How to draw a Cartoon Alien

Cartoon Club | How to draw a Cartoon Alien | Art classes for Kids

I have so much fun creating these online art classes for the kids each week. This week we doodled “The Day I went to Space”. Who doesn’t like doodling aliens?! 

If you missed this week’s cartoon club you can still have a go at drawing some aliens yourself. In this YouTube video tutorial  I show you how I doodle just one of the aliens I did in class.

Each class I present a new art topic for children to work on – something that will not only improve our drawing abilities, but also stretch the imagination and get us all sharing ideas and thinking more creatively. I for one can certainly use a more creative mindset, especially in these challenging times. Sometimes I’m not sure who gets more out of the art classes, me or the kids?!

The best part about drawing aliens is that they can really look like just about anything. Who’s to say what’s right or wrong about an alien?! Impossible! … unless of course you’re one of the scientists from Area 51. That’s actually what gave me the idea for this cartooning theme was listening to the podcast where Joe Rogan interviews Bob Lazar & Jeremy Corbell about the UFOs he worked with at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US. For me, I get my most creative ideas when doing seemingly unrelated activities. I wonder why that is? How do you get your most creative ideas? I digress… let’s get back to the drawing board!

Here’s what you will need:

• Pencil (I use my friend the 4B Faber-Castell Jumbo here)
• Paper
• Black marker or fine-liner (I’m using a Uni Super Ink fine marker here)
• Eraser or rubber (it just for erasing AFTER you have inked)
• 3 Colours (My favourite are Faber-Castell polychromes or Prismacolor but whatever you have will do just fine)

How do I draw a Cartoon Alien?

Good question! Head on over to my YouTube channel and you can watch the tutorial where I step you through How to Draw a Cartoon Alien from our online art class with the children. But before you begin….get your creative thinking cap on…

How can I think more Creatively?

Before you start the video, I recommend you keep in mind the following: this is a process. It’s not about being right, or drawing well, or being neat, it’s about thinking creatively and drawing like yourself.

I’m always trying to work on my unique style. I want to create characters that are my own and express my thoughts. I’m thinking as I draw. I’m not planning everything out beforehand. I’m seeing where my pencil takes me and responding to what I see and how I feel, changing lines as I go.

Even though I show you how to draw this one particular alien from our online cartoon class, don’t let that stop you. Change him up, make him yours, add features, change lines, use different mediums etc. What I want you to experience is the process I go through. Try this alien out and then do some more and play around. Create your own “The Day I went to Space” as we did, by drawing yourself in your astronaut suit travelling to an alien planet.

This is just one exercise that’s great for stretching the imagination. I really enjoy doing this in class because everyone shares their drawings as we go. I imagine this as our Cartoon Club version of a musician jam-session. I guess it’s a doodle-jam. Hey ho hope you enjoy the video and it starts you on a creative alien inspired journey to your most creative self!

Step 1 – Draw light & Experiment!

Start by drawing lightly. I begin with my biggest shape. The one that is going to define the orientation and size of my cartoon. I don’t worry about it looking messy or having lots of lines everywhere. That’s all part of the fun. This stage is messy. I lightly sketch the body, the eyes, the mouth, the eyebrows, the legs and any other features that will be prominent. The most important part about this step is that I am giving myself time to play around, to figure out who this character will be.

Step 2 – Expression: The key to a fun Cartoon!

Now I grab my pen. I start with the eyes. I do this because I want to draw the element that is going to give my character his expression. This informs the rest of my drawing. If I fail with the eyes, the character will not come to life. We don’t want that! As an aside, if the eyes don’t work out at this stage. I don’t worry about it. It’s just paper, it’s just a drawing and I can always start again. There’s never a loss because I always get better my making these “mistakes”.

Step 3 – Inking your Alien

With my pen, I continue to outline the rest of my character. I talk you through each part of the outline as I do it and why I do things in a certain order. Don’t worry if yours doesn’t look like mine. It shouldn’t! The goal is to draw like YOU. It is your hand and your expression. By seeing my method and listening to how I talk to myself and resolve questions or challenges as I proceed through a drawing, you’ll start to see how to move through the creative process yourself and in your own way.

Step 4 – Let’s Colour your Cartoon Alien

I like to limit myself to a small sampling of colours. I do this because otherwise I can get distracted with trying to pick the “best” colours and inevitably I wind up making a mess of things by adding in too many different colours. I don’t spend a lot of time picking colours. It’s surprising how well any three or four colours can work together especially when you are doodling something like aliens which have no rules.

Top Colouring Tip! – put each of your three colours in THREE different locations on your character. Vary where you put the colours and the size of where you colour, how hard you press your pencil crayon and how you layer the colours. Variety and blending on the page, help your viewer’s eye do the same thing when they see your finished character and it makes the seemingly odd colour combination, look perfectly well suited to your funny alien.

Please share your cartoons

Please share your doodles when you are done. I LOVE seeing everyone’s work. It’s so inspiring! If you are on Instagram please tag @sjvickery and hashtag #cartoonclubforkids or find me on Facebook @sarahjanevickeryart

Grab a FREE PDF or watch another art class tutorial

I also have lots of Free Worksheets and Colouring Pages for anyone who wants to get creative. To see all my videos and tutorials head on over to my YouTube channel.

Join Cartoon Club – Online art classes for Kids who love to doodle

Is your child always doodling? Do they love to create cartoons? This is for them! At Cartoon Club we are a small, friendly group that works together in our online platform offering art classes for kids who love to doodle. We’re open to children who likes to sit, doodle and dream up cartoons. Cartoon Club was set up by me, artist and Creativity Coach Sarah Jane Vickery, with the aim of building art classes for kids to share their love of cartoons – and ultimately, have fun while building creative confidence.