How to Draw Tails

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Let's draw Tails, the best friend of Sonic the Hedgehog, in this drawing lesson.

Believe it or not, but he is a fox with two tails and he can rotate them to fly like a helicopter. Now that's a neat skill, isn't it?

In the first part of this lesson we draw a very basic outline of Tails's body.
Then we'll work over it again to add all the pretty details.

Let's get started.

How to Draw Tails - 1. Head and Torso Outline

Draw a big circle for Tails's head on your paper, including two middle axes.
These axes will help us to draw in the face later.
Under the circle there should still be enough space for two more circles of the same size, because that's roughly how large Tails is going to be.

Add Tails's torso below the head. Let it become slightly broader towards the bottom. The red lines compare the torso's size to the head. You can see that the torso is a bit longer than half a circle.

How to Draw Tails - 2. Arms and Legs

Attach the arms to the torso's side. From shoulder to elbow they are slightly shorter than the torso's length. Make the lower arms very short, and let them disappear into gauntlets.

Then draw simple round shapes for Tails's hands.
You can draw the lifted hand as a simple, small circle, and the lowered hand as a rounded shape that touches the torso at one side.
We attach the individual fingers to these shapes later.


Make Tails's legs just as long as his upper arms.
Draw them slightly spread.

How to Draw Tails - 3. Shoes and Tails

In these three steps we start drawing the shoes.
Start with a narrow ellipse around the end of the legs. At the back, the line should disappear behind them.

Then draw two curved lines on each side that are very close to the ellipse at the back but farer away from it at the front.

And finally, draw one curved line along the bottom of these shapes to close them.

Add the shapes for the actual shoes now.
Make them a bit broader at the beginning and then let them become gradually narrower towards the toes.
Their length should be a bit larger than the circle's diameter.
Note that the line along the bottom is not just one curve, because there is a change in direction at the heel to let it stand out.

Sketch in what gives Tails his name: two large tails standing up beside his body.
Their beginning is just behind the legs, but they are slightly broader than the legs there. Then they become thicker very quickly. Split them at the top into three separate strands of fur.

All body parts are sketched in now and we can start with the work of detailing.
That our character doesn't look like some weird, bubble headed android, we are going to complete the face first.

How to Draw Tails - 4. Head Details

Begin with a curved line through the circle's lower half.
The bulge in the middle is for the snout. At the sides the line curves upwards again for the beginning of the whiskers. Let it reach a bit out of the circle at the sides.

Then add the whiskers as four slightly curved spikes on each side.
At the bottom the last whisker touches the circle just above the shoulders. (The red color is just for better visibility.)


To clear up a part of the line jungle we have here, you can already erase all lines that are inside of the snout and the whiskers. I did this only in a later step, unfortunately.
Then it's time to draw in the eyes. You can use the axes as guidelines to draw them symmetrically. The subtleties in their shapes are important here.
Note how they are narrow at the bottom and then become slightly broader towards the middle, and then narrow at the top again. Can you also see that they are leaning slightly towards the middle?
Take your time to draw them carefully.

Afterwards you can attach the ears to the head. Make them about as long as the eyes and also fairly broad. Let the lower line reach a bit into the circle. This is important for the next step.


Now it's erasing time. Erase all the axes and also the entire circle, except the small part between the ears and the part between the whiskers at the bottom.
Then redraw the sides of Tails's head with a short, curved line going down from the ears. This makes the head a bit narrower, because the lower end of the ears reached a bit into the circle.

Outline the inner ears with triangular shapes, and add two large ovals into the eyes for irises.

Add two small triangles at the bottom of the inner ears, and two smaller ovals into the irises.

Then place the nose as a tiny triangle into the snout and draw a smiling mouth below it. Add two tiny, tiny lines that go down from the corners of the mouth.

To complete Tails's head, draw in three strands of hair standing up from his forehead.

Splendid. Now we can move on to finish the hands.

How to Draw Tails - 5. Hand Details

First, we attach single fingers to the circle of the lifted hand.


Begin with the thumb. Let it grow out of the circle's side and make it pretty short and thick. At its left side, the thumb's line reaches into the circle and makes a small bulge there. This is an outline of the muscle that's moving the thumb.

Then add the pointy finger and the middle finger. Keep them simple and straight. Naturally, the middle finger should be a bit longer than the pointy finger.

Add the last two fingers, afterwards. Draw their upper segment being bent down.


Erase the circle' lines inside the hand and draw a fold into the gauntlet around the wrist.


The other hand is much easier to finish, because there are only two fingers partially visible.
You can draw them in three steps, as shown above.

How to Draw Tails - 6. Fur Details

Now we draw Tails's chest fur.
Begin with two thin, long spikes at the top that reach a bit over the head's bottom line.

Then add two shorter spikes below them.

Connect both sides with a smooth U-shape across the belly, and erase the lines inside of the spikes.

The top of Tails's tails is white.
Separate the tops with zigzag lines from the lower tail parts for that reason.
If you haven't done so already, now is the time to erase the lines of the tails inside of legs, arms, and whiskers.

How to Draw Tails - 7. Shoe Details

These are the last small details:


Draw a sole along the bottom of the shoes.


Then draw a curved line across the shoes. Place it almost into the middle, but a bit closer towards the heel than to the front.

And that's it.
Tails is complete.
Let me congratulate you, because he was actually not all that easy to draw.
You can now ink and color your drawing, if you like.