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.
What makes a moose drawing look like a moose
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.
Paper, markers and coloring supplies
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.
Add a background
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.
Moose drawing ideas to try next
- A baby moose with no antlers standing next to this one.
- A moose head only, framed like a cabin sign.
- A moose wearing a scarf and a winter hat.
- A whole north woods scene with a wolf on the next hill.
Common moose drawing problems
- The antlers fall off the page. Draw the second antler a little smaller, like they do in the video.
- It looks like a horse. Make the nose rounder and droopier, and keep the hair tuft on top short and spiky.
- The legs look stuck together. Leave a gap between the front and back legs, and tuck the belly line behind the front leg.
New to drawing? Start with how to draw for the basics.
