Russian Cathedral Drawing

St. Basil’s is a famous cathedral in Russia, which was originally designed as a cluster of chapels. It’s unique architecture manages to look both old and new at the same time.

1. For this lesson, I led the students in setting up their basic building shapes, but then gave them THIS color photo for a guide. Starting with letter size paper, they drew a large rectangle in the middle. An “onion” shape was added on top.

2. A somewhat shorter rectangle is attached to the left and right. A curved top with ball is added.

3. Now the fun part – lots of curves and angles and swirls are added to decorate the entire building.

4. When the drawing is complete, all the lines are traced with a black Sharpie marker and the shapes are colored in with crayon.

Thanks so much to Keana A., a 1st grader who let me share her drawing. Can you tell she comes from an artistic family?

Read more »

How to Draw a Truck

Every time I do a geometric drawing lesson like this, I am reminded that some students who yawn at the idea of drawing organic shapes, will work for hours on rectangular trucks or houses. It could be the sign of a future designer, which requires a more methodical set of drawing skills.

1. Working with letter size paper, I gave my kinders a Dixie cup to trace two wheels in the lower center of the paper. They drew the middle section of truck around them as shown in the diagram. 

2. The front and back of the truck are added.

3. The cab and window of the truck are drawn. A wavy or straight line is added for the road.

4. A profile of a driver is drawn, along with the back cab support.

5. Details or the truck and background complete the drawing. Students used a thin black marker to trace their drawing, and crayons to color it in.
Note: This lesson comes from Usborne’s “What Shall I Draw?” book, which has a lot of great drawing ideas.

Read more »

How to Draw a Bushbaby

What’s a Bushbaby you may ask? I’m not really sure, I just know they're really cute, which is all I need to keep the attention of my after school drawing students. This is borrowed from Drawbooks.com, which I plan to visit a lot more in the future.

1. Given my class is mostly made of kinders, I decided to give them an oval (body) and circle (head) cardboard template to start their drawing. Using an letter-size paper, they began by tracing the 6" x 5" oval near the left, and 3" circle overlapping as shown.

2. The line inside the head was erased, and ears were added near the top.

3. Large eyes were added in the bottom half of the face. The placement here is important; if they are too high, some cuteness factor is lost.

4. The body is finished with a tail, legs and toes.

5. The tree branch, leaves and moon are added. All lines are traced with a medium width marker, and the shapes are colored in with crayon.

Read more »

How to Draw a Dragonfly

Today I demonstrated the basics of drawing a dragonfly to a room full of kinder and 1st graders, and they added so much 6 and 7-year old charm (hearts, flowers, hairbows, etc.) that I could hardly stand it!

1. Students draw a circle head, wide oval, smaller oval and tail, all across the middle of the paper.

2. Three wing lines are drawn going up from the widest oval.

3. Each line is continued and turned into a wing.

4. Two lines are drawn up in the middle of each wing.

5. Small angled lines are added. The face is completed, along with the feet. The drawing is traced with a black Sharpie and colored in with crayons.
A special thanks to Yuna, a talented 1st-grader, who let me share her drawing with you.

Read more »

Nutcracker: Crayon with Texture Rubbing

Here is the most budget conscious version of my Nutcracker project, using just good old-fashioned crayons on white paper. I added a twist of placing a plastic needlepoint tapestry underneath when I was coloring the red suit to give my guy some extra texture.

Read more »