How to draw a toucan — easy step by step drawing ideas

Toucan drawing ideas are among the most colorful on the whole site, and the toucan itself is one of the easiest birds to draw. It is a plump black egg with a white bib, sitting on a branch, wearing the most enormous, most gloriously orange beak in the animal kingdom. Learning how to draw a toucan is really learning how to draw a simple body and then giving it a beak so big it makes everyone laugh.

I like this tutorial because the beak does all the work. Children sometimes worry about drawing birds, with their thin legs and complicated wings, but a toucan is round and simple, and the moment that huge beak goes on, the drawing is finished in everyone's eyes. The coloring stage is a joy too: black body, white chest, orange-and-yellow beak, blue eye patch. It looks like a rainbow forest bird because it is one.

In this tutorial we will build a cheerful toucan perched on a branch in six easy steps, following the practice sheet below. I will share the pro tips I use when teaching it, the mistakes that trip up nearly every beginner, and quick fixes for when your toucan starts looking like a crow or a penguin. Grab a pencil and an orange crayon, and let us draw.

The 6 steps to easy toucan drawing ideas

Step 1 — Draw the body

Start with the body, in the middle of the paper and a little to the right, because the huge beak will stretch out to the left. Draw one big egg shape standing upright, slightly tilted so the narrower top leans a little to the left where the head is. The head and body are one shape — a toucan is a round, compact bird with no real neck.

Make the egg plump and generous, a little wider at the bottom than the top. Keep the pencil light; you will darken the keeper lines at the end. That is the whole toucan body, done in one shape.

Step 2 — Add the big beak

Here is the step that makes a toucan a toucan. From the upper front of the egg, draw the beak: a big, long, rounded shape reaching out to the left and curving gently downward, like a huge banana or a fat rounded boomerang. The top edge curves down in a smooth arc; the bottom edge is a little straighter and meets the top at a rounded tip.

Make it enormous. The beak should be about as long as the body is tall and nearly as deep as the head where it joins on. Then draw a gentle curved line along the beak, a little below the middle, to separate the top half from the bottom half. If it looks too big, it is exactly right.

Step 3 — Add the face and chest

Now the toucan gets its personality. Just behind the base of the beak, in the upper part of the head, draw a round patch — a circle about the size of a coin — and inside it a big round eye with a smaller dark circle and a white shine dot. That round patch will be colored light blue, and it makes the eye pop against the black feathers. Add a small blush circle below the eye patch.

Then draw the chest patch: a big rounded shape on the front of the body, starting just under the beak and running down most of the front, leaving a band of body around the sides and bottom. This will stay white, and the contrast between the white bib and the black body is a big part of the toucan look.

Step 4 — Add the wing and tail

On the side of the body, behind the chest patch, draw the wing: a long rounded shape like a leaf lying against the body, pointing down and back toward the tail, with two or three curved lines inside it for the feather layers. The wing is folded, so it stays close to the body and does not stick out.

Then the tail: from the bottom back of the body, draw a few short feathers pointing down and back, like a small fan or a little bunch of pointed leaves. Toucan tails are fairly short, so two or three feathers is plenty. Keep both the wing and the tail simple; the beak is the star, and these are just supporting details.

Step 5 — Add the feet and branch

Under the body, draw two small feet: each one a short line down from the bottom of the egg, ending in two or three little toes curling forward and back, like tiny hooks. Then draw the branch under them: a long, slightly wavy horizontal line with a second line beneath it for thickness, and a small twig or two poking off. Let the toes wrap over the top of the branch so the toucan looks like it is holding on.

Finally, near the tip of the beak, draw a short curved line across it to mark the dark tip. It is a tiny detail, but it gives the beak its classic look when colored. Keep the branch simple and let it run the full width of the drawing.

Step 6 — Finish and color

Darken the lines you want to keep and erase the light scaffolding underneath — the part of the branch hidden behind the feet, and any guide lines. Then color: fill the body, wing and tail solid black, leave the chest patch white, and color the beak bright orange on top with a yellow band along the bottom half and a dark tip. Color the eye patch light blue and the branch brown.

Add pink to the blush cheek, color the feet grey, and leave the shine dot in the eye uncolored so it sparkles. Then give your toucan somewhere to be — a few big green jungle leaves, a bunch of bananas, a bright sun, a second toucan. Sign your name in the corner; every finished drawing deserves a signature.

Common mistakes to avoid

A beak that is too small

This is the mistake that turns more toucans into crows than any other. A normal-sized beak on a black bird is just a blackbird. The toucan's beak is famously, ridiculously huge.

Make the beak about as long as the body is tall and nearly as deep as the head at the base. If yours came out small, draw a bigger curve around it and erase the smaller one — there is no such thing as too big.

Forgetting the white chest

Without the white bib, the toucan is a black blob with a beak, and it loses the crisp, cheerful look that makes it so recognisable.

Draw a big rounded chest patch on the front of the body, from under the beak down most of the front, and leave it white when you color.

A pointed beak

Bringing the beak to a sharp point makes it look like a sword and gives the toucan a fierce expression. The toucan's beak is big but blunt and friendly.

Round the tip generously, and let the top edge curve smoothly down into it.

Troubleshooting

“My toucan looks like a crow”

Enlarge the beak until it is as long as the body is tall, add the white chest patch and the round blue eye patch, and color the beak orange and yellow. The beak alone usually fixes it.

“My toucan looks like a penguin”

The body is probably too upright and the beak too small. Tilt the egg slightly, enlarge the beak and curve it downward, and put the toucan on a branch with gripping feet. Penguins do not sit in trees.

“I ran out of room for the beak”

The body was drawn too far to the left. For this drawing, let the beak run off the edge of the paper; it looks quite dramatic. Next time, put the body in the middle-right and leave the whole left side free.

Key takeaways

FAQ

What age is this toucan drawing tutorial for? The six-step version works from about age 4 with a grown-up nearby, and most kids around 6 and up can follow the sheet on their own. A toucan is an egg with an enormous beak, which makes it one of the easiest birds on the site.

How big should the beak be? Enormous: about as long as the body is tall, and nearly as deep as the head. If the beak feels ridiculously large, it is exactly right. A small beak is the number one reason a toucan ends up looking like a crow.

What materials do we need? A pencil, an eraser, paper, and crayons or markers in black for the body, orange and yellow for the beak, light blue for the eye patch and brown for the branch. The chest stays white.

Why does the toucan have a colored eye patch? Real toucans have bright bare skin around their eyes, often blue or green, and in a cartoon that patch is a lovely splash of color that makes the eye stand out against the black feathers. Draw it as a round patch with the eye in the middle.

That is your toucan! Whether the beak came out perfectly curved or wonderfully wonky, you built the most colorful bird in the jungle out of an egg and a banana — and that belongs on the fridge. Keep the sheet handy, draw a whole branch full of toucans, and come back tomorrow for a new tutorial.

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