Wrinkling is one of the major defects in sheet metal products and may be also attributable to the wear of the tool. The initiation and growth of wrinkles are influenced by many factors such as stress state, mechanical properties of the sheet material, geometry of the body, and contact condition. It is difficult to analyze the wrinkling initiation and growth considering the factors because the effects of the factors are very complex and the wrinkling behavior may show a wide variation for small deviations of the factors. In this study, the bifurcation theory is introduced for the finite element analysis of wrinkling initiation and growth. All the above mentioned factors are conveniently considered by the finite element method. The finite element formulation is based on the incremental deformation theory and elastic-plastic elements considering the planar anisotropy of the sheet metal. The proposed method is verified by employing a column buckling problem. And then, the initiation and growth of wrinkling in deep drawing of cylindrical cup are analyzed.