all the remains of the sketches and keep only the lines of the drawing. We also paint the eyes and nostrils black. The drawing is now ready to be completely coloured.

ADDING COLORS TO YOUR DRAWING

 

Let's start with the main part, the leather or bull hide. I chose to colour it brown, but you can use white, beige, grey, black... the logic is the same.

Let us now move on to other parts of the body. Colour the hooves and the tip of the tail with a dark colour, such as grey. The horns will be coloured in a light colour, such as a beige or a very light yellow.

But it can also be coloured grey, as some bulls have dark horns. We colour the muzzle with pink tones, a light pink on the inside and a very light pink, almost white, on the outside.

Now we begin to create the shadows. Choose a shade darker than the colour used for the skin and start creating the shadows.

Understanding where to place shadows takes time, but determine where the light is coming from and place the shadows on the opposite side. In this case, the light is going directly against the bull's muzzle. Thus, the shadows are predominant on the back and bottom of the animal.

We continue with the shadows on the underside of the horns, the underside of the muzzle and the back of the hooves. Once again, we used a darker shade of the same or a similar colour to the base colour.

Let us now add some bright dots on the body, with a lighter shade of brown or even white. The dots can be chosen at random, but must logically be in the opposite direction to the shadows.

The last details we will add are points of light on the hooves and horns, using white colour. We can also add some hairs on the face. It is interesting to add a shadow with a light gray colour under the body, to give more depth.

A final tip is to colour the entire background with a light colour, but leave an uncoloured outline around the design. This will make the design stand out more. (But try to use contrasting tones when colouring the background).

Your bull is finally ready! I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Illustrator and writer: Oli