What makes a character cute?

When we look at puppies or babies, we usually find them cute. But why? What are the main characteristics that make toddlers and puppies “cute”, and how can we apply them to our work?

Here are some animals that show some of the characteristics one should keep in mind while drawing cute animals.

 

CHARACTERISTICS 💡

 

• Keep them small: the smaller the animal, the cuter!

 

• Use childlike proportions: if you look at babies, they have very different proportions from adults. Big heads, short, chubby arms and legs, small feet and hands. Try to apply these proportions to animals as well.

 

• Big eyes: keep the eyes big! They’re key to making the viewer connect with the character.

 

• The attitude is important: try to capture the naive, funny expressions of babies! A bit of shyness and an air of innocence is important.

 

• Make them chubby: how cute are babies, with their small chubby arms and legs? We aim to replicate that “effect”. Try to avoid making the pet too skinny!

 

• Prioritise round forms: related to the point above. Avoid sharp, angular lines. Use smooth curves!

 

• Big cheeks are cute!

 

• Keep the features small: such as the nose and ears. Also, short legs and arms.

 

• Simplify the shapes: cut all that is unnecessary and distracting!

 

• Exaggerate the animal's characteristics: for example, the tail of a squirrel; the ears of a basset hound; the teeth of a bunny; more specific examples later.

Applying these characteristics to various animals

Let’s try out these “principles” for various animals. You don’t need to apply all the characteristics for each animal, but as a general rule try to get as many as possible.

 

These examples are just for one style, but of course you can apply them to your art style as well!

 

⬅️ On the left of each example, I’ve put a more realistically-proportioned drawing of the animal.

 

➡️On the right, is the “cute” version. Let’s compare the two and see what we need to change, and what we need to emphasise in order to add cuteness to the character!

Rabbit 🐰

• The head: real rabbits have their nose and teeth on the lower part of the head. Let’s keep them that way while making the eyes bigger, covering most of the top part of the head. The head itself is a slightly elongated sphere.

 

• I’ve added a big tooth in the mouth. This is to accentuate the “function” of the bunny, as we often think of rabbits nibbling on carrots and other food. The big cheeks also contribute to this idea.

 

• Make the body a small, hairy ball. Keep the legs short and stubby, to make the animal look smaller and cuter.

 

• I gave the rabbit a smart expression, but also shy, to make it look a bit coy.

 

• The bent right ear adds a bit of variety to the shapes.

Cat 🐱

• Head: make the head slightly bigger than the one of a regular kitten. Similarly to the bunny, keep the nose and mouth small, but the eyes big.

 

• Expression: I tried to give it a cute, naive expression, with big hopeful eyes and an ingenuous smile.

 

• Puffy cheeks add some roundness to the face.

 

• The body resembles the one from a regular kitten, slightly rounded. Keep the legs long, as cats are agile animals and we want to retain that characteristic.

 

• The tail is long, with a slightly pointy ending to add a bit of variety to its shape.

Bear 🐻

• Bears are cute, but are also quite big! How can we make them look cuter? By studying bear cubs: they have all the characteristics of a regular bear, only in a smaller body! Let’s look at them and extrapolate the features that make them cute.

 

• The snout: bears have a rather elongated snout. Let’s make it shorter and rounder, to add cuteness.

 

• Keep the big nose! It’s a very distinctive feature of bears. Of course, you can simplify it for your character.

 

• Dark eyelids can look cute: something that bears have, that you may consider adding to your character.

 

• Keep everything round. Add small, round, hairy ears, and large, round, hairy cheeks!

 

• Make the body the shape of a pear; add big paws on short(ish) arms and legs.

 

• Think "Teddy Bear" more than "real bear"!

Duck 🦆

• Real ducks have round heads and long cylindrical necks. By tweaking these characteristics, we can achieve a cuter look.

 

• Make the head rounder and the neck shorter and narrower.

 

• Ducks’ beaks are small and elongated. Make your beak wider, but shorter. Keep the nostrils on the beak rather small (even just a dot would suffice).

 

• As usual, make the eyes bigger and closer than in real ducks!

 

• You can add some small round cheeks to the head, to add some roundness to it.

Small birds 🐦

• Keep the beak for birds small! A smaller beak helps them look cuter.

 

• Don't add a neck to birds: connect the head directly to the body!

 

• Keep the bird small and compact!

 

• Eyes for birds can be bigger than the ones you find in real animals, but avoid making them too big! The small, compact nature of birds is what makes them cute.

 

• Birds can differ a lot, find the main characteristics of each bird type and accentuate them: for example, the big head with a grumpy expression “nested” on a big, feathery body for the owl.

Hen 🐔

• Real hens have somewhat strange proportions, so we need to tweak them in order to make the animal cuter.

 

• Hens have a very small head compared to the body: make it bigger! It’s also easier to add features this way. Keep the beak larger, but not huge (remember: we need to keep the hen’s “small animal” look!).

 

• Simplify the crest, making it rounder and floppier. But if the hen you want to portray has a very peculiar crest, make it more prominent and bright.

 

• Crests can work as hair for hens: you can tell a story by changing the shape of a crest. It can show that the hen is relaxed, scared, asleep, and so on.

 

• Simplify the plumage, while exaggerating the roundness of the animal. Keep the body big and round.

 

• Make the wings small and cute. You can also add a feathery tip to the bottom part of the hen.

 

• Make the feet larger and rounder. Avoid the more “skeletal” look of real hen’s feet.

 

• Eyes can be slightly bigger but, as with birds, don’t go overboard. The head of the hen is small, so we don’t want to exaggerate.

Squirrel 🐿️

• Squirrels, with their own round form, small chubby arms, and big tail, are already pretty cute and don’t need a lot of work. What we can do is exaggerate their nature and “function”.

 

• Make the expression smart: squirrels are quick and sly animals, and we want to show it!

 

• You should keep the small form (it’s cute!) but you can make it leaner, to emphasise the squirrel’s quickness.

 

• Small, prehensile hand-like paws and feet. Again, let’s show the quick and smart nature of the animal.

 

• Big, soft-looking tail, that makes you want to stroke it.

Dogs 🐶

There are many dog breeds, so it would be impossible to show them all. I’ve made a very short selection of some very different breeds as an example.

 

Keep in mind that the basic principles are always the same:

 

• Find the most specific characteristic of a dog and exaggerate them.

 

• Make the eyes big and the snouts small (unless the breed requires them to be noticeable, for example for bulldogs).

 

• Keep the shapes round and curvy.

 

• Give the animal a naive, childlike expression.

 

• Simplify the shapes, only keeping what’s necessary. Avoid over-detailing.

◼️ BASSET HOUND

• Here I took the forms of a basset hound and made them more “extreme”: everything is long and droopy, except for the legs, which are really short with fat deposits over them.

 

• A half-asleep, naive expression, with a big button nose.

 

• Overly long ears that touch the floor,

 

• The body is a long cylinder, with chubby short legs connected at the bottom.

 

• I’ve added a waggy tail to give it more character.

◼️ BULLDOG

• Bulldogs were often portrayed as the antagonist in old cartoons, probably because of their grumpy expression. But do a quick search online for “puppy bulldog” to really see how cute they’re!

 

• In this case, I’ve portrayed an adult bulldog, while trying to make it look cute.

 

• I’ve exaggerated the roundness of its body, going for a soft, chubby, look, and the droopiness of its skin. It’s all very round.

 

• The front legs are short and stubby, while the rear ones are a bit longer.

 

• Keep the tail short, chubby, and funny-looking.

 

• In contrast to its villain status in old cartoons, I gave the bulldog a sleepy expression, with a half-opened mouth and half-closed eyes.

 

• Make the ears short and floppy.

◼️ CORGI AND OTHER SMALL-SIZED DOGS

• This one is a very quick example of how I tried to give the dog a silly “good doggy" expression, by adding big eyes, a short tongue, and pointy ears.

 

• The snout is a lot smaller than in real dogs.

 

• Attach the head directly to the body, with no neck.

How to construct and draw these animals ✏️

Same as with every complicated object, drawing an animal can be made easy by simplifying its shape. In this case, since we want to keep them round and cute, we’ll be constructing them mostly from spheres.

 

In fact, most of the heads and bodies of the animals shown above are spheres, connected through curves.

I start with a circle for the head, cutting it in the middle to help position the eyes and nose.

The body is also made of circles, which you then connect with curves.

Try to give volume to the shapes, to show the form of the animal.

Final words

These characteristics can be applied to any animal, not only the ones shown above. Also, to any style! You can apply these general ideas to your own personal style and to your choice of animal.

 

Elephants, foxes, tigers… Just find their main characteristics and tweak them until they look cuter!

Also, look at photographs of the animal’s cubs! It can be really useful to look at them while they’re small, to see what makes them cute.

 

I hope this small guide has been useful and that it may have given you some ideas for future illustrations.

 

Happy drawing!