Over the years I’ve heard from so many parents and teachers who want to support drawing skills for young children with easy drawing ideas. Along with that, I’m also asked about how to support drawing skills.
Here are a few of my favorite drawing tips that have worked for our family and countless others:
- Follow the child’s interests. If the topic peeks their curiosity, there’s a better chance they’ll look forward to the drawing challenge.
- Make it fun and light and keep the pressure low.
- Make it playful. Play drawing games like playing with Art Dice or One-minute drawings.
- Use interesting drawing materials such as feather quills or clay.
- Model a drawing mindset. Show your own interest in drawing, and willingness to experiment and make mistakes.
- Share easy steps that break down the drawing process, yet keep the end result open-ended (like those in this printable)
I will be the first to admit that I love cute things, and that passion has been passed down to my children who are obsessed with Japanese cartoons, Kawaii characters, Shopkins, and manga. Rather than run from this passion I decided to embrace it.
Scroll to the end of this post for a link to the free printable that you can download today.
How to Draw a Kawaii Cute Penguin
Kawaii (pronounced Hawaii) is the Japanese word for cute, lovable, and adorable. Interestingly, the word’s original meaning described someone who was blushing from embarrassment.
But for today’s purpose, we’ll go with cute and lovable. Well, that penguin below may be blushing…
One of the things I care most about as an arts educator is encouraging and supporting individual expression and ideas in art making. Prescriptive, how-to tutorials concern me as I worry about children taking them too literally.
This process, however, should be seen as an inspirational foundation or starting point from which to build personal and unique ideas. I gave the sheet to my five-year old tester, and you can see that she took it into completely original territory.
Printable for the Kawaii Cute Penguin
The penguin is drawn in six easy steps.
Once you’re done, feel free to add your own ideas, backgrounds, textures, and props.