If you want a perfect circle to start, you can start by outlining a circular object, like a bottle of medicine or a glass. This method involves erasing a lot of lines after sketching Mickey’s general shape, so don’t press the pencil down hard as you make your first set of drawings.
These 2 lines are often called center lines, or contour lines. They’re used to serve as a guide for nose and eye placement. You will erase them eventually, so make them light. If you want Mickey to face right, reverse the directions and put the lines on the right side. Reverse the sides for each step so they’re on the other side.
This smaller circle will be the middle of Mickey’s nose. You’ll eventually erase the lower half.
If you don’t angle the button on Mickey’s nose slightly away from the rest of the head, Mickey will look like his nose is being pulled back. If the button is too flat, Mickey will look confused and angry.
You will erase the section where the ears overlap with the rest of the head, but not the exterior portion. Make each ear about 3/5 the size of the big circle.
This should be one continuous stroke. Mickey’s mouth will go in the bottom gap on the left. Mickey’s eyes will go in the upper gap on the left.
You will erase the bottom-right of the small circle, leaving the arc from the intersection of your center lines to the start of line you just made.
Make it look like a flattened-out U on top of a deeper U. You will erase everything inside of these 2 lines to make Mickey’s mouth. Make a tongue by drawing 2 connecting lumps in the bottom of the opening. It looks like a soft-M with rounded edges.
The gap between these 2 arcs should be very small. You will erase everything in between these 2 lines.
Add pupils at the bottom of Mickey’s eyes. You can fill them in or leave them hollow.
If you’re adding color, make everything to the right of your dividing line black. Color the skin flesh-tone and make the tongue red.
The amount of space you leave between the top of the pants and the bottom of the head will determine how long Mickey’s torso is. Traditionally, he’s a pretty stout fellow, so you don’t need a ton of room. You can do this in pen if you want, but you won’t be able to erase your marks if you make any mistakes.
The openings for the pants are pretty stout. These should look like kind of like short shorts with a high waist.
If you want Mickey to look like he’s facing the left, make the button on the left a little smaller than the button on the right to create the impression that it’s further away.
These will form Mickey’s sides on his torso.
This is a classic Mickey pose. Mickey’s hands are kind of complicated to draw. You can try to add them if you want. He typically has 4 fingers and his hands are about the size of his head. Don’t forget that he’s always wearing gloves!
Make one leg slightly wider if you want to make it seem like Mickey is standing at an angle. Leave the bottom opening of the legs empty for a moment so you can add shoes.
Color Mickey’s trunks red and shoes yellow if you want to add some color.
Starting in the middle of his face and working your way out ensures that the facial features will stay proportional. This method doesn’t require any erasing, so you can start with a pen if you’re confident in your strokes. Otherwise, use pencil and outline it later. This makes it easy to fix mistakes before they become permanent.
Do not make this line longer than the oval itself or Mickey will look bug-eyed.
The bottom 1/8 of the ovals should be missing as the eyes feed right into the line. Make the ovals thinner than the nose, and they should extend upwards a little bit with a little space between them.
The bottom-right of your left pupil and the bottom-left of your right pupil should both be hidden.
Make the angle of this line near-identical to a basic smiley face.
Add the tongue by putting 2 bumps that connect in the middle at the bottom of the opening between these 2 lines.
Sometimes Mickey has eyebrows, sometimes he doesn’t, it’s totally up to you if you want to include them. To add eyebrows, draw 2 little arcs over each eye in between this outline and the edge of the eye.
Make the gaps on each side an equal size to ensure that the ears are symmetrical.
You actually can do this in 1 continuous line if you have good pen control and a steady eye. It can be easy to accidentally make the ears look like ovals. If you do this, add more to the outline when you’re coloring the ears and back of the head in.
