How to Draw Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro (Step-By-Step)

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Do you wanna learn “how to draw Catbus Totoro” at your own pace? Don’t worry too much as a beginner; these few steps only require your ability to draw a straight line, partial arc, and basic shapes.

Have you ever seen a cat that looks like a bus???

Well, Catbus from Totoro is a bus-sized caterpillar that has been given life as an enormous vehicle with unbelievable giant toothy caterpillar legs.

Catbus features multiple scenes within the film and helps transport Totoro and his friends from place to place.

Now you must be wondering if it is possible to draw Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro.

I can tell you that you have quite a challenge ahead of you with this one. But if you follow these steps and apply your creativity, you have a chance for success!

In the anime film “My Neighbor Totoro,” a small village in Japan is inhabited by humans and various otherworldly creatures, including tengus, toy cats, and spirits.

Outline Catbus Body

Contents

For you to learn “how to draw Catbus Totoro”, certain things must be put in place; for example, you must have a good image of the Catbus at hand, which can be obtained from the internet or books that serve as a reference while drawing.

The second important aspect of drawing a Catbus is sketching out all the basic shapes that made Catbus is made up of; this will help you fix the body parts and other features of the body in no time.

You can draw a circle for the head and add the lines (two horizontally curved lines and a vertically curved) for the facial feature; after the shape of the head, draw the bent lines that make up the body that is attached to the circle of the head.

Connected to the body’s shape are the Catbus’s legs; quickly see the next step to draw the legs.

Outline Catbus Legs

Catbus’s legs are twelve in number, and they help the Catbus in locomotion.

For the legs, draw circles and lines to outline his legs.

Draw Catbus Ears

The next step here is to draw the Catbus’s ears at the upper of the circle of the head.

Draw two vertically slant lines coming together to form an upward edge, just like the upper part of a triangular shape. These shapes of the ears should be at the sides of the head’s circle so that the head’s vertically curved line evenly separates the ear.

That is all for the ears, but at this stage, you need to sketch out the shape of the head so that Catbus’s head looks more realistic; add curves at the sides of the circle of the head. You can draw the ends of these curves in a zigzag to add more details to the head.

Draw Catbus Eyes

For the next step here, I will walk you through the fastest way of drawing Catbus’s incredible eyes; are you ready? Let’s go.

Draw a circle at the right side of the head and a concave curve at the top joining with a convex curve below, forming another circle with side edges so that these circles of the eyes are aligned to the horizontally curved line of the head (that serves as the basis of the eyes).

To have a perfect look of the Catbus, you need to add the eyebrows, which are attached to the shape of the ears and, add more lines to the ear, draw a curved line at the upper part of the eyes so that it’s attached to the end of the shape of the ear and add details to make the ears.

Finish up the eyes by adding a vertical line inside the circle of the eyes and another little curved line above the eyes to make the eyebrows more realistic.

Draw Catbus Mouth and Nose

Let’s complete the facial features by drawing the mouth and the shape of the nose.

Draw the nose first so that you will not have a tough time trying to fix the mouth. Draw a concave curve under the horizontally curved line of the eyes and add a curved line to the concave curve so that the vertically curved line of the head is used to align the shape of the nose.

For the mouth, draw a convex curve at the lower part of the horizontally curved line you drew for the basis of the mouth.

Complete the mouth by adding vertically curved lines inside the shape of the mouth so that it serves as the Catbus’s teeth.

Draw Catbus Legs

We are almost there!! Draw Catbus legs using the circle you drew for the basis of the legs.

Start by drawing curves at the upper and lower part of the second circle of the leg so that it serves as the arms of the left hand, join the ends of the circles together to form the shape of the left hand, and add sharp edges in front of the hands which will be serving as the finger of the left arm, add little circles inside the shape of the hands so that it makes the left hand more pragmatic.

Draw a curve from the right side of the circle of the head towards the first circle under the head so that it serves as the upper arm of the right hand, manipulate the first circle you drew for the leg into Catbus’s right hand and add the three sharp edges under it, so it serves as the right-hand fingers.

That’s not all, and there is more! We need to complete the legs before moving to the next steps; add curves at the sides of the third circle, which will be for the first leg; now extend the lines down and join them with a wavy line, so it forms the feet.

You can now add the three sharp edges of the fingers to the feet.

Draw other legs by following the approaches you used for the first leg so you can have a realistic drawing, and do not forget to add the three sharp edges of the nails under the feet of the legs.

Draw Catbus Body

Catbus’s body is one of the technical parts that must be paid good attention to; therefore, at this stage, so let’s stay focused.

To learn how to draw the Catbus Totoro overall body, you’ll have to make a curved line from the right ear passing through the first edge you drew for the basis of the body, and use a zigzag line towards the second edge of the body so that it is horizontally pointing towards the left side of the body.

Draw another little curved line from the side of the circle so it joined to the end of the long-curved line to form the last visible leg and add the three sharp edges of the fingers to the leg. You can quickly draw the remaining leg by sketching it out from the shape under the second circle of the legs into the leg’s natural shape and adding the sharp edges of the fingers to the leg.

Add Details to the Catbus Totoro drawing

Now that we have a good picture of Catbus’s body on our paper, it is necessary to add details to the body, making it look more presentable and realistic.

As earlier said, the Catbus’s body is structured like that of the vehicle and for this reason, let’s add the window-like pattern to the front and side of the body.

For the window frame of the front windows, make two different bent curved lines at the front part of the body, which is above the circle of the head; let each bent, curved line be attached to the side of the ear while minding the shape of the ear.

For the window-like front part, add two rectangular shapes to the right window frame and four rectangular shapes to the left window frame while you maintain little space between these window-like shapes irrespective of the size of the rectangular shape.

For the window frame of the side of the body, make a curved line from the window frame attached to the left ear so that this curved line ends close to the third edge of the body, which is on the left side. For the window-like side, draw a rectangular shape inside the frame so that it’s curvedly arranged in a realistic pattern.

In order to learn how to draw a Catbus Totoro tail, you’ll have to add a curve at the back side of the Catbus and draw another curve in the form of the circle inside the first curve so that it gives life to the Catbus’s tail.

For Catbus’s whisker, draw slant lines at the sides of the circle of the head; these slant lines should not be more than three in numbers, so it doesn’t look weird, and you can also make the second line horizontal, so it makes the whisker of the head attractive.

Do I still have your attention? Draw a concave curve at the upper part of the front window frame and join the ends of the concave curve with a horizontal line, so it looks like the upper part of an umbrella.

Add curved lines to the side rectangular shape while minding the window-like shape. Make wavy lines from the left side of the head (connected to the whisker) so it is pointing to the back side of the body; leave space between these wavy lines so that the first and second slant line of the whisker seems to be in the middle of the wavy lines.

Add little vertical lines at the head’s top (inside) circle and add more details to the arms and the legs using curved lines to achieve this.

Use thick lines for the border of the outlines and other body features so that attention is more focused on the important parts of the body. Ensure you erase all excess lines and dots used to construct the body.

Add color to the Catbus Totoro drawing

Finally, you need to add beauty to your drawing.

Firstly, shade the necessary parts of the body; shade the nose. You will have to add shading to the circles on the left hand and at the window frame of the front and the side so well that you mind the rectangular shape of the front part and the curved lines at the side.

Add shadows and exposures to the body’s important part, giving the drawing a 3D appearance. Use your favorite color for this drawing and see the magic behind the use of color.

Conclusion

Finally, you have completed learning how to draw Catbus Totoro. This drawing is not just a regular drawing but an attractive drawing of the cartoon character, Catbus.

Good Job!!! See, it wasn’t that hard to learn how to draw Catbus Totoro.

As a beginner, there is no barrier if you want to draw Catbus on your drawing paper; follow these few steps listed above, and you will be perplexed by the result of your dedication.

These steps will also teach you fast ways and approaches to drawing Catbus by improving your drawing skills which professional artists can also try out.

What are you still waiting for? Now it’s your turn, have fun.

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How To Draw Catbus From My Neighbor Totoro