How to Draw a Camel

15/09/2018 admin

Final product image — What You’ll Be Creating

Camels have an
unmistakable silhouette, with their humped back, short tail, long, slim legs,
and a neck that dips downward and rises to a small, narrow head. The English
word ‘camel’ is thought to derive from the Arabic word ‘jamāl’, which means
‘handsome’ or ‘beauty’. What an apt name for this admirable animal!

Camels efficiently
adapted to the harsh conditions of their
habitat; for this reason, they are called “the ships of the desert”.

In this tutorial,
we’ll learn what distinctive features allow camels to be capable, strong, and
endurable. And, of course, we’ll create a couple of beautiful drawings!

You may also be
interested in these drawing tutorials:

What You Will Need

In order to
complete this project, you’ll need the following equipment:

an HB graphite
pencil
a 3B graphite
pencil
an eraser
drawing paper

1. How
to Draw the Dromedary Camel

Step 1

The dromedary,
also known as the Arabian camel, inhabits the Middle East and the Horn of
Africa.

Dromedaries have
only one hump, but they do employ it to great effect; their humps store up to
80 pounds of fat, which a camel can break down into water and energy when
sustenance is scarce. Humps give camels their legendary ability to travel up to
100 desert miles without water.

We’ll depict the dromedary camel in a side view. With the HB graphite pencil, I outline a rough
shape of the head; it resembles a triangle with smoothed angles.

I also add the
shapes of the ear and the eye.

Step 2

I draw a curved
line for the camel’s neck, marking its general direction. Please be sure to
leave enough space for the rest of the body on the sheet of paper.

Then I add an oblong
shape for the camel’s body.

Step 3

Let’s draw the
framework of the long legs, adding one segment at a time. First, I outline the
upper parts of the limbs; they are divided into portions to make the task
easier.

I present the
joints as circles—the simpler, the better.

I add the lower
parts of the limbs; they are more slender compared to the upper ones.

I complete the
framework with the rough shapes of the feet.

Step 4

I refine the neck,
giving it some thickness with a contour.

Step 5

I add a sketchy shape
of the hump to the camel’s back.

Step 6

Now I draw the
line of its tail; camels have relatively short tails.

Step 7

Let’s work on the
facial features of our camel—and explore why they are perfectly suited to the
desert environment.

Although camels
have relatively small heads, their eyes are large and prominent. They enable
the animal to see for long distances.

A protruding ridge
of bone and bushy eyebrows protect the eyes from the hot sun. There are also two
sets of long eyelashes in addition to a third thin 'eyelid’; together, they serve
as a defense from the sand.

I draw the eye,
making it as contrasting and expressive as possible (don’t forget about the
highlight), and the ear. The ears are quite small, almost indiscernible from a
distance.

Camels have
nostrils lined with hairs that stop any sand from entering the nose. What’s
more, they can shut their nostrils at will!

Their lips are
thick and protruding;
the upper lip is split into
two sections that move independently. It’s another form of adaptation—thick,
rubbery lips allow them to eat prickly desert plants without feeling pain. In fact,
most of the water that camels take in comes from grazing on the thorny bushes that grow in a desert.

Step 8

I refine the
contour of the camel’s back, erasing the unnecessary lines. I add some new
features of the tail, too—now it is tufted near the end.

Also, I mark some
skinfolds on the neck to make the sketch more credible.

Changing the contour line in the upper part of the body

Step 9

I refine the upper
parts of the limbs. The dromedary has callosities (thick, hardened skin) on the joints of the legs and
on the chest, upon which it rests in a kneeling position. They enable the
animal to withstand the heat of the desert sand.

Now I refine the
lower parts of the limbs, accenting the elbows and knees. Each foot has broad,
flat, leathery pads with two toes. When a camel places its foot on the ground,
the pads spread so that the foot does not sink in the sand.

Step 10

The outline is
complete, but we can make our drawing more realistic. With the HB pencil, I
apply some hatching, accenting the darker areas, such as the core shadows on
the legs and the abdomen.

The hair is
concentrated on the throat, the shoulders, and the hump; I create an illusion of
this texture with longer or curvy hatches.

As a finishing
touch, I add a hint at a drop shadow under the animal; it’s also possible to
blend it with a special blending stump, a cotton bud, or just a clean, dry
fingertip.

Step 11

With the 3B
pencil, I accentuate the darker areas on the camel’s body and increase the
contrast in general. The drawing of the dromedary camel is complete!