Honor your favorite pet or your favorite wild animal with a drawing or painting. All you need is some paper and your favorite writing instrument. You could also use unusual types of paper including the inside of a cereal box, tissue paper (use a light hand), or any scrap paper you can find around the house.
10 Tips for Drawing Animals, For Kids
Experiment
Use crayon or a pencil. Try to use oil pastels or stick pastels. Each one will create a different effect. An ink pen can be used to make a pencil drawing of an animal more permanent. Or, if you’re feeling brave and experimental, just use ink. Try a black or blue rolling ball pen, not a ballpoint pen. It has ink like a marker, but with a fine or extra fine point.
Texture It!
Each animal has a different texture. Look closely at the pet’s skin, fur or feathers. What makes a cat’s fur look different than a snake’s skin? How to bird feathers differ in their appearance?
Feathered Friends
You can paint the feathers of a bird using a wide brush. The trick is to brush in large lines to form the general shape of the feathers, without worrying about every detail. If you want to detail a bird’s feathers, use pencil and make a drawing. Combine charcoal with pencil, as the charcoal can be used to create softer lines when blended.
Photo Reference
Take a photo of your pet. Draw your pet from the photo, which is easier to do than when the pet is jumping and running around the house.
Look for Shapes
When you look at an elephant, a rabbit or a cat, try to find shapes you know. Is the body a circle? Do you see any square or rectangle shapes anywhere? Recognizing shapes will help you make simple drawings of animals that are in proportion. If the body looks like a big circle and the head a small circle, then you should reflect that when you draw the head and body. By looking at shapes, you won’t have animals with heads that are too big fro their bodies.
Shadows In
The animal you are drawing is not one solid shade. There are parts that are light and some that are dark. The color may all be gray or brown, but not all the same shade of that color. Work in your shadows to make the animal seem more real.
Shadows Below
Animals also cast shadows. The animal on the ground is like any other object on the ground in a picture, It’s not floating, it has a small narrow shadow underneath it. Don’t see one? Maybe there is a long shadow to the left or to the right. The shadow can be made using gray, you don’t have to jump to black right away. The shadow should be touching one or more edges of the animal in your drawing.
Sketch Pad
If you like to sketch animals, carry around your own mini sketch pad.
Make It Exciting!
This is where photos of animals come in handy. Drawings of sleeping animals are cute, but what about some exciting action? Draw a jumping dog, a running horse or a flying bird.
Give Her a Home
Don’t forget to place the animal in a setting. You can choose a natural habitat, like grass for a rabbit or snake. For fun, try drawing animals in unusual settings. How about a turtle on the moon, a pig in a dog house or a fish in a tree?
