Drawing a princess

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Drawing a dinosaur: steps for children

1. Start with an oval for the body of your dinosaur.

2. From the oval draw a line up to the right for a long neck and part of the head.

3. Draw a second long line up under the first to finish the neck.

4. Connect the two neck lines with a half circle to form the head.

5. Draw a line off the back of the oval for the tail. Wind it around like a snake.

6. Draw another line off the back under the first.

7. Connect the end of the two tail lines.

8. Make a small circle at the front bottom of the oval. This will be part of the front leg. Make a larger circle at the back bottom of the oval. This will be the top part of the back leg.

9. Draw rectangles down from the two circles for the front and back legs closest to us.

10. Draw legs alongside the front and back legs for the legs on the other side of the dinosaur.

11. Trace the outside of the dinosaur with a non-toxic marker the color of your choice. Only trace the front of the circles with the marker. These become the top of the front and back legs closest to us.

12. Erase the pencil lines and your dinosaur is ready to color.

Easter basket drawing with rectangles, and circles or ovals

When kids discover how easy it is to create drawings with shapes, they may start inventing their own designs. Here's a kid designed drawing of an Easter basket complete with directions starting with a rectangle, and ending with a simple basket filled with eggs.

Draw an American Robin: directions for children

Drawing of an American Robin

Start with a pencil in hand, and lightly sketch the lines, so if you want to change them they're easy to erase.

1. Draw a circle for the Robin's body.

2. Draw a smaller circle on top of the first circle for the head.

3. Draw a long thin triangle off the back bottom of the body circle. This long triangle will be the tail.

4. Draw a line from the back of the head to halfway down the tail. This will be the top of the wing.

5. To finish the wing, make a soft half circle under the straight line from the bottom of the head to the tip of the wing.

6. Make another soft half circle at the bottom front of the body to mark off the reddish orange of the tummy.

7. Add legs with slanting lines with three claws.

8. Put a beak on the front of the head.

9.For the eye, draw an oval with a smaller circle inside. The oval will mark the white around the eye, and the circle will be the Robin's brown eye.

10. Outline the Robin with non-toxic colored markers. Use yellow for the beak, black for the head and the oval around the eye, and brown to color in the eye ball. Keep outlining the body and wings in gray, the tummy in orange, and the legs and feet in black.

11. Erase all pencil lines. You should be able to erase them even through the marker.

12. Color in with crayons. I used yellow for the beak, and black for the head. For the body and wings, I first used gray, and then brown, and finished the tips of the feathers with black lines. The tummy I first colored with orange-red, and then went over it with orange.

There's your finished Robin. Also check out the sounds Robins make at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds. They've got 3 different songs and 6 different calls. I never knew, and I've grown up admiring these birds. All About Birds also has some good videos. There's one of a mother and her babies I think is especially cute.

Drawing a bunny with circles

Using a pencil follow the steps making a large circle for the bunny's body and a smaller circle for the bunny's head.

The circle for the bunny's back leg is larger than the circle for the bunny's front leg. The circles for the paws are little circles.

After all the circles are completed, with a pencil, add ears--half circles together--dots for eyes, a small triangle for a nose and two half circles for the mouth. Also put little lines on the paws.

When the bunny is completely drawn in pencil, Use a black non-toxic marker to trace over the face and claws. Then with a brown non-toxic marker trace only the outline of the bunny. Finally trace the front of the legs and paws with the brown marker.

Erase all the pencil lines.

Color the middle of the ears with pink crayon. Then color in the whole bunny except the tail lightly with a brown crayon. If the tail gets colored by accident, the crayon may be able to be erased with a regular pencil eraser.

Draw a baby chick with circles

The first chick in the top picture, I drew using non-toxic markers, and the second I drew using crayons. If your child starts using markers, have him finish with the markers, so the original lines of the circles are hidden and only the form of the chick is seen.

I have the steps above. The chick starts with a large circle for the body using a yellow marker or crayon, and a small circle for a head. Add a tail to the body, and color in so the circle lines are not seen. Add an orange beak. With black, make a dot for the eye, a half circle for the wings, and slanted line for the legs with three little lines for each foot.

Draw a leprechaun face with Ds rectangles and squares

Here's a little leprechaun face I drew using the letter "D" pointing different directions and a few rectangles and squares. The steps are in the picture above. Finish with orange swirls for a mustache and beard, and a green hat with a black ribbon and gold buckle.

Never knew the plain letter "D" could become a mischievous leprechaun, did you? It's fun to experiment with what you can draw out of letters and shapes. Then drawing becomes easy.

A bat pop up

What is Halloween without bats and pumpkins?  This simple craft gives the bat a little bounce with paper springs.

Draw a pumpkin.

On a separate piece of paper, draw a bat, and cut out. As you can see my bat is simple. If you have an example, children may be able to draw their own pumpkin and bat. It might help to tell them the bat is drawn with parts of circles and parts of triangles.

Cut out the bat.

Strips of paper for springs

Cut three strips of paper about 2 inches long, and 1 inch wide. Fold the strips like a fan for little springs, and tape them to the back of the bat and then to the pumpkin. Now there's a bat popping out of the pumpkin.

Cutting a pumpkin out from orange paper and making the bat from black paper can make this craft even more impressive. Happy flying, bouncing or popping!