Cute Chibi Animals: Learn How to Draw 75 Cuddly Creatures

by Phoebe Im

In  Cute Chibi Animals , popular Instagram artist Phoebe Im (@bobblejot) teaches you the art of chibi, step by adorable step.

Learn how to master this popular anime and manga drawing style with this book that focuses on drawing 75 animals , including an anteater, chinchilla, manatee, dolphin, sloth, axolotl, pangolin, owl, narwhal, and much more. Chibi is Japanese slang for “short,” and the characters in Cute Chibi Animals live up to this description with their cute roly-poly bodies that make them extremely lovable and huggable. Learn how to draw adorable:
 
Along with the step-by-step tutorials , Phoebe shares her tips and tricks for drawing the animals with either pen and pencil or digitally; coloring, shading, and highlighting your characters; and giving them accessories for added cuteness. There are also coloring pages in the back of the book for some extra fun.
 
So, get out your drawing supplies and start creating your animal kingdom!

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Reference

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2021

Reviews

[Natalie all_books_great_and_small · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Learn to draw cute chibi animals is a really cute step by step guide to draw your own chibi animals. The book starts off explaining what chibi animals tend to look like - big heads and eyes with smaller body. The book gives simple, easy to follow step by step instructions and illustrations on how to draw a variety of animals in chibi form.
If your not great at art (like me) the shape formats used are brilliant to use and follow - drawing rounded shapes and rubbing out lines as you go along, but more confident and skillful drawers will probably manage to do these animal drawings without these shapes.
This is a great book for both children and adults to use.

[Jeanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to be clever with your grandchildren as such as my case, learn how to draw. I loved this book and the details with every step of drawing Chibi animals. I am going to purchase the hardback to have as a reference so I will always "on" when any of my 3 granddaughters ask "Gigi can you draw with me."

A special thank you to Quatro Publishing and Netgalley for making me a hero in my granddaughters's eyes with an ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

[Neha Thakkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute! Easy to follow and fun to draw, I can see my students loving trying out and drawing these animals. I’d love to pair it with databases research lessons,using these drawings as their illustrations and then adding facts to their illustration to show their learning. #CuteChibiAnimals #NetGalley

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy from Quarto Publishing Group – Rock Point through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been a following Phoebe on Instagram for a while now, so I decided to check out her book and see what she had to say about drawing chibi animals. The opening is a small introduction to Pheobe and what chibi artwork is before diving in. I really liked her tips and tricks section. I like to draw and got into drawing digitally last year. While I’m not the best at drawing, I think it’s fun and relaxing. Her tips and tricks section did give me a great tip about inking lines. Using lines of varying thickness when drawing really does make a difference. It’s help bring my digital drawings more to life now that they’re not aesthetically flat thanks to my line work.

While the section on coloring is very small, I do think her advice on coloring in your work is simple but great for anyone new to drawing. It’s not complex and those extremely new to drawing and using this book to get them started may not find it that helpful, there’s enough information to make people less afraid about just diving in and coloring their drawings in.

Majority of the book is a step-by-step guide on how to draw many adorable chibi animals. They are separated by the type of animal, such as birds, sea life, and so on, so it’s easy to navigate when not using the table of contents to find a particular animal. I think it’s a great book to give people new to drawing, or anyone looking to enhance their skills a bit, some information on how to sketch out and create guides for shapes when drawing.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute Chibi Animals is a drawing tutorial book to help readers convert real animals into those that can be found in kawaii.

The book starts off with some additional information such as what is kawaii and chibi, especially in relation to actual animals. It then provides readers with information on mixing up line breadth to avoid flat presentations, how to shade and remove guide lines as well as explaining how to portray shadows just to name a few extra stating tips.

The book then divided animals into one of four categories: land mammals, aquatic & semiaquatic animals, birds and amphibians, fish, reptiles & more. These are loose groupings with moose being considerd semiaquatic while a lot of aquatics appear in the last category.

Otherwise animals are presented in alphabetical order with some having just a page of instructions and others a spread. No matter the size entry, readers are given step-by-step and detailed instructions while the little chibi animals is at the bottom. And all the end results are mostly adorable although the placing of the moose's eye did bug me in its placement.

There are several additional facts scattered throughout the book but they are random and appear without pattern. And since they aren't provided with a means of sticking out too much from the rest of the text so they kind of get lost help unless you are looking for them? But who can keep that focus when they are washed over by this large amount of cuteness?

All in all the book is a great starting instructions book to chibi and can be quite enjoyed alone for its large amount of finished characters.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute book that shows you how to draw 75 cute chibi animals that are divided into groups like land animals, sea creatures and miscellaneous. She explains at the start that chibi animals are made to have large heads and small bodies with big eyes, and gives a basic pointer of drawing any of them by making rounded shapes.

The animals are shown with that common style of drawing lots of shapes over each other and then erasing some of the lines. I really prefer drawing things more free form and these aren't difficult shapes to emulate if you wanted to draw them all at once instead of do a flat triangle and then two circles here and so on. I still prefer the "Draw xx and Make It Cute" series although those are not necessarily chibi. I wouldn't have known what many of these animals were supposed to be if they weren't labeled or if there wasn't one telltale thing like giraffe print on the giraffe (no long neck because it's chibi). A lot of the wild animals just looked like hamsters to me, even a couple of the sea animals. They're all very cute though and it's a book that adults and kids can all use.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I’m usually not interested in the typical step-by-step drawing books, you know, the ones that start with a circle, I really wanted to check this one out. The reason is, I follow Phoebe Im’s comic Bobblejot on Instagram and I really like the way Phoebe draws chibi characters, they are extra cute and soft.

First sections of the book cover the basics of what is a chibi, tools, tips and tricks for drawing, inking and coloring. It’s very basic, but you don’t really need much to start drawing these simplified creatures. Just have fun and enjoy the cuteness!.

This book has a whooping seventy-five animals to choose from, organized into 4 categories:

1. Land mammals
2. Aquatic and semiaquatic mammals
3. Birds
4. Amphibians, fish, reptiles and more

Each tutorial has at least 8 steps, but some animals require more than that, the horse being the longest one with 16 steps.

These chibi designs would look great in bullet journals, ready to cheer up your week. I can also imagine handmade greeting cards with one of these cuddly fellas spreading love. I drew some of them digitally at it was a lot of fun!

[╟ ♫ Tima ♪ ╣ ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keeping this one short and to the point: I would say this is for folks who have, at least, a basic level of drawing experience already. I'm no artist and I was able to make recreate a few incredibly cute chibi animals that had my toddler squeeing in delight. Many were a bit too complicated for my untalented hands, haha.

When held up next to other how-to-draw books though, I would say it just blends in. There is nothing inherently bad or wrong but it is not much different than any other chibi drawing book I see on the bookshelves. I didn't experience anything that set it apart from the rest. I will admit, I had no idea that this was a book stemming from a popular Instagram artist (oops) and I will say that this book would certainly appeal the highest to existing fans.

3.75/5
Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review

[Thought Bottle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute step by step guide to drawing chibi-style animals.

I’m not going to lie, I tried a few of these and they’re a lot harder than they look.

Just personally, how the tutorial says to draw each animal isn’t the way I would go about it. I think it’s much easier to look at the final product and sketch looking at that than it is to follow the instructions, which always came out looking considerably wonkier for me. For that reason I took a star off because that was a fairly frustrating exercise.

But otherwise, the general tips in the beginning are good and useful, there’s a list of every chibi animal in the book right in the table of contents so you don’t have to go hunting, the collection of animals is huge and they’re all painfully adorable.

If you’re looking for a great reference book for some quick-practice simplified animals, this is a great option.

[Jennifer ☕ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been practicing drawing things I haven't drawn before and this book stood out to me. It is adorable and I felt it was worth a try.
The drawings are not as easy as they appear though. Those gradual lines really matter a lot! I mastered the tiny little horse though, and he's my favorite!
I would give this a try if you like drawing cute animals, or you want to try for the first time.
It didn't cooperate well with my tablet, but overall it was worth borrowing!
Thank you NetGalley, Phoebe Im and Quarto Publishing Group for allowing me to read it for free.
All opinions are completely my own.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Cute Chibi Animals is a tutorial drawing guide for cute chibi animals by Phoebe Im. Due out 26th Jan 2021 from Quarto on their Rock Point imprint, it's 128 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This guide has an all-ages accessible format. A short introduction is followed by tools and supplies, very basic techniques, tips and tricks, suggestions for how to use the book, and then the individual drawing tutorials. The tutorials are arranged thematically: land mammals, aquatic & semi-aquatic mammals, birds, and amphibians fish reptiles & more. The tutorials are divided into panels on each page (4, 6, 9, etc) with each box showing the steps culminating in a finished colored animal. The animals are simple and stylistically cartoonish (see the cover) and all are appealing and whimsical. The steps shown in the tutorials are easy to follow and give good results. All of them are beginner accessible and suitable for all ages.

Great selection for a gift for a young artist, perhaps with some added sketch pads and pencils. This would also make a superlative classroom or library book.I would also recommend this book to babysitters, grandparents, parents, and basically anyone who spends a fair bit of time with small kids in order to improve their 'draw with me' game. I really enjoyed this. I will use these to decorate journals and notes for friends.

Five stars. Fun collection.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Westveil Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was granted complimentary access to an eARC of Cute Chibi Animals by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this looked familiar just from the cover art, and then I read the intro and this is Bobblejot! I've known about Bobblejot's work for a while now. For those who follow the big social media and YouTube artists but aren't familiar with Bobblejot, I would compare her style to appleminte when she chooses to draw animals instead of anime girls.

I love how this book goes over the tips needed to finish off a piece first such as varying line weight, colouring techniques and accessorizing the character, before jumping into the tutorials. Each tutorial is very clear and easy to follow. At no point did I feel any of the step by step drawings fell into the "and then add details" trap. The finished image is simply the last step but coloured, and colouring techniques were already covered.

My only critique is that the chibi ferret comes out looking like a raccoon, but that's mostly the colouring choices made and anyone following the tutorial is free to colour it differently.

5 stars, great resource!

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Rock Point for the digital galley of this book.

I mentioned in my last post that I’m hoping to take the last part of this year to get into doodling and drawing a little bit. OMG. The cute in this book is too much! I never thought I could draw anything, let alone anything so cute, but the easy to follow instructions (most only about a page) really make it achievable.

Though I’ve only read this book so far, in two weeks, I’ll have some time at home to really try it out. I’m a super visual learner, though. I like to take things one step at a time while also understanding the whole picture, so being able to read this book before trying the actual drawing helped my brain get used to the idea. Now, we’ll just have to see if my hands cooperate when the time comes.

If you’re looking to add some cute to your illustration skills, or even just build them up from the bottom, these drawings are totally doable and will look just like the cute webtoons all over Instagram. It’s out in January, perfect timing to stay in while it’s cold out and learn to draw some new things.

[Juju Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Cute Chibi Animals" is a step by step guide on how to draw chibi animals. Chibi being the kawaii form of Japanese drawing. The author, Phoebe Im, does a fantastic job of introducing the concept in the beginning of the book. Im goes on to provide tips on how to go about drawing the cute animals; what supplies to use and how best to colour them. Overall, the drawings are adorable and the instructions are very thorough. I am not a great drawer by any means and I found her step-by-step guide to be very beginner friendly and easy to follow. I've since drawn some of the cutest little doodles of animals. Im also included fun facts about the animals throughout the book that I found to be informative and fun. It added an additional educational element to the overall book.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who's a beginner in drawing or anyone who has an interest in the chibi art form.


"Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Rock Point for providing me with an e-arc of 'Cute Chibi Animals' by Phoebe Im."

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free netgalley arc for review. :-) What a super adorable book! I read through it quickly enough but got distracted following several of the tutorials and looking up the author’s web comic which features a corgi (because I have a corgi currently and three others in the past, so naturally anything corgi based is love.).

I think if you are a beginner or interested in kawaii art this is a great book to browse through. Each animal is simplified cuteness. This isn’t an in depth art tutorial book, it’s pretty much a “draw these circles, connect them together, erase extra lines and add details” type of thing. Some animals stretch to two pages and these ones have a fun animal fact. (I almost wish there had been animal facts for each creature!)

What you might need to color: pen, pencil, maybe some markers. If you’re making computer art, an inexpensive drawing tablet is handy but not required.

[EyrisReadsTheWorld · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazingly cute drawing book

Key words: drawing, learn, how-to, Chibi, animals

THE CUTEST! I absolutely loved this drawing book. At first, I didn’t realise it was made by the Instagram artist @bobblejot but then I look through the book and I was like “wow, this looks like so much like her style” so I check it out and I was so happy, I immediately started drawing.

I haven’t finished drawings the 75 animals yet but I have finished drawing all the land ones and there is not one I do not like. There are all so cute and the steps are very easy. Each tutorial is well explained and there are even some tips and interesting facts sometimes. I definitely recommend this book and since I need it in my life, I’ll try to get my hands on it.

5/5

Thank you Netgalley for this eArc in exchange of my honest opinion

[Hazel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has made it a point to learn how to draw chibi's (thanks Animal Crossing community!) this book came to me at just the right time!

I'm super horrible at drawing, but this book gives me SOME hope. It breaks down the easiest way to draw cute fluffy animals. There are also tips on how to color/shade/find a color palette for some animals. I'm still in the process of learning how to USE Procreate (and it seems using anything other than an Apple Pen isn't going to be helpful -- if someone has experience with this please let me know).

The tips in the beginning of the book help to break down how to use these guides. How to use whichever tools you're choosing to use be it digital or physical and a step by step process on how to add more to your illustrations.

Over all this book is great for people like me who don't know what the heck they're doing.

[Emma (littledollreads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC provided by NetGalley

This was fun. I was in the mood for something different during this holiday season and this year of endless reading, so I thought why not pick up a book on drawing. I like drawing, always have, I've never been great at it but it is a fun thing to do. This book was great for the purposes I sought out within it. I wanted to draw some cute animals and it gave me a bunch of options. The instructions were also quite good, I drew a few things and my sister drew a few things and both of our sets of animals came out looking quite nice. This is definitely a book I would get to keep around my art stuff to fill some spare time by working on a new animal or two while trying to figure out another bigger project. It also doesn't hurt to just pick this one up to look at all the adorable animals within it.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always wanted to be able to draw cute animals and this book has really helped me get a feel on how to do so. The instructions are clear. There are tips on how to make the drawings look better, like by varying line thickness. The author tells you how to color in the characters both when sketching and when creating them digitally.
There are even fun facts throughout the book about some of the animals.

All together, I find this to be a useful and informative book while also being fun. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that wants to learn how to draw cute chibi animals. I have already drawn some of the animals a couple of times and hope to draw all of them eventually. I see improvement in both my drawing and in my shading techniques after going through this book.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In all honesty, I am terrible at drawing. I can do some lettering and a passable doodle of my dog on my own. Cute Chibi Animals gives me hope. After attempting a few of the super-adorable animals, I see a lot of improvement in my work. Phoebe Im provides clear, easy to follow steps for drawing and shading, and even color suggestions for the animals. I am completely in love with her little creatures, and I would definitely recommend this, or any other, of her drawing instruction books to anyone looking to develop their skills.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Rock Point in return for my honest review.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

**I received and voluntarily read an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

I'm the farthest thing from an artist that there is, so any time a book that teaches you to draw things pop ups, I immediately grab a copy.

While this book isn't going to turn you into the most fantastic artist ever, it's a cute way to pass the time. It's also a fun thing to do with those around you. By the time I was done reading it, my drawings were nice, even though they weren't the best thing in the world.

Overall, it's a cute book. It's not earth shattering, but it's a nice addition to a collection of art books.

[Flora · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book for those who want to learn how to draw round and cute, cute, cute animals in cartoon style! Great for a child or even for an adult who likes to draw adorable creatures in their bullet journals or diaries for instance.

The step-by-step instructions are easy to follow, and each character gets one or two pages with nine steps to complete.The final figure is in color. I like that each step is accompanied by a short and helpful text so you know what and how you are to add on next.

Overall, a fun and appealing drawing book.

[Jenny Houle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore chibi style animals, so this book was perfect for me. Each step is fairly well laid out, and the shapes are loosely defined in ways that most people can follow along without getting too caught up in trying to get it “just right” (for example, in the hedgehog instructions the head and body tell you to “draw a large jelly-bean shape”, which gives you as the reader/artist a bit of leeway in interpretation based on how you most want your hedgehog to look/what kind of jelly bean you want to use as a model).

[Colette Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes the reader through a step by step instructions on how to draw cute and cuddly animals. As a teacher, I am always looking for ways to help children who get stressed or anxious. Art therapy is one of the solutions that I find always works. Many of my students enjoy Anime and creating cartoon characters. This book provides 75 different how-to instructions that will help students focus, reduce anxiety and have fun.

[Lydia Timpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I nearly died with the cuteness.
Seriously I have read so many Kawaii and chibi and anime and manga how to draw books but have never actually squealed with how adorable some drawing is before.
The Giraffe is possibly the most adorable chibi I on the planet and I think I would happily die for the deer chibi in this book.
The steps are very clear and easy to follow, and even my fat fingers managed to recreate the sheer adorable ness of the animals to a very satisfactory standard.
I really appreciated the face that some of the more ‘difficult’ animals to draw was broken down into even more steps and given a two page spread rather than crammed into one page which made it so much easier to follow.
There was also a final coloured option showing you what colours work best and how to shade it so you get the best final product. I adored this book and would recommend it to anyone. I shall be looking for more books by this author as she has a great feel for her audience.

[Witch-at-Heart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book ut is absolutely so cute, this book would make the perfect gift fir anyone wanting to explore Chibi artwork or who enjoys doodling draw the animals are adorable and the instructions are easy-to-use.

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent basic drawing text for those who wish to draw cute chibi animals. Seventy- five animals are included with detailed step by step instructions for practice.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for beginners or someone with more experience, or just learning how to take their drawings and make them more chibi or Kawaii.

[Melissa Overby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely adorable. I'm mostly a colorist, but this helped me with my drawing style. Highly recommend for fans of cuteness.