Drawing Darling Duck

Have you ever wanted to draw a rubber duck? Do you only have a pencil, a piece of paper, and a dream of creating simple art? This is the Instructable for you.

Whether you're a novice artist, a 5 year old, a 50 year old, or a duck enthusiast, this drawing is within reach of your art abilities (with practice)! As a person with absolutely no experience with creating art beyond childhood crafts and doodles in class, I learned to make this in approximately 15 minutes and 2 attempts, and I named her Darling!

This art is based off of a Google search of "Simple Duck Art", so the inception of the image is not from my own imagination. Closely inspired by this: https://drawinghowtos.com/duck-2381/

(Eyes and nose changed, no spots on duck, no background drawing, no color)

BECAUSE this duck is closely inspired, this duck is NOT for private or commercial use.

Pencil with eraser (for sketching)

Black Pen (for final Product) if you choose to retrace it

White gel pen (optional)

1-2 Sheet(s) of paper

Draw Darling Duck in pencil. I do the steps in pen so the art shows up more clearly on the page for instructional purposes. You can always trace her later in pen if you prefer that look.

Start this duck drawing by sketching a small circle (about 2 inches in diameter) in the middle of the page. If you have a circular object nearby that is around that circumference like a mini soda can, you can use that to trace the circle, or just roughly trace it to the best of your ability. Do this in pencil so you can keep tweaking the circle until you are satisfied.

Start with connecting a 2/3 completed circle (following the pink line). Then you will follow the blue line and draw a swoop from the pink circle shape to the neck.

We will be connecting the head and the body in roughly two steps here. One involves erasing a line, and the other involves enhancing the angles of the duck's head.

To start, erase the line connecting the head and body (as shown via the blue line). Now the drawing may look a little harsh, with the head not seeming to connect with the body well. You can then enhance the angle (in pink) by making the drawing a bit more sharp, making it clear that at the end of the head that the neck tapers into the body. You can do this by darkening the lines you've already drawn to make them slightly more angled inward and obvious.

We will start by erasing a hole for the beak to be able to fit in. Choose a spot roughly in the middle of the front of the duck's face. The shape you will be drawing is like an oval with a slightly flat end. The beak should look somewhat like a bean!

The beak may be hard to shape, but try to go with a softer, rounder, more oval look than a sharp look because Darling duck is soft and sweet!

Drawing the wing is a fairly simple step. You start with a half circle shape going into three outward rounding bumps (like the top of a cloud), that then rounds downward into another half circle, flipped upside down.

The wing needs the little bumps to mimic the look of feathers, and they need to sit at the top for the cartoon look.

You will now be adding an eye! Create a small circle in the center of the duck's head, and fill it in black (represented by the pink).

Optional step: You can then use a white gel pen to add two small dots in the upper right corner of the duck (represented by the blue), or use a small eraser to erase two small marks to represent Darling's dazzling eyes.

You can retrace Darling with a pen if you'd like!

Darling the Duck is happy to sit on your desk, adorn your refrigerator, or accent your art. Enjoy Darling in all of her glory.