How to Draw a Raven Easy Step by Step

Easy Raven Drawing Tutorial

Learning how to draw a raven is easy and fun. We’ll show you step by step how to draw, outline, and color your drawings with markers.

Art and drawing are both skills that anyone is capable of learning. It just takes practice and repetition.

This means, the more you practice, the better you will get. But be sure to keep it fun and enjoyable or you won’t be motivated to keep going.

(Tip) Using artist trading cards is a good way to speed up this process and save you valuable time.

There are a lot of different ways to draw a raven. Try some different things and see what you enjoy. 

Let’s grab some supplies and get ready to have some fun learning how to draw a raven in this easy step by step drawing tutorial.

* Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. This means I receive small commissions for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.

Art Supplies

• Thin black marker
• Paper or cardstock
• Markers
• Pencil
• Click Eraser, Pink Pearl Eraser
• White Gelly Roll pen

Easy Raven Sketch Practice

Doing a raven sketch exercise is a great way to warm up your drawing muscles and work through some rough ideas for your artwork. And it only takes a few minutes to complete.

Here’s how to do it:

• Get some paper and something to sketch with (pencil, pen, marker, etc.)
• Pull up some reference photos of ravens
• Set a timer for three or five minutes

Then quickly sketch as many ravens as you can before the timer goes off. Keep your lines loose and quick, and don’t worry too much about any specific details.

You could also just do as many sketches as you can before you run out of space on your paper. Either method is fine, just don’t spend too much time on your sketches.

Doing a raven sketch practice session will help you get more familiar with your subject matter as well. Focus your attention on the size, shape, and proportions of the raven. And make sure to have fun doing it.

How to Draw a Raven (Easy) Step by Step

The first step to drawing anything is laying out your basic shapes to use as guidelines.

Begin by drawing an oval for the body. And then a circle for the head. This is a good time to get proper placement on your paper as well. 

Lightly sketch the basic shape of the beak, the tail, and a couple of lines for where the feet will go.

Next, you’ll need to start adding in some details. I started with the eye because they are my favorite things to draw.

Now draw where the body and the head connect. And add the rough shape for the wing.

Continue refining your drawing by increasing the level of detail. Darken up your pencil lines as you work.

Add in something for your raven to sit on. Such as a rock, lamp post, tree branch, or ledge of a building.

Now start adding in some extra details for the feathers on the wing and tail.

You can start adding in more detail for the feet as well.

Keep working on refining your rough sketch until you’re satisfied with how your raven drawing looks.

Raven Outline

Making a raven outline is really easy. Just trace over the pencil lines you want keep with a black pen or marker. You can make your lines thin, thick, or a combination of line weights.

Just do whatever fits your artistic style. If you don’t know what your style is, you need more practice and it will develop.

You can do a simple outline, and some shading if you’d like as well. Or try using a color other than black for your raven outline.

I’ll often add a thick black line around the outside edge of my drawings because I like how it looks. I didn’t do that today though.

Sometimes it’s fun to try different things and experiment with new styles. Don’t be afraid to try something new.

When you’re finished with your outline, use an eraser to clean up your drawing and remove any remaining pencil lines.

How to Draw a Raven with Markers (Easy)

Learning how to draw a raven with markers is easier than what you might think. And there’s really only a few things you need to keep in mind when using them.

First, if you want to be able to blend your colors together you need to use alcohol based markers. Bic, Sharpie, and Copic for example. As well as many others.

Second, you need to work while the colors are still wet or they won’t mix together. This isn’t a big deal. Just make sure you work on a section at a time.

Third, you need to use colors that are similar to each other if you want to create a smooth transition of color. If your markers are too different they will leave a harder edge.

Bic markers are my favorite ones to use for my artwork because they are less expensive than a lot of brands and they work really well for this type of artwork.

When using markers you’ll want to layer your colors and blend them together to add depth to your artwork. For this raven I used grays, blue, and black. Even though ravens are black, you don’t want to use only black to color your drawings.

You can use a white Gelly Roll pen to add some highlights to your drawing. And then finish up by adding in some kind of background.

How to Draw a Raven Easy Step by Step Art Tutorial

You’ve learned how to draw a raven, but what’s next? Where do you go from here? As I mentioned earlier, practice and repetition is how to improve your drawing skills. 

The more you practice, the better you will get. But this doesn’t mean you have to practice for hours everyday. A few minutes of consistent practice each day will add up over time.

Make your creative time part of your daily routine and find a way to fit it into your schedule.

If you want to get really good at learning how to draw a raven, challenge yourself to do a series of them over the next week. Not only will your art and drawing skills improve, but your creativity will as well.

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