How To Draw a Cat (2) Body and Pose | MediBang Paint - the free digital painting and manga creation software (2024)

Although all four-legged animals seem to have the same body, they are actually slightly different from each other.
The length of the bones and the way they are attached to each other are different, and this is what makes them different in appearance, such as body size.

So how should you draw a cat’s body?
Let’s take a look at how to draw a cat’s body and how to pose it.

1. Know the characteristics of a cat’s body

The first thing to do is to get a feel for the body characteristics of your cat.
To get a good idea of the body characteristics, it’s important to look at the skeleton first.

The skeleton here is roughly illustrated, so if you want to know the details and exact shape, please check the picture book.

Forefoot: The part of the forefoot that touches the back of the hand is short.
Back foot: The part of the foot that touches the back of the foot is long.

Also note that the joints bend with the front leg backwards and the back leg towards the front.

If you’re not sure about the bend or the length of the instep, if you’re not sure whether it’s front or back, it might be easier to understand if you replace it with a human limb.

Number of fingers

The number of fingers on a cat differs between the front and back feet.
It’s not a very obvious part of the picture, but you should be aware of it when drawing the feet.

Forefoot: 5 fingers, with carpal tunnel.
Back foot: 4 fingers.

Soft spine and tail

A cat’s body is soft and supple.
This flexibility is impressively expressed by a soft back and tail that can bend freely.
The bones of a cat’s spine and tail are more loosely connected than those of a human, allowing the cat’s body and tail to bend flex flexibly.

2. Actually draw it

Once you grasp the characteristics of the cat’s body, you can actually draw it.

When drawing a cat’s body, it’s easier to draw a simple positioning of the cat using the skeleton as a reference point.

First of all, I draw a circle for the positioning of the head, shoulders and waist.
At this point, I draw the waist a little larger than the shoulders.
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Next, let’s briefly draw the positioning of the shoulder blades – front legs, hind legs, spine and tail.
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Once you’ve drawn the position, you can flesh it out.

Drawing a slightly chubby flesh makes it easier to express softness.
When you draw the flow of hair, draw it as if it were radiating outward from the center of the spine.
You can decide whether or not to draw the flow of hair according to your taste in painting.

Common Cat Pose

Once you’ve mastered the basic body drawing technique, you can try various poses, referring to pictures and other reference material.
In the diagram, the light blue is the first positional drawing, and the blue is the area after the light blue one.

Sit down
There are several different ways for cats to sit, but here are the three basic ways they sit.

“Egyptian Sitting” – “Sitting on tail”

The slender silhouette of the cat sits outstandingly well.
Since the center of gravity is on the waist, it may be easier to draw the positioning of the waist first.

This is the way we sit when we are interested, alert, or paying attention to our surroundings.

“Sitting on tail” is when the tail is wrapped around the front of the animal in an Egyptian sitting position.
It is said to be a way to sit when you are alert and do not want to get your tail dirty.

“Catloaf”

“Catloaf” sits with its front and back legs tucked away underneath its body.
Because its arms and legs are tucked away, its body is shaped like a box.
This way of sitting is said to be the way to sit when you are relatively relaxed.

“When you draw Catloaf, it’s easier to draw the head and body first, and then draw the details.
After that, it’s easier to draw the details. When drawing the body parts, don’t worry about the details, just picture a box or a ball.

Stretching

For the stretching pose, you can draw a triangle as an image.

First, draw the head, shoulder area, and waist area, then draw the legs and spine to flesh them out.

Draw the front legs as if they were extending forward and the back as if you were pulling them back.

3. Summary

I hope you’ve gotten a general idea of how to draw a cat.
Cats are relatively common, so if you meet a cat, you might want to observe the pose it’s in.
Also, there are many cute cat photos on the internet, so please try drawing various cats with reference to the photos and the real thing.