Wandering Albatross Press

Cows are admirable and well known creatures, and sometimes you want to doodle one to have a fun drawing. But, maybe you aren’t sure how to doodle a cow, or maybe you’re not confident in your doodling abilities in general. Don’t worry. We’re here to give you some fun and helpful tips on how to doodle a cow.

On this page you will find:

What are the parts of a cow?

Because a doodle is a simplification of the profound complexity of life and perception, we will want to consider what most salient features we should include in our cow drawing. We maybe don’t need to draw the inside of a cow, unless we’re interested in that whole four-stomach thing, but then again, that’s talking more about an anatomical drawing of a cow, and we’re here to learn how to doodle a cow proper.

A Big Nose with Nostrils

Most people like to doodle a cow by including some big, round nostrils. It’s not necessarily a snout, certainly not as elongated as a trunk, but the nostrils are certainly prominent.

Small, Floppy Ears

You can imagine a real-life cow munching cud, contentment embodied, and see its fuzzy little ears flapping now and then to shoo a fly or express the ineffable. Your cow doodle should probably include those little ears to really show that it’s a cow and not something else. Some people like to include little horns, whether or not they intend to doodle a male or female cow. It’s up to you! Doodling is about freedom.

A Big Body with a Long Tail

You don’t have to worry about making the cow’s body look realistic, even a simple oval will do, but most people agree a cow’s body should look big and beefy. LITERALLY so. Also, you should include a long tail, the kind that could flop around with happy feeling, or perhaps get its brushy end dipped in a pot of paint.

An Udder

While people often use the word “cow” to describe both male and female bovines, a doodle will be instantly recognizable as a female cow if you include an udder.

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Step-by-step instructions on how to doodle a cow

  1. Draw the nose with big nostrils
  2. Draw the floppy ears (and horns if you want)
  3. Draw a big body with a long tail
  4. Draw an udder

That’s it! You’re on your way to doodling anything you can think of.

How to doodle anything else

Wandering Albatross Press provides many resources for doodling and drawing, including our free printable activity sheets, and our definitive book with theory and guidance on How to Doodle.

Do time and space expand forever?

We’re not sure!

Other fun things to doodle

If you enjoyed practicing how to doodle a cow, you might also like some other guides on how to doodle things for beginners: