By CraftingStepByStepPublished
Based on a video by Art for Kids Hub.
This cartoon moose drawing comes from Art for Kids Hub, where a dad and his son draw side by side. You start with one friendly eye and a big droopy nose, add two wide antlers, then build the body and legs underneath. It takes about eight minutes, and every shape is a curve, a U or a zigzag. Kids from about age five can follow along.
You need a black marker, a sheet of paper and something to color with. The video uses oil pastels, but crayons, markers or colored pencils all work.
Two things: the nose and the antlers. A moose has a long, heavy muzzle that hangs down past the eye, so the U shape for the head is bigger than you expect. The antlers are wide and flat, like open hands with short fingers on top. That is the quickest way to tell a moose apart from a reindeer, whose antlers are thin branches that curve up and back.
A deer is close too. Give a deer a short pointed face and skinny legs. Give a moose the big nose, the paddle antlers and thick legs with dark hooves.
Plain printer paper is fine for practice. For a picture you want to keep, a heavier drawing pad holds marker and pastel without tearing. A fine point black permanent marker gives the bold outline. If a kid is worried about mistakes, sketch light in pencil first and trace over it.
The video colors the body reddish brown, the antlers and muzzle tan, and the hooves dark brown. After coloring, they go back over the outline with the black marker. Oil pastel smudges the lines, and that second pass makes the moose pop again.
Draw big. Let the antlers reach close to the top of the page. The body and four legs need room below, and a small moose is hard to color.
At the end of the video the challenge is to finish the picture with a background. A row of pine trees works well. So does a lake with a few cattails, or a snowy hill. Try our tree drawing for the forest. For a fall classroom project, add orange and yellow leaves on the ground.
Want more than one? The video jokes about drawing lots of moose. Draw a second, smaller moose behind the first one and overlap them a little. The one in back looks farther away, and the picture feels like a real herd.
New to drawing? Start with how to draw for the basics.
10 steps · about 9 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
On the left side of your paper, draw an oval. It does not need to be big. Inside the top of the oval, draw a small circle. Then draw an even smaller circle near the bottom. Color the rest of the oval black and leave both little circles white. Those white spots look like light shining in the eye. They make your moose look friendly right away.
Tip
Color slowly around the white circles. If you fill one in, draw it again a bit bigger.
Start a line on one side of the eye and draw a big U shape that comes down below it and back up on the other side. Moose have really big noses, so make the U long. Near the bottom of the U, draw a small number six for the nostril. Color in the little loop of the six. Now it already looks like an animal face.
Tip
Tilt the U a little to one side. A slanted nose makes the moose look curious.
Draw a curved rainbow line across the top of the head, from the left side of the U over to the right. Then add some hair on top. Draw a little zigzag, then a bigger zigzag, then another little one. His son thought it looked like a cow with a hairdo, and he was right. The spiky tuft gives your moose a lot of personality.
Tip
Keep the zigzags short. Tall spikes start to look like a crown.
From the top of the head, draw a big sideways J shape out to one side. Then come back with a row of rounded fingers along the top. Start with a big one, then smaller ones. Connect the last finger back into the head. To make the antler look 3D, draw a few small bumps inside, along the bottom edge. It should look like a wide paddle.
Tip
Moose antlers are flat and wide. If yours looks like a tree branch, make it fatter.
Now repeat the same steps on the other side of the head. Draw another sideways J, then a big finger, a medium one and a small one, and connect it into the head. Make this antler a little smaller so it stays on your paper. Add the small 3D bumps inside it too. Then connect the hair tuft to the antlers with a short line or zigzag.
Tip
The two antlers do not need to match. Real moose antlers are rarely even.
Under each antler, draw an ear that points out to the side. Come out with a curve, make a point, and come back in to the head. Then draw the inside of each ear: a line that curves down and back to the inner edge. The ear on the far side can be a little smaller so the head looks 3D.
Tip
Tuck the ears tight under the antlers. Floating ears look like wings.
Draw a curve that comes down from behind the head for the back of the neck. Then draw the front of the neck curving down into the chest. For the first front leg, draw a line straight down. Draw the back of the leg starting close to the chest and getting a bit farther away at the bottom. Connect the two with a curve.
Tip
It is a lot like drawing a giraffe leg. Long and simple wins.
Draw the second front leg behind the first, then curve it back in. For the belly, imagine the chest going behind the front leg and curving up. Draw the front of a back leg with a small bend at the knee. Start the back of that leg up on the back and swing a big curve down to the bend. Repeat for the second back leg.
Tip
Pause the video here if you need to. This is the trickiest part of the moose.
Moose have big hooves. At the bottom of each leg, draw a curve across, then a small A shape at the front. Go up and back down, and color in the A so the hoof looks split. Do the same on all four legs. Last, give your moose a tiny tail: a short line up, a curve, a little zigzag and a curve back down.
Tip
Make all four hooves sit on the same line so the moose stands steady.
Time to color. The video uses oil pastels. Color the body a reddish brown, the antlers and the end of the muzzle tan, and the hooves dark brown. Add a darker red on the antler tips if you like. When you finish, go back over the outline with your black marker. Pastel blurs the edges, and fresh lines make the moose pop.
Tip
Press lightly first, then harder where you want the color darker.
Keep going
How to Draw Rudolph
How to Draw a Moose
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