Hedgehogs are the favorite characters of children's fairy tales. In the popular representation, these are smart, smart animals, symbolizing wisdom and longevity. The ability of the hedgehog to collapse into a prickly ball in a moment of danger made him an attribute of the goddess of war in the countries of the ancient East.
Among the interesting features of the animal, scientists call the alleged ability to distinguish colors, remarkable resistance to various kinds of poisons and the ability to use needles to distinguish tastes and smells. With the help of hedgehogs, epidemiologists determine the degree of encephalitis infection in one or another locality: a large number of ticks are collected in hedgehog needles, which are studied by experts. It is not surprising that this animal causes sympathy and interest. His image evokes a warm feeling. Consider how to draw a hedgehog in stages.
How to make a base image
We arm ourselves with a simple pencil, a piece of paper and an eraser. Recall how a small prickly animal looks like. In how to draw a hedgehog, we should not have any difficulties. With light strokes, draw a body contour - a horizontally lying oval. A small circle, the head of a hedgehog, will adjoin it.
Then we will expressively draw a sharp muzzle of the animal to the circle expressively with two converging strokes. At the tip, we denote a small round nose. Inside the circle on the left, draw the eye. Under the oval, create a “skeleton” of tenacious hedgehog legs. How to draw a hedgehog in motion? It is very simple - the paws should not be bent, but, on the contrary, depict a step in an expanded motion. Now, with soft lines, we outline the body along the contour.
How to draw a hedgehog in detail
Using the eraser we remove the sketch of the circle at the place where it was in contact with the body, draw a semicircular ear of the animal on the border of the oval. Add the contour of the second ear on the other side of the muzzle. Shade the inside of the ear, creating a shadow. We draw a mustache of the hedgehog near the nose, in our eyes we make highlights of the light with the help of a small unpainted area in the pupil. The shape of the animal is becoming more reliable! Circle the legs of the legs with a pencil, filling them with volume. Let's work with the eraser again, eliminating the extra lines.
Now we have to draw needles on the back and sides. We make uniform strokes up with a slight slope to the right. We comply with the principle of chiaroscuro. Since we started to draw a hedgehog with a pencil, first leave the abdomen white, and then create shadow highlights on it with a simple pencil. But you can use colored crayons, pencils or paints, changing shades to create contrast.
Cartoon hedgehog
Since we learn to draw a hedgehog in different guises, we will try to portray it in the style of animation. Here we need to draw a regular oval and delimit it into conditional zones that separate the muzzle from the body. Then we continue the muzzle with an extended semicircle and draw a perky upturned sharp nose with a circle on the tip. We complement the character's image with a large round eye with a black pupil and a rosy cheek. On the part where the needles are located, shade or paint over the surface of the body with a darker shade than on the muzzle, and make neat lines.
To make the hedgehog more believable, its needles should be slightly “battered”. To do this, we will slightly vary their length and location in order to avoid excessive line rigidity. Here is our touching hero and is ready!