How to Draw a Fox - Realistic Pencil Sketch in 8 Steps

Hold the pencil with a side grip so the flat edge of the lead touches the paper, and sketch a circle in the centre of the page with short, light strokes. Work around the left side from the top, then the right. Keep it faint. This circle gets erased later.

Add a vertical line through the middle of the circle and a horizontal line across the centre. Then step out from the centre an equal distance to each side and drop two more vertical lines. Those mark the inner corners of the eyes.

Draw a small circle for each eye where the eye-corner lines cross the horizontal guide. From the bottom of the big circle, step up a little and sketch a slightly larger circle for the nose.

Curve the top of each eyelid in and down toward the inside corner, then run a straight line out along the bottom. From each inner eye corner, draw an angled line down and out to the side of the nose, and connect the ends with a curve that rounds out the muzzle under the nose. Tuck a small mouth under the muzzle.

From the top of the centre line, step down a touch and draw the ears. Each one curves up from the head, bends out to a point, then comes straight down and back in to meet the side of the circle. Connect the inside of each ear to the outside with a slight curve.

Then lightly erase the centre line, the two eye lines and the horizontal. Add a few fur guidelines: a tuft curving out from the inner corner of each ear and a line angling down from the ear base to the cheek.

Sharpen the pencil and go back to the eyes. Trace the outline of each eye, feather the inside corner out a little, and darken the bottom edge. Fill the inside of the eye with light shading.

Leave a small white highlight at the top right of each iris. Draw a circle for the pupil in the centre and darken it, working around the highlight. Then switch back to the side of the pencil and lay in fur and shadow across the top of each eye, with a fold at the brow that fades out to the side.

Give the nose more shape by bringing the bottom in to a soft point. Draw the two nostrils as small curved slots and darken the centre between them.

Darken the bottom of the nose heavily, then fade the pencil out as you move up toward the bridge. Leave the top edge light. A nose that is dark at the bottom and light at the top reads as wet and rounded, which is exactly what you want.

With the side edge of the pencil, add fur along the bottom of the muzzle in short strokes, working out toward the sides and up the cheeks. Come back in toward the nose and shade the bridge with strokes that run up toward the corners of the eyes. Add short strokes across the top of the muzzle and cheeks.

Darken the bottom edge of the mouth, add fur under the chin, and lightly shade the sides of the muzzle so they fade into the cheeks. Pull a few whisker lines out from the side of the muzzle.

Go back up to the ears. Round off each tip and darken the outside edge, harder along the top, fading as you come down. Then fill the top of the head with fur that follows the curve of the skull: straight up in the middle, bending out toward each ear.

Shade the inside of each ear using the curved guideline from Step 3. Start dark at the base, fade up toward the tip, and widen the shading out at the bottom. Vary the tone around the base of each ear so the fur has depth.

Step back and look at the whole head. Then go back in and add contrast: darken the fur around and under the eyes, deepen the shadow down each side of the face, and tighten the darks beside the muzzle.

Soften the fur along the cheek edges with the side of the pencil so it fades into the paper. Finish with a ruff of longer, looser strokes under the chin for the neck, and a few sharp strokes with the tip anywhere the fur edge has gone soft.