Birds and animals are the most popular drawing subjects for children — from a cheerful cartoon bird on a branch to a majestic lion portrait. This collection covers the essential shapes and techniques for drawing a variety of creatures, giving young artists the confidence to draw any animal they encounter by breaking it into simple steps.

🖍️ What You Need

  • Pencil and eraser
  • Coloured markers or crayons — a full set works best for variety
  • Black fine-tip pen for outlines
  • White paper

Easy Birds and Animals Step by Step

  1. Simple cartoon bird — a circle body with a smaller circle head. A triangle beak on the side. A U-shaped wing on the back. Two stick legs with three toe lines. A short fan tail. This basic formula works for sparrows, pigeons, and generic cartoon birds.
  2. Owl — a large oval body with two pointed ear tufts at the top. Two very large round eyes (owls have the largest eyes relative to skull size of any bird). A small hooked beak between the eyes. Horizontal lines across the breast for feather patterns.
  3. Parrot — round head, curved hooked beak, bright coloured plumage, long tail feathers. Draw a branch for the parrot to grip with its zygodactyl feet (two toes forward, two backward).
  4. Elephant — a large rectangular body, thick column legs, very large fan ears, a long curving trunk, and a small tuft tail. The trunk is the most challenging element — draw it as a gently curved tube, slightly tapering, with horizontal wrinkle lines.
  5. Lion — oval head with a large mane (draw the mane as a rough circle of flowing lines around the face). Almond eyes with round pupils. A wide flat nose. The mane distinguishes the male lion; lionesses have no mane.
  6. Penguin — oval body that is black on the back and white on the front. A small rounded head. Short flipper wings. Orange feet and beak. The tuxedo colouring (black back, white front) is the most identifying penguin feature.
  7. Frog — a wide, flat oval body with a rounded head blending into it (frogs have no neck). Very large round eyes on the top of the head. Long back legs in a crouching position. Spotted skin pattern.
💡 Parikshet's Tip: Every animal drawing starts with the same question: what is the most distinctive feature? For an owl it is the enormous round eyes. For a lion it is the mane. For a penguin it is the tuxedo colouring. Identify that one feature and draw it first, correctly — everything else supports it.

🌟 Did You Know?

Birds are the only living descendants of the dinosaurs. When a non-avian dinosaur lineage survived the mass extinction 66 million years ago, it was the feathered, small-bodied theropod dinosaurs that became the birds we know today. This means every time you draw a sparrow or parrot, you are drawing a living dinosaur descendant.

The Animal Drawing Formula

Use this approach for any animal you want to draw:

  1. Find the basic body shape — is the body oval, round, rectangular, or elongated?
  2. Identify the head shape — how does it connect to the body? (short neck, long neck, no neck?)
  3. Note the most distinctive feature — what makes this animal immediately recognisable?
  4. Count the limbs and note their proportions — short stubby legs or long graceful ones?
  5. Find the texture — fur, feathers, scales, smooth skin? This determines how you shade.

🎯 Try This: Draw an Animal Alphabet

  1. Draw 6 animals, one for each of the first 6 letters of your name.
  2. Each animal must start with the corresponding letter (or you can choose any 6 animals you like).
  3. Arrange them in a grid with the letter displayed next to each animal.
  4. Use the formula above for any unfamiliar animals — body shape first, distinctive feature second.