How To Draw A Realistic Koala Step By Step

Today's tutorial will be how to draw a koala. No… not a koala bear— there's no such thing. Even though they look like bears, they are actually marsupials, related to kangaroos and opossums. Koalas are one of the most famous animals in all of Australia— and for good reason. They're adorable! Anyway, no more discovery channel blabber. Grab your pencils and let's learn how to draw a koala step by step!

What you'll need:

HB (#2) Pencil, 4B pencil

Eraser

Drawing paper

Drawing surface

Step 1

The first step in drawing our koala isn't to draw the koala at all. Instead, we need to draw something for him to rest on. A tree, or a simple branch will do. For this pose you will need to draw your branch vertically.

Step 2

Behind the branch, draw two circles– smaller on top, larger on the bottom. These circles will be the head and body of your koala.

Step 3

Give your koala two short arms that are grasping onto its branch. Just for the sake of making the drawing more realistic, draw one of the koala's arms grasping a little higher than the other.

Step 4

Similar to the last step, give your koala two very short rear legs. Its legs are almost not visible, being covered by the koala's body. Just like the koala's hands, draw the feet with only three toes showing.

Step 5

Draw your koala's big, round, teddy bear-like ears. Each ear should be nearly half the size of the koala's head. Also, as you can see on the left, I erased the outline of the head, and replaced it with a more jagged line to simulate fur.

Step 6

Drawing your koala's face is extremely simple. Give him two very small, beady eyes, and a large oval nose.

Step 7

After you darken in the koala's eyes and nose, erase all the outlines and replace them with jagged lines, to make your koala look fuzzy.That's that, he's all done! I hope you enjoyed learning how to draw a koala with me. If you did, be sure to check out the rest of our tutorials! Happy drawing!

More Learning!

Below is a great video from Art for Kids Hub on Youtube where they show you a different approach to drawing a koala. If you would like to draw a more cartoonish koala bear, this video is for you! Enjoy!