How to Draw a Hippo
1 / 14
Begin with the ribcage: one oval, filling most of the upper body.
The chest oval should take up around a third of the body's length on its own.
Drawing on paper instead?
We straighten and clean up the photo for you. Paper counts exactly the same.
About this drawing
A hippo is drawn from the mouth backward: the muzzle is a separate barrel bigger than the head it hangs from, square-ended, with the nostrils and eyes and ears all crowded on top so the animal can sink everything else. The body is the pig's lesson scaled up - one vast mass on absurdly short pillars.
Like every four-legged animal on this site, it is built from two masses and a spine: a ribcage, a pelvis, and one curve joining them. Get those three right and the rest is placement.
Step by step
-
Step 1
Begin with the ribcage: one oval, filling most of the upper body.
The ribcage is the largest single mass in almost every four-legged animal, and drawing it too small is the most common structural error in the whole category. Draw it in one motion and make it bigger than feels right.
Watch out Drawing the chest small to leave room for everything else.
Check The chest oval should take up around a third of the body's length on its own.
-
Step 2
Draw the hindquarters as their own oval.
The gap between the two masses is information: it is most of what separates a long animal from a compact one. Decide the gap deliberately rather than letting it happen.
Watch out Butting the pelvis directly against the chest.
Check You should see clear space between the two ovals.
-
Step 3
Run one curve through both masses for the spine.
One continuous curve, drawn in one pass. The spine sets the whole animal's attitude, and a spine assembled from three short strokes reads as three different animals stitched together.
Watch out Drawing the spine as separate flat segments.
Check The curve should touch both masses without a corner.
-
Step 4
Place the head mass and rough in where the neck goes.
Note where the neck leaves the chest before you place the skull - on most animals it comes off the front of the chest mass, not the top, and that single angle carries the species.
Watch out Hanging the head above the body instead of in front of it.
Check The neck guide should leave the FRONT half of the chest oval.
-
Step 5
Draw the neck as a solid, not a stick.
A neck is a solid with real thickness, and on most animals it is thicker than you think - nearly as deep as the head itself. Two curves, one over, one under.
Watch out A thin stick neck, which makes any animal look fragile.
Check The neck should be nearly as thick as the head is tall.
-
Step 6
Join chest to hips with a topline and a belly line.
This is where the animal stops being two eggs. Let the topline follow the spine you already drew and keep the belly line taut - a sagging belly is a decision, not an accident.
Watch out Ignoring the spine curve you drew and inventing a new back.
Check The topline should agree with the spine curve underneath it.
-
Step 7
Run the belly from chest to hips.
The belly is a separate decision from the masses: it hangs below the line joining them, sagging most midway, and how much it sags is part of the animal - taut on a deer, generous on a cow. Draw it as one curve, not two arcs meeting.
Watch out A straight line between the ovals, which reads as a table.
Check The belly should dip below both mass bottoms at its middle.
-
Step 8
Draw the chest front down, and the rump around.
Two curves seal the body into one shape: down the front of the chest into the belly, and from the top of the hips around the rump to meet it. Without them the animal has no front or back and the legs float - this is the step that turns parts into a body.
Watch out Leaving the ends open because the ovals suggest them.
Check You should be able to trace the whole body without lifting your pen.
-
Step 9
Draw the front pair of legs.
Legs are chains of segments with a joint at each bend, and every leg bends somewhere. Draw joint to joint in straight strokes first; curves come later if at all.
Watch out Straight tube legs with no joints, which read as furniture.
Check Each front leg should bend at least once.
-
Step 10
Now the back legs, comparing them to the front pair.
The hind legs fold the opposite way to the front pair - the hock points backwards. Compare their length against the front legs rather than judging them alone.
Watch out Back legs bending the same way as the front ones.
Check Front and back feet should reach the same ground line.
-
Step 11
Draw the ears - this is a big part of what makes it a hippo.
Ears attach further back on the skull than feels natural, and their shape is one of the strongest species signals you have. Draw the second by comparing it to the first.
Watch out Planting the ears on top of the head like handles.
Check Both ears should attach behind the midpoint of the skull.
-
Step 12
Put in the snout, the eye and the nose.
The muzzle projects forward from the lower half of the head mass. Its length relative to the skull is the proportion to measure - it is the one that changes species when you get it wrong.
Watch out A muzzle pointing down instead of forward.
Check The eye should sit in the top half of the head mass.
-
Step 13
Draw the tail and any remaining features.
Detail is suggested, never itemised. Put the marks where they identify the animal and stop early - texture spread evenly everywhere flattens the drawing back out.
Watch out Covering the body evenly in fur marks.
Check Step back: the big shapes should still read first.
-
Step 14
Go over the lines you are keeping and lose the guides.
Press harder on the outline and the face, leave the small marks light, and erase the construction ovals. That weight difference is what makes the drawing look decided.
Watch out Going over every line at the same weight.
Check The outline should be clearly darker than the interior marks.
What it looks like finished
The same drawing with every guide erased and only the lines you meant to keep, at the weight you meant them to be. If yours still has centre lines and blocking-in shapes in it, this is the step you have not done yet - and it takes about thirty seconds.
Yours will not look like this, and it is not supposed to. This is the construction with the scaffolding taken away, not a drawing somebody made to be admired - the point is to show you which of your lines were guides.
What this one actually teaches you
What transfers is the two-mass habit. Once you see a ribcage and a pelvis instead of an outline, every quadruped becomes the same problem with different numbers - and numbers can be measured.
The hippo inverts the usual head logic: the muzzle leads and the skull follows, a bigger-in-front arrangement no other quadruped here has. Drawing it teaches that attachment order is a choice, not a rule.
Practise these: Line confidence Proportion Value range
What you need
A pencil, kept light until the last step, and an eraser you will actually use. The construction is deliberately drawn to be removed.
If it's going wrong
If it reads as a pig, the muzzle is too small: a hippo's muzzle out-bulks its skull - draw the mouth barrel first and attach the head behind it.
If the face is wrong, remember the periscope rule: eyes, ears and nostrils all sit on TOP of the head in one line, because everything else spends the day underwater.
If the legs look load-bearing, they are too long: hippo legs are stumps, barely taller than the belly is deep, and the belly hangs low between them.
Print the steps
Take it away from the screen. The step sheet prints on one page.
Questions people ask
- How do I draw a hippo's head?
- Mouth first: the muzzle is a square-ended barrel BIGGER than the skull, which attaches behind it. Then eyes, ears and nostrils all crowd along the top in one periscope line.
- Why do a hippo's eyes sit on top of its head?
- So everything else can sink - and the drawing has to say so. Eyes on the side of the head is the single fastest way to lose the animal.
- How short are a hippo's legs?
- Stumps - barely taller than the belly is deep, with the belly hanging low between them. If the legs look load-bearing, they are too long.
- How many steps does it take to draw a hippo?
- Twelve here: two body masses, the spine, the head and neck, the silhouette, four legs in two pairs, then features, detail and line weight. About 13 minutes at a comfortable pace.
- Where do the legs attach on a hippo?
- To the two masses, not the outline - front legs to the chest oval, back legs to the pelvis. Legs hung from the belly line are why animal drawings collapse.
- Can a beginner draw a hippo?
- Yes - the construction is two ovals and a curve, and there is a finish-early step marked partway through that leaves you with a complete drawing rather than an abandoned one.
- Do I need to draw fur on a hippo?
- Only at the silhouette edge, and only where the coat is genuinely long. Fur drawn all over turns any animal into a rug.
- What should I practise before drawing a hippo?
- Five minutes of ellipses or line control. The whole build is ovals and committed curves, and warm hands make it a different exercise.