How to Draw a Black Cat in Five Easy Steps

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A black cat in front of a full moon is the drawing everyone reaches for in late October, and it makes a lovely first cat because it is only a circle, an egg and two triangles. What makes it read as a cat is one idea: two pointed ears standing straight up on a round head, over a body that is narrow at the neck and wide at the haunches.

The finished black cat tutorial drawing on a dark canvas: a near black cat sitting upright and facing out, with tall pointed ears, gold eyes with slit pupils and tiny white catchlights, a pink nose and long whiskers, its tail curling up on the right, in front of a pale full moon with a faint ring of glow, a cool rim of moonlight along the left edge of its head and shoulder, and a dark shadow on the ground under it

What you need

Everything happens in the Grovetracks editor on the default dark canvas: the ellipse tool for round shapes, the line tool for guides, the freehand brush for outline and colour, and the eraser. If you like, put the moon and colour on a layer under the line art. Colours: grey blue pencil, warm cream, muted violet, violet black, pale cream, gold, dusty pink, pale blue grey and white.

Step 1: Draw a circle, an egg and two triangles

Step 1 of the black cat: thin grey blue pencil shapes on a dark canvas, a circle for the head a little above the middle, a tall egg shape for the body overlapping its bottom, and two tall triangles standing on top of the circle for the ears

With the ellipse tool and a thin brush (width 2), draw a circle for the head, centred a little above the middle of the canvas and about a quarter of the canvas wide. Under it, draw an egg for the body, a little wider than the head and about twice as tall, with its top tucked up behind the bottom of the head. Then use the line tool for two tall triangles on top of the head, each about half as tall as the head, leaning slightly outward.

The common mistake is ears that are too small. Tall ears are most of what makes a cat look like a cat.

Step 2: Add the face and tail lines

Step 2 of the black cat: the same pencil circle, egg and ear triangles, now with a vertical centreline through the head, a gently curved eye line across the middle of the head, a line down the middle of the chest, two small flat ovals at the bottom for the front paws, two curves on each side of the lower body for the haunches, and a long curved line off the bottom right for the tail

Switch to width 1. Draw a line down through the middle of the head, and a gently curved line across it about halfway down for the eyes. Carry a line down the middle of the body for the chest. At the bottom, draw two small flat ovals for the front paws. On each side of the lower body, draw an outward bulging curve for the haunch, the back leg folded under. Finally, the tail: from the bottom right of the body, sweep out to the right, curve up to about the middle of the body, and hook the tip back in.

The mistake here is an eye line too high. Halfway down leaves room for the nose and mouth.

Step 3: Find the outline

Step 3 of the black cat: a confident warm cream outline over the pencil guides, showing the head and ears as one line with smaller triangles inside the ears, two almond eyes, a small triangle nose with a curled mouth, two whiskers on each side, a body that is narrow at the neck and wide at the bottom, three lines for the front legs, curved haunches, two oval paws and a tapered tail curling up on the right

With the brush in warm cream at width 6, trace the head and both ears in one line: round the cheeks, up one ear, across the top of the head and up the other. Trace both sides of the body at width 6, narrow under the cheeks and widening to the base, then the base line at width 5. Draw the tail at width 5 as a long shape, wide at the body and thin at the tip.

At width 4, draw three lines down the chest for the front legs, the two haunch curves, and the two paws. At width 3, add a smaller triangle inside each ear, two almond eyes on the eye line, a small upside down triangle for the nose with a little curled mouth under it. At width 2, draw two whiskers fanning out past each cheek.

The one mistake to watch: keep the neck narrow. If the body starts as wide as the head, the cat turns into a bear.

Step 4: Add the moon and flat colour

Step 4 of the black cat: the pencil guides are gone, a pale cream full moon sits behind the cat's head and shoulders, the cat is filled in very dark violet black with gold eyes and a pink nose, and every line of the cat is redrawn in a muted violet that shows against both the moon and the dark canvas

Erase the pencil guides. A black cat on a dark canvas has nothing to stand against, so give it a moon. On the bottom layer, with the ellipse tool at width 60 in pale cream, draw a big circle behind the head and shoulders, a smaller one inside it, and one dot in the middle, to make a solid disc.

No fill bucket, so fur goes on like a marker. In violet black, run a width 46 loop just inside the body outline, then a width 60 zigzag down and up through the middle. Fill the head with a ring at width 36 and a big dot in the centre, the ears at width 18, the tail at width 22 near the body and 12 toward the tip. Put a short gold stroke at width 16 in each eye and a pink dot on the nose. Then redraw every line in muted violet so the cat keeps its edges.

The mistake here is outlining in black: it disappears on a black cat.

Step 5: Add one shadow and one highlight

Step 5 of the black cat: the finished drawing, with a faint ring of glow around the moon, a dark shadow on the ground under the cat, a thin pale blue grey line of moonlight along the left edge of the head, ear and shoulder, slit black pupils in the gold eyes and a tiny white catchlight in each

The light is behind the cat, so it lands on the edges. On the bottom layer, draw a big circle round the moon at width 60 and about 9% opacity for the glow, and a flat dark oval under the paws for the ground shadow. In pale blue grey at width 4, draw a thin line just inside the outline along the left of the head and ear, and another down the left shoulder, stopping where the moon ends. Add a short black line down each eye for slit pupils and a tiny white dot at the top left of each.

Do not skip the catchlights. Two white dots are what make the cat look back at you.

Draw it yourself

Open the editor on grovetracks.com and draw a black cat of your own: tail wrapped round its paws, a crescent moon, or a row of cats on a fence. For a head start, open any step's gallery page above and branch it to pick up from exactly that stage. Every step shows its lineage back to the first circle, and the finished cat's Made from section walks the whole tutorial.

Where a black cat can go next: Understory's black cat asleep in a patch of sunlight.

A rendered black cat curled asleep on a floor in a patch of warm window light, by Understory on Grovetracks

The rim of moonlight in step 5 is the same trick How to Draw Backlight explores in depth, and How to Shade White and Black has more on giving a black subject shape without losing its colour.