Drawing an Orangutan

Deep in the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo lives a species that is similar to humans in many ways. It’s no wonder these fascinating animals are also called forest people. We’re talking about the orangutan, a genus of great apes.

In this tutorial, we will learn together how to draw an orangutan. For my drawing, I will use pencils and colored pencils, but feel free to follow this tutorial with other painting or drawing tools.

Anatomy of the Orangutan

To better understand the drawing subject of an orangutan, let’s first take a look at its anatomical features.

The teeth of orangutans correspond to the typical dental formula of Old World monkeys: 32 teeth, including large central incisors and larger canines in males compared to females. The molars are characterized by low cusps and a highly wrinkled chewing surface, helping them efficiently chew hard-shelled food.

Choosing Colors for the Orangutan

If you do not want to work with colors, feel free to skip this step. However, if you want to use colored pencils, watercolors, or other colors, I recommend testing the colors on a separate piece of paper first. There is nothing more frustrating than applying the wrong color to a perfect sketch and realizing it too late.

From left: Bornean orangutan, Sumatran orangutan, Tapanuli orangutan
Eric KilbyAiwokTim Laman, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The three orangutan species (Bornean, Sumatran, and Tapanuli) differ visually (many of these differences were not obvious to me without research): The Bornean orangutan has relatively darker, reddish-brown fur, and the generally dark skin is very light in places. The fur of the Sumatran orangutan, on the other hand, is lighter compared to the other two species. Choose the appropriate colors based on the species of orangutan you want to draw or paint.

Drawing the Orangutan Step by Step

If you are working with colored pencils like me, I always recommend drawing from light to dark and only adding details with pencils in the final step. When working with watercolors, always work from light to dark as well, but make sure to let the paper dry completely between applying the different layers of color. If you choose to create a pure pencil drawing, use a wide range of hardnesses to give your drawing depth.

Finding a Template

The best templates can be found either in books or online. There are numerous photographers who have taken stunning photos of orangutans. I found a great template for my drawing in an article about the similarities between orangutans and humans from National Geographic.

Drawing a Rough Sketch

Let’s start by roughly sketching the body of the orangutan using basic shapes. In my sketch, I use ovals, circles, and even triangles to outline the head, shoulders, and belly.

This rough sketch primarily serves to allocate space on the paper. The basic shapes can be easily erased, allowing us to quickly adjust the proportions of the body or change our composition.

Drawing a Detailed Sketch

Next, we will add important details to the face and body to our rough sketch. I personally find the feet and hands challenging, so I will hide them in a later step.

I focus more on the details in the face of the orangutan. Note that by adding details, you influence where the viewer’s eye is drawn in your finished drawing. Similarly, you can make areas less interesting to the viewer by detailing them less.

For the feet and the left arm in the picture, I use a simple trick to make them disappear: I hide them behind leaves, as the orangutan is in a tree and I want to take advantage of this opportunity.

The leaves look a bit flat at first, but we can add more foliage in later steps and make the leaves appear three-dimensional by using different shades of green.

Drawing the Orangutan’s Head

Eyes

The eyes are the first big challenge for me: I’m drawing on A4 size paper and have to draw the eyes on a very small area. None of my sharpeners can cut the leads sharp enough. However, I manage to file the lead sharp enough with sandpaper.

The eyes of an orangutan are drawn in the same way as human eyes, with the difference that the orangutan’s eyeball is darker.

Once you’re satisfied with the eyes, you can focus on the area around them. Start with a color base of orange, red, brown, and a very light skin tone.

More important than the colors is the texture of the skin: The skin around the eyes is marked by many wrinkles, which can cast interesting shadows depending on the light. Therefore, when drawing this area, I always look at other photos where the head is shown in high resolution.

Refine the texture with pencils. I primarily use a 3H to tone down the saturation of the colored pencils and to add fine wrinkles. I use a 2B to add dark shadows, enhancing the depth of the wrinkles.

Facial Skin

Now it gets fun! If you’ve drawn with colored pencils before, you already know that dark areas often result from the most curious color mixes. The face of the orangutan in my reference image is not really just gray. After looking at it for a long time, I see a slight purple and blue tint under the gray skin and use these colors as the base for the face.

Then I go over these areas with a 2H and a 2B pencil to enhance the structure of the orangutan’s face.

Nose

When drawing the orangutan’s nose, we must be careful not to do too much or too little, just as when drawing human noses.

Snout

The snout of the female orangutan in my reference image is noticeably lighter compared to the rest of the skin. So, I use a light-colored pencil as the base.

Next, I use a 2H pencil to tone down the saturation and make the snout appear less colorful. With an HB and a 2B pencil, you can work on the shadows on the lips and chin wonderfully on this light base.

Head Hair

According to my research, every orangutan seems to have a great taste in hairstyles: They all sport a frayed fringe that is naturally styled wildly. In my drawing, I primarily use a red tone as the base and switch to an orange for the fur directly on the face.

Then I take a brown tone and draw over all the fur on the head. This creates the ideal color for the fur of Bornean orangutans.

To give the head hair depth and a clearer structure, I use pencils as usual.

Drawing the Body

Once the head is done, we can move on to drawing the orangutan’s body. The procedure is the same as for drawing the head: Let’s start with the light colors and draw the areas of the skin visible through the partially sparse fur.

Before I continue with the body in my drawing, I decide to add foliage in the foreground to hide (my) problem areas.

Next is the fur: Decide for yourself whether you want to apply the individual colors to the entire body as I do, or complete one area after another. There is no right or wrong here.

While drawing the fur, I also draw some of the adjacent leaves. Where fur and leaves overlap, I see the risk of later losing track in the image and accidentally coloring areas intended for a different color.

Once the work with the colored pencils is done, I add shadows with a pencil. These may look very dark, but once the picture has a background, the shadows will appear natural and fitting.

Drawing Leaves and Branches

If your orangutan is like mine in a tree with many leaves, you will need a lot of patience for this section. It takes quite a long time to draw each leaf in detail. However, I recommend taking the time as it will pay off in the end.

For the bark, I choose a dark brown to create a strong contrast with the leaves. This makes the leaves appear much brighter. Be sure to work very cleanly here. The contours of the leaves should remain clear and sharp.

Drawing the Background

If you’re satisfied with your drawing and don’t feel confident enough to add a background, that’s perfectly fine. A background can be daunting at first and can be a lot of work depending on the image. However, it’s often worth it as it gives your picture depth and space. I usually avoid backgrounds, but I want to challenge myself with this drawing.

We draw the background best in a blurred manner because we don’t want to distract the viewer from our orangutan. We can still come up with some organic shapes reminiscent of branches, leaves, and bushes. Switch between light and dark areas to avoid a monochrome and unnatural surface.

Finished Orangutan Drawing

How did it go for you? I was focused on capturing the orangutan as best and realistically as possible, but I couldn’t help thinking about all the information I learned about these fascinating creatures during my research.

The population of the three remaining orangutan species is rapidly declining, and according to conservationist Robert Marc Lehmann, they could be extinct within the next 10 to 15 years. The primary reason is the destruction of their habitat by humans. During slash-and-burn agriculture, many orangutans fall victim to the flames, although some mother orangutans manage to save their young at the cost of their own lives. However, these young are then left completely on their own and face significant disadvantages in surviving without the mother’s teaching.

A few hobby artists will not solve these problems overnight, but we can adjust our consumption habits and avoid products that destroy the orangutan’s habitat. Palm oil, for example, is such a product.

Additionally, you can support conservationists on the ground with donations, enabling orangutans with various hardships (captivity, hunting, illegal trade, etc.) to return to the wild. Here is one such organizations:

• International Animal Rescue

It should also be mentioned that many zoos claim to do something for the conservation of many species. However, zoos are among those who imprison numerous animals in tiny enclosures, cages, or concrete rooms. Only freedom is truly appropriate for the species.