You’re staring at a blank piece of paper. It’s intimidating. You want to create something, but every time you try to sketch a person, it ends up looking like a pile of sentient spaghetti. Most people give up here. They think they lack "talent." Honestly, talent is mostly just knowing which shortcuts to take when you’re starting out. If you're looking for the easiest cartoon to draw, you need to stop thinking about anatomy and start thinking about circles.
Most beginners make the mistake of trying to draw Mickey Mouse or a detailed superhero right away. That's a trap. Mickey is actually incredibly hard because his proportions are dictated by very specific geometric rules developed by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney’s early team; if his ears are off by a millimeter, he looks "wrong."
Instead, look at the stuff that was designed to be simple. We’re talking about characters born from the "rubber hose" era or modern minimalist icons.
Why the Easiest Cartoon to Draw is Usually a Circle with Issues
Let’s talk about Kirby.
Kirby is basically a pink ball. Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the Kirby series, originally used the character as a placeholder during the development of Twin Stars for the Game Boy. He was supposed to be replaced by a "real" character later. But the team realized that a simple circle was incredibly expressive and, more importantly, easy for the hardware to render.
It’s also the easiest thing for you to draw.
If you can draw a circle—even a wobbly one—you can draw Kirby. You add two oval eyes, two small blush marks, and two nubby arms. Done. The genius of Kirby is that he doesn't have a neck, waist, or knees. Those are the three things that ruin most drawings for beginners. When you remove the need for joints, you remove 90% of the difficulty.
The Power of the "Bean" Shape
If a circle feels too boring, move to the bean.
The "Among Us" crewmate is probably the modern king of the easiest cartoon to draw category. It’s a rounded rectangle (the bean) with a backpack and a visor. There are no fingers. There are no facial expressions. You’re literally drawing a pill with a window.
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Why does this work? Because humans are hardwired to find "squishy" things cute. The "Among Us" character follows the principles of kawaii design—large heads (or bodies that serve as heads) and simplified features. You aren't worrying about the bridge of a nose or the arc of a brow. You're just worrying about the curve of the helmet.
The Secret History of Simplicity in Animation
Ever wonder why early cartoons wore gloves?
It wasn't a fashion statement. In the black-and-white era, animators struggled to make hands visible against dark bodies. They added white gloves to create contrast. They also simplified the hands to four fingers instead of five because it saved hours of work.
If you want to find the easiest cartoon to draw, look at characters from the 1930s or modern shows like Adventure Time. Finn the Human is basically a thumb with a face. His limbs are "rubber hoses," meaning they have no elbows or knees. They just bend like noodles.
Why Adventure Time Changed Everything
When Pendleton Ward created Adventure Time, he leaned into a style that looked like a high schooler’s doodle. But it’s a perfect doodle.
Look at Jake the Dog.
He’s an oval.
His eyes are two big circles with black dots.
His muzzle is another oval.
The beauty here is that if you mess up the line, it just looks like Jake is "stretching," which is his actual superpower. It’s a fail-safe drawing. If you’re a perfectionist, Jake is your best friend because there is no such thing as a "wrong" line when a character is shape-shifter.
Breaking Down the "Popsicle Stick" Method
If you're still struggling, try drawing Plank from Ed, Edd n Eddy.
I’m being serious.
Plank is a board of wood. He’s a rectangle with two circles for eyes and a squiggle for a mouth. While it might seem like a joke, drawing Plank teaches you about perspective and "wood grain" textures without the pressure of drawing a living being.
Once you master Plank, you move to Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants.
Patrick is essentially a cone.
He’s a triangle with rounded corners.
His "outfit" is just a line across his bottom for shorts.
Stephen Hillenburg, who was a marine biologist before he was a cartoonist, designed these characters to be recognizable by their silhouette alone. That’s a key rule in professional character design. If you can fill the character in with solid black and still tell who it is, the design is successful. For a beginner, a strong silhouette usually means the character is the easiest cartoon to draw because the internal details are secondary to the basic shape.
Common Pitfalls: Stop Drawing Hair
Hair is the enemy.
Hair requires an understanding of volume, "clumping," and gravity. This is why characters like Homer Simpson or Snoopy are so much easier for beginners.
Snoopy is a series of interconnected sausages.
His nose is an oval.
His head is a larger oval.
His ear is a floppy sock.
Charles Schulz spent decades refining Snoopy. Early 1950s Snoopy actually looked more like a real dog and was much harder to draw. By the 1960s and 70s, Schulz had distilled him into the simplest possible form. If you're struggling, stop trying to draw "cool" anime hair. Draw a bald character. Draw a Minion. A Minion is just a yellow Tic Tac with goggles.
The "Squint Test"
Professional artists use the "squint test."
Squint your eyes until the world gets blurry. Look at your reference image. What are the biggest shapes you see? If you’re looking at Pikachu, you’ll see a yellow bell shape and two long ears.
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Don't draw the eyes first.
Don't draw the lightning bolt tail first.
Draw the yellow bell.
If the bell shape looks right, everything else will fall into place. If the bell shape is lopsided, no amount of perfectly drawn "anime eyes" will save the drawing. This is why the easiest cartoon to draw is always the one with the simplest foundation.
Actionable Steps for Your First Drawing
Don't just read this. Grab a pen.
- Start with the "Among Us" Crewmate. It is objectively the most forgiving shape in modern pop culture. Draw a "U" shape upside down, flat at the bottom. Put a rectangle on the back. Put an oval in the middle.
- Move to Kirby. Focus on making the circle as round as possible. Use your whole arm to draw the circle, not just your wrist. It sounds weird, but your shoulder is a better pivot point for big curves.
- Try the Rubber Hose Limb. Draw a character like Finn from Adventure Time. Practice drawing his arms as simple, flowing lines. No muscles. No bone structure. Just "flow."
- The Silhouette Check. Once you’re done, take a dark marker and fill in your drawing completely. Does it still look like the character? If yes, you’ve mastered the form. If no, your base shape was probably a bit off.
Drawing is a physical skill, like shooting a basketball. You’re building muscle memory. The reason these are the "easiest" isn't just because they have fewer lines—it's because the lines they do have are more intuitive to the human hand. We are naturally better at drawing curves than perfect, sharp 90-degree angles. Use that to your advantage.
Forget about being "good." Just be "done." The more 30-second Kirbys you draw, the faster your hand learns how to control the pen. Eventually, the "easy" stuff becomes second nature, and you'll find yourself accidentally drawing things that actually look like what they're supposed to be.
Next Steps for Mastering Your Art
- Switch your tools: If you’ve been using a standard pencil, try a thick felt-tip marker. Markers force you to be confident with your lines because you can’t erase them.
- Study "The Illusion of Life": This is the "bible" of Disney animation. Even if you just look at the pictures, you’ll start to see how professional animators break complex characters down into the same circles and beans you just practiced.
- Limit your palette: When you start coloring, stick to three colors. Kirby is pink, red, and blue. Simple. Don't worry about shading or highlights yet; flat colors are your friend while you're learning the basics of form.