How to draw a kawaii cat - Draw Cartoon Style!

One of the most popular animals to draw is a cat.

Cats are super adorable and you can draw them in any style.

They don’t have a very complicated body structure and if you can draw a cute kawaii cat, you don’t really need to study cat anatomy.

In this post, I’m going to show you how to a kawaii cat in this step-by-step guide so that you can learn how to draw a cute cat easily!

In my last post, I covered how to draw a kawaii dog which you can check out here! You can check out my other kawaii tutorials here.

Whether you’re a kid or an adult learning how to draw, these steps are extremely easy to follow, let’s get started!

I’ll even show you how to color the cat in different ways!

In this post we will learn how to draw a kawaii cat

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I am currently using an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil to create all my illustrations. But you can use any tool – a pen and paper or Copic markers or Photoshop because the drawing method remains the same.

Table of Contents

How to draw a kawaii cat – Easy Step by step instructions

Step 1: Drawing the head of the kawaii kitty

Let’s start with the face of the cat.

Just start with a nice big circle. It’s more elliptical than spherical. Because the head of the cat isn’t going to be a perfect circle.

Let's start by drawing a simple circle shape

I’m drawing this cat in a cartoon style. If you’re looking for a book to teach you how to draw cats in a kawaii style, there is no better book than this!

Next, I’m going to use the circle as a guide and draw a circle over that. However, one side needs to be slightly dented. This will give the cat a nice head shape.

Using the circle as a guide, let's draw a head with one side slightly dented

It’s okay if you take a while to draw this head shape. It can be a little tricky. Redraw it as much as you like to get it to look how you want it to.

Next, I’m going to draw the ears. So just add 2 triangle shapes to the head.

Make sure that the one on the left is smaller since it’s technically behind the cat’s head.

Then we draw two triangle shapes to indicate the years

Next, we’re going to draw the cat’s face. I’m going to draw 2 eyes and a mouth on the bottom part of the face.

Draw the expressions on the bottom part of the face

Now, the face is completed! All that’s left to do is to draw the body and color the cat.

Step 2: Drawing the body of the kawaii cat

When drawing kawaii animals, remember that the head is almost as big as the body. It doesn’t need to look accurate.

Let’s start by drawing one leg. I’m going to draw small squishy toes at the bottom to make the kawaii cat more adorable!

Now, let’s draw the other leg right next to it.

Now, just draw a simple curve shape to draw the back and the bottom of the cat.

Join this curve to the leg we’ve just drawn!

Draw kawaii characters and make stickers!

Then we draw the back of the kawaii cat and the bottom

And finally, all that’s left is to draw the tail. The kawaii cat wouldn’t be complete without a nice, long tail.

I’m going to draw a simple “S” shape to draw the tail. Try to keep your hand loose when drawing this part. This will help you get a nice smooth line!

We then complete the cat by drawing the tail

The kawaii cat is nearly done! Now, we just have to color the cat!

Step 3: Coloring the kawaii kitty cat

I’m going to begin by coloring the tabby cat a nice mid-orange. You can choose any color you want!

Color the cat a somewhat mid orange to draw a ginger tabby cat

And to add more definition to this cat, I’m going to color the cat white in certain places – like the muzzle and the stomach and front legs.

Next we color some spots white just to add some texture.

I feel it can still do with some coloring. So, I’m going to add some nice tiger stripes in a darker orange shade to its back.

Finally, let’s add some blushed cheeks under the eyes to give this cat a kawaii look.

Add 2 blush spots to indicate a cute kawaii cat.

I’m going to go ahead and add a lighter pink color to inside the ears and I feel it will look more complete!

You can use your imagination or look at other references of cats on Google or even real-life examples to color your cat any color you want.

Let’s do one more just to have a little fun! Here’s another variation of the same cat but in a different color!

You can do multiple variations of cats. Just use photos on Google for inspiration to color the cat however you please!

And voila! We’ve just learned to draw the cutest kawaii cat!

Conclusion + Drawing Resources

I hope this tutorial was super helpful to you and you were able to draw yourself a cute tabby cat or a kitty in cartoon style.

I understand that drawing animals can be challenging at times but the more you practice, the easier it gets!

If you’re really interested in drawing more kawaii cats, take a look at this book, please!

If you want to see more tutorials on drawing kawaii animals and kawaii things, please leave a comment below on what you’d like to see next!

I will be adding more kawaii drawing tutorials (animals and things) to this blog, so keep a lookout!

If you are interested in drawing in a kawaii style and then selling clipart or merchandise on Etsy, check out this course!

My old bud Ilaria (we’ve been friends on Instagram back when I had Instagram) created this course! I’ve watched her grow from 0 followers, and I’m so, so proud of her!

And believe it or not, there is not 1 single good online course about learning how to draw kawaii art and then making physical stickers on the internet. I’ve been looking for a course like this for a long, long time.

And it’s finally here!!!

You can create your own stickers and print them and sell them on Etsy or any space! She goes into detail about how to draw the characters.

This is by far one of the best courses I’ve taken that is so cute and so educational.

The course is in English, and it’s amazing!

What do you need?

A sketchbook, Photoshop, and a graphic tablet so that you can draw the kawaii characters. If you want to make stickers, you’ll need a printer and sticker sheets.

Even if you don’t want to make stickers and just draw kawaii characters, this course is perfect!

Check it out here!

And if you are really keen on improving your drawings or you want to create cute kawaii animals and kawaii people, check out this second course by Sara.

Sara teaches you how to draw anything in a nice kawaii style. I really love these kinds of courses because they’re so easy to learn and it’s very easy to get clients because this is a really relatable drawing style.

It is in Italian but it comes with subtitles and it’s really easy to follow.