Hello, and welcome to another tutorial by Emily Drawing! Today’s tutorial is all about drawing the puffin! We will take you through several simple steps to draw this adorable bird.
Puffins have colorful beaks and black markings around their eyes. If they have a brighter, larger beak, they’re more attractive to potential mates. While at sea, puffins can shed their colorful and black markings.
It’s time to get started on the tutorial. So, grab your colored pencils or markers, and get ready to learn how to draw this large animal.
Materials:
- a piece of paper
- a pencil for the guiding lines and sketching
- an eraser
- a black Sharpie or a pen for the outlines
- markers or colored pencils for coloring
- our printable drawing guide (Join my Email List below to get this Tutorial)
Here are my RECOMMENDED Art Supplies!
- Crayola Coloring Set (140 Pieces – Mega Value!)
- 24 Colored Crayon Set
- A4 Printer Paper
- Crayola Coloring Pencils
- HP Home Printer with Instant Ink!
Time needed:
15 minutes.
How to Draw a Puffin — Let’s get started!
Step 1 – Draw The Puffin’s Head
Start by drawing the puffin’s head. You can do this by drawing the top half of a round shape. This is a very easy step that allows you to practice your round shapes and curved lines.
Step 2 – Draw The Puffin’s Wing
Next, you’ll draw the puffin’s wing. The puffin is facing the left, so you’ll only draw one wing for this picture. The wing comes downward, with two little points outward, and curves back up. There is another point outward, and then the line connects to the puffin’s head. Did you know puffins can flap their wings up to 400 times per minute? They can also fly at speeds of 88 kilometers per hour.
Step 3 – Draw The Puffin’s Belly
For this step, you’ll draw the puffin’s belly. This is just a round shape that curves outward, connecting to the left line used to draw the puffin’s wing. The puffin’s belly is usually white.
Step 4 – Draw The Puffin’s Feet
Now, you’ll draw the puffin’s little feet. Your puffin should have webbed feet with three little claws. In reality, puffins use their sharp claws to dig burrows up to 4 feet deep. They also use their feet for swimming and steering.
Step 5 – Draw The Top of The Puffin’s Beak
The next step is to draw the top of the puffin’s beak. Start at the front of the face, and draw a round shape that points outward and slightly downward. Next, add a single stripe to the beak, closer to the face.
Step 6 – Draw The Bottom of The Puffin’s Beak
Draw the bottom of the puffin’s beak, which is slightly shorter than the top beak. The bottom is also rounded, put it curves slightly upward. Be sure to add a stripe to the bottom beak, which is slightly in front of the stripe on the top beak. The stripes indicate the beak’s growth and wear.
Step 7 – Draw The Puffin’s Eye
The puffin’s eye is one of the easiest steps because it’s just a colored-in dot. Remember, your puffin is facing the left, so you only need to draw one eye for this picture. Their vision is more aligned for hunting small prey in the winter rather than fish in the summer.
Step 8 – Draw The Puffin’s Facial Details
The final step of the drawing tutorial is the puffin’s facial details. All you need to do is draw a round shape that’s big enough to take up most of the side view of the face, including around the eye. Puffins have white faces and cheeks.
Step 9 – Color In Your Drawing!
Once you’re finished drawing, it’s time to color in your puffin! We’ve attached an example of our colored-in puffin, which features a black body with a white face and belly. Our puffin’s beak is yellow with orange stripes, and its feet are yellow. The color you choose for your puffin depends on the puffin’s age and whether it’s mating season in your scene. For example, newborn puffins have black legs and feet, while juvenile puffins’ bills are reddish-orange and gray. You also want to ensure you color the background, which can resemble their home in Iceland, California’s coast, or Yorkshire’s Flamborough Cliffs. You can also create a unique background, such as its rocky burrow. The sky is the limit when coloring your puffin.
Pin it now, Draw later!
Interesting Facts About Puffins
A puffin’s size depends on its species, but on average, these are small seabirds. The Atlantic puffin is 10.2 to 11.4 inches long and 10.9 to 19.4 ounces, with a wingspan of 20.9 inches. The Horned puffin measures 15 inches long and weighs 1.37 pounds, and its wingspan is 23 inches. The Tufted puffin is 15 inches long and weighs 1.72 pounds, with a wingspan of 25 inches. This is the largest of the three puffin species, but still small compared to other sea animals.
Newborn puffins are wet during birth but look like little balls of feathers when dry. They’re also known as pufflings or chicks.
Did You Know?
- Puffins are nicknamed “Sea Parrots” and “Clowns of The Sea.”
- Puffins eat small fish such as herring and sand eels, and they eat crustaceans and mollusks on occasion.
- These seabirds can dive as deep as 300 feet and hold their breath underwater for up to 30 seconds.
- Puffins are loyal creatures, and they’ll mate with the same partner for life.
- The average lifespan of a puffin is 20 to 30 years, with the oldest known puffin reaching 41 years old.
We hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to draw a puffin! We would love to see your drawings, so be sure to share your creations on social media using #EmilyDrawing! If you’re looking for other sea animals to draw, or if you want to test your skills on land animals or other characters, check out the tutorials on our site. We offer a variety of easy-to-follow drawing tutorials!
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