I love teaching my Cartoon Club online art classes for kids each week. It’s such a good opportunity for me to stretch my own creative brain.
This week at Cartoon Club we designed our own Treehouse Campout imagining just all the cool things we would build into our secret hideout. In this YouTube video tutorial I show you how I doodle just one of the birds that I drew in my treehouse during our art class.
There’s always a new topic to doodle on – something that will not only improve our drawing abilities, challenge us to come up with new and creative ways of solving problems. This creative process in invaluable. Honestly I’m not sure who gets more out of these art classes, me or the kids?!
This was an especially fun topic to doodle because of the COVID lockdown. I found it fun to imagine my ideal treehouse. The children had such good ideas for what to put in theirs: everything from a pizza oven, to an invisibility sheild to a diving board. I added a pool; hence the cannon ball bird!
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 Bird?
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 Bird 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. Whenever I sit down at my drawing board I don’t know what I am doing. Literally every time. This is actually a good thing. It’s a scary thing, but it’s good because uncertainty is the beginning of creative thinking. I try to embrace this fear that I’m not going to do anything good.
This video shows you how I draw this one bird cartoon. What I want you to experience is the process I go through. How I think through the drawing and how I make decisions. You will come up with a different character than me and make different decisions along the way. That’s great. It will be your unique character.
Step 1 – Start by drawing lightly
I begin with my biggest shape that is going to create my bird. This one is a simple circle. But I don’t just draw one circle and leave it at that; I draw lots. This is both thinking time and time for me to see what is going to feel the most like the circle for my bird.
Next I lightly sketch in the other features using the same process…thinking as I go. This is my chance to play around and see how the bird cartoon will evolve.
Step 2 – Capture your cartoon’s expression
Now I grab my pen. I start with the eyes. This is going to give my bird his character. I make them extra big and add more detail and emphasis than I am going to do with the other features. I add an extra dark line at the top of the birds eye to draw attention.
Step 3 – Inking your cartoon bird
With my pen, I continue to outline the rest of my character. The wings, tail, feet all add to his character and I exaggerate the feeling that he is jumping bumb first doing a cannon ball. Crazy little guy!
Step 4 – Let’s Colour your Cartoon Bird
I must have been thinking Easter because I grabbed three colours that look rather like an Easter egg. The maximum number of colours I would use here is four. Three really is enough
Top Cartoon Colouring Tip! – BLEND
This is why I use pencil crayons to colour; because I can always create interest by blending my pencils together to make different combinations that still sit well together and look harmonious. See just what fun combinations of colour you can do!
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 like 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.
