Alright, so today I figured I’d try my hand at drawing Peter Griffin from Family Guy, but just his side profile, you know? Saw some folks asking how to do it simple, so thought I’d document my own attempt. Spoiler: it wasn’t perfect first try!
First things first, I grabbed my sketchbook, a basic HB pencil, and my eraser – figured I wouldn’t need anything fancy. Tried looking at pictures of Peter on my phone, man, that chin is something else. Huge. And his head is kinda like a giant egg on its side. Started super rough, just making shapes. Drew a big oval tilted slightly forward for his noggin. Easy enough so far.
Now, the tricky part: that jaw and neck. His chin sticks out way more than the back of his head, almost in a straight line downwards then juts back in under his ear for his neck. Sketching that, it looked super weird at first, like I’d drawn a crooked shelf hanging off his face. Had to erase it like three times before the angles felt sorta right, or at least less wrong. Kept reminding myself: forehead curves back, chin juts waaaay out, neck scoops back under the ear.
Next up was his body. From the side, it’s just a massive round belly connecting to his chest, which is pretty much straight up and down under that big head. Drew a big U-shape starting under his jaw, going way out for the belly, then curving back up for the back. Added two simple lines almost straight down from his shoulders for his legs – they look like little stubs in profile. Honestly, looks kinda like a weird, lumpy potato with legs at this stage.
The Face Features That Took Forever
Okay, the facial bits almost tripped me up. That big nose is basically a triangle pointing down and out. Drew that first. Then the eye – just a single curved line because it’s profile view. But placing it was key: had to put it kinda low on the face, close to the nose bridge, with the eyebrow arching high above it. Got the eyebrow angle wrong first few goes, made him look surprised instead of grumpy. His teeny ear sits pretty far back too, right where the head oval started curving down towards the neck.
His mouth is a simple little half-smirk line pointing down slightly. And his signature glasses! Just two circles over the eye, with a bar across the top resting on his nose. Important bit I almost forgot: his neck fat rolls! Added two or three curved lines under his chin going down into his shirt collar.
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Core things I screwed up before getting it passable:
- Making the chin stick out enough. Seriously underestimated that chin protrusion!
- Putting the eye too high, making his head look taller.
- Forgetting that his belly hangs waaay out past his feet in true Peter style.
After maybe six tries, eraser dust everywhere on my desk, I finally had something that looked vaguely like the guy. It’s definitely wonky and not showroom ready, but hey, you recognize it’s Peter Griffin sideways! Held it up to my wife, she laughed and said “Yep, that’s his drunken lump alright.” Good enough for a practice session.
Why even bother with this today? Kinda stupid, but honestly, got super bored during my daughter’s piano lesson yesterday. Was just sitting there scrolling junk on my phone, saw a Peter meme, and the tutorial popped up. Figured drawing stupid cartoon characters was more productive than doomscrolling. Plus, takes me back to doodling in school notebooks when I shoulda been learning algebra. Sometimes simple fun is good. Might tackle Lois next time… or maybe just nap.