The giraffe is a unique animal and has the longest neck among mammals. Due to its unusual appearance and tall stature, this animal deserves special attention. Drawing a giraffe is quite fun, and it will be a great joy for children to draw it on paper. a drawing of this wonderful animal.
Drawing tools
Colored pencils, graphite pencils and paints (watercolor or gouache) are used to draw children's pictures. If you plan to draw a picture with pencils, it is advisable to use pencils of proven brands (Crayola or Silwerhof), as a result the picture will be rich and bright.
For younger children (up to 6 years old), it is recommended to purchase pencils with a faceted shape, which will allow the child to hold the pencil firmly in his hand, and it will not slip out during the drawing process.
When buying a set of pencils, you should limit yourself to a small number of different colors in it, since too much variety can distract the child from the drawing itself, and he will spend too much time searching for and trying out all the colors available in the set.
For children of primary school and preschool age, a set of 10-12 pencils of different colors will be sufficient.
The clarity of the drawing you create depends on the hardness and composition of the pencil. The harder the pencil, the clearer the lines you can draw with it.
The classification of pencil hardness is given in the following table:
| Marking number (according to the American classification system) | Marking letter (according to the European classification system) | Pencil type |
| #1 | B (blackness) | soft (easy to smudge, lines are smooth and rich) |
| #2 | HB (hardness-blackness) | hard-soft (lines are a little blurry) |
| #2,5 | F (fine point) | medium-soft (almost does not smudge, clear lines) |
| #3 | H (hardness) | solid (lines are even, do not smudge) |
| #4 | 2H (double hardness) | very hard (allows you to draw very clear lines) |
When buying pencils, you can buy two sets: one is hard, for drawing contours and lines, the other is soft, for shading and coloring drawings. The brightness and effect of the surface painted with a pencil also depends on the type of material from which its lead is made.
There are several types of pencil leads:
- watercolor (consists of various emulsions and creates the effect of watercolor paints);
- classic (consists of white clay and colored pigments);
- pastel (creates a soft effect, as it contains linseed oil);
- wax (glides smoothly over paper and does not require sharpening).
For painting with paints, it is recommended for young children to use gouache, as it allows you to easily correct inaccuracies and mistakes in the drawing by layering one paint on another. Gouache paint dries quickly and has the property of opacity.
On the Russian gouache paint market, among the recommended and high-quality brands, we can note “Sonnet” and “Luch”.
For older children who already have some experience, you can buy watercolor paints. Using such paints requires special skills in mixing colors, and the drawing or layer of applied paint dries quite a long time.
When choosing an album, if the child is going to draw only with pencils, you can limit yourself to an album with medium-density sheets. For painting, you should choose an album with a high density of album sheets so that the drawing does not show through on the back of the sheet. For drawing with a pencil, you can choose an album with sheets connected with staples.
For painting, it is better to use an album, the sheets of which are attached with spiral wire, which ensures a flat surface of the paper when the album is placed on the table during painting.
Master classes
Giraffe is a drawing for children that can be drawn in a huge number of ways and options.
It is better to start teaching a child to draw a giraffe with simple pencil drawings, and then add paints and markers to the drawing.
Simple Giraffe with Pencils
This drawing can be offered to preschool children.
For the drawing you will need a set of classic colored pencils.
Drawing such a giraffe consists of the following stages:
- Place the landscape sheet in portrait orientation.
- In the lower half of the sheet, draw the body of the giraffe in the form of a large oval (located horizontally), half the width of the sheet.
- From the upper left part of the oval, draw a long neck in the form of two vertical lines, located at a small distance from each other and narrowing as they move upward.
- Above the neck, draw the outline of the giraffe's head in the form of two connected circles, one of which is directly above the neck, and the second (slightly smaller in size) adjoins the first on the left side (while partially overlapping it). Then you need to erase the inner lines of the circles that remain inside the outline of the head.
- In the lower left part of the head, draw a smiling mouth in the form of an arc, and a little higher, a nostril in the form of a thick dot.
- On the right side of the head, draw a large eye in the form of a circle and a thick dot in its center.
- Draw horns on the top of the head in the form of small mushrooms, and to the left of them draw ears in the form of petals directed to the sides. After that, you need to add central stripes inside each ear.
- On the right side of the body, draw a tail in the form of an arc pointing downwards, and at the tip of the tail, draw a small tassel.
- Draw 4 legs in the form of long vertical rectangles below the body.
- Draw a saw-toothed mane that starts from the right ear and ends at the top of the body.
- Trace the outline and all the details of the drawn giraffe with a black, thick pencil.
- Color the whole giraffe yellow.
- Paint the giraffe's body and legs orange over the yellow.
- Using a red pencil, draw round spots all over the body and color them red as well.
- Color the mane red.
Realistic giraffe
Giraffe - drawing for children of any age. Older children can draw a more complex version of this drawing, close to the real image of a giraffe.
This drawing accurately depicts the proportions of his body and the shape of his face.
To draw you will need a set of soft watercolor colored pencils, a sheet of paper and an eraser.
The sequence of actions for drawing such a giraffe is as follows:
- Place the album sheet in a vertical position.
- Step back 2 cm from the top edge and draw a thin vertical line down in the center of the sheet. The distance from the bottom edge of the sheet to the bottom end of the line should also be 2 cm.
- Mark the center of the line, and then draw the body in the form of an oval from this center to the right (with a slight downward slope).
- Mark the middle of the lower half of the central line with a small circle (this will be the knee area) and draw the front leg from the left lower part of the body in the form of 2 lines connecting in the knee area. Then after the knee, you need to draw the lower part of the leg in the form of two parallel lines that should widen a little in the foot area.
- On the right side of the body, draw the thigh in the form of an oval tapering downwards (the thigh should be wider than the front leg). Then draw the lower part of the leg, slightly bent at the knee (which should stick out a little to the right). The lower part of the back leg should be as narrow as the lower part of the front leg.
- Draw the giraffe's feet in a trapezoid shape, the size of which corresponds to the thickness of the lower part of the legs.
- Erase the extra lines remaining inside the body, as well as the central auxiliary line.
- From the upper left part of the body, draw two tangent arcs to the upper left side of the sheet of paper (this will be the neck). At the base of the neck, a small bulge (bump) should be drawn on top.
- Draw the head in the form of an oval, tapering towards the left.
- Draw a mouth in the form of a line at the bottom of the left side of the head and a nostril in the form of a small circle just above.
- Draw an almond-shaped eye in the center of the head, and on top draw small horns (in the form of mushrooms) and ears in the form of petals pointing upwards.
- Draw two more legs for the giraffe next to the legs already drawn earlier, similar in shape to theirs, but located on the other side of the giraffe.
- Draw a curved tail hanging down, and at the end of the tail draw a tassel-shaped tip.
- Color the entire giraffe with a light brown tone. In order to achieve a light tone when coloring, the pressure on the brown pencil should be minimal, and the lead itself should be well sharpened (for a smoother toning of the drawing, hold the pencil at an angle).
- Using a brown pencil, draw spots in the form of curved rectangles of different sizes along the entire surface of the giraffe (except for the head and lower legs). There should be equal gaps between the spots no more than 2 mm thick (this will result in a honeycomb structure). The spots on the upper legs should be smaller in size than the spots on the body. For greater realism, it is necessary to ensure that the spots differ slightly in shade (some of them should be painted a little lighter, others darker).
- Draw the mane with thick, thin strokes (3 mm long) using a dark grey pencil along the top of the neck.
- Outline the giraffe with a grey pencil, colouring the legs in grey here and there and adding a little emphasis on the bends of the knees and his feet.
- Color the inside of the eyes, ears and top of the horns black.
- Color the tail tassel brown.
Giraffe against the backdrop of the savannah
Giraffe is a drawing for children that can be drawn not only with pencils, but also with paints. The giraffe against the backdrop of an African landscape looks quite interesting. For the drawing you will need a simple pencil, a set of paints and a brush.
The sequence of actions for drawing such a giraffe is as follows:
- Place the album sheet vertically.
- Draw a wide oval (the body of the giraffe) just below the middle of the sheet.
- Draw a small oval (giraffe's head) in the upper left part of the sheet.
- Connect the two ovals with an auxiliary line.
- Draw the neck using two lines (parallel to the auxiliary line) connecting the body and the head.
- On the right side of the head, draw a muzzle in the form of an additional, smaller semi-oval.
- Draw the mouth in the form of a small arc on the muzzle and the nose in the form of a thick dot.
- Draw the eye as a small oval located horizontally in the center of the head outline. Then draw the pupil as a dot inside the eye.
- At the back of the head, draw an ear in the shape of a petal, and horns on top.
- Draw 4 legs under the body. The back legs should be thicker than the front ones, and their upper part (thigh) should be slightly wider than the lower one.
- Draw the feet in the form of trapezoids that widen downwards.
- Draw a long tail with a tassel at the end.
- Erase the extra lines inside the body.
- Draw the outlines of the spots in the form of quadrangles and triangles all over the giraffe's body (including the legs). The spots in the leg area should be smaller.
- Fill a thin brush with brown paint and carefully outline the giraffe (including the mouth, nose and eye).
- Dilute the brown paint with a little water and paint the entire giraffe with a light brown tone.
- Paint the giraffe's spots and feet with brown paint.
- Inside the tail tassel, draw thin vertical lines with a light brown tone of paint.
- On the upper part of the neck, draw a mane with brown paint using thin strokes.
- Load a brush with green paint and then draw oval hills to the left and right of the giraffe (from the base of the neck to the edges of the album sheet).
- Dilute the green paint with a little water and paint the entire area of the sheet around the giraffe and under the hills (to the edges of the sheet) in a light green tone.
- Fill the brush with rich green paint again and draw lines to the left and right of the giraffe's feet parallel to the upper hills of the savannah (you will get two meadows).
- Use green paint to paint the grass on the meadows, below and in places around the giraffe.
- Paint the entire area of the sheet above the hills with white paint (avoiding the neck and head).
- Take some brown paint on the brush and from the middle of the left meadow draw upwards a curved trunk of acacia of small thickness. The length of the trunk should correspond to the height of the giraffe.
- From the top of the acacia trunk, draw thin branches in brown, directed to the left and right sides of it.
- From the middle of the right meadow, draw a small straight acacia trunk upwards (the height of the trunk should be at the level of the base of the giraffe's neck). Then, from the top of the trunk, draw several branches directed to the sides.
- Load a brush with green paint and apply thin dots of green foliage over the acacia branches.
- Put yellow paint on the brush and draw a round sun in the upper left corner of the picture, and thin arched lines around it.
Cartoon giraffe
Giraffe is a drawing for children that can look very bright and fun if you draw it with felt-tip pens. Soft watercolor pencils are also suitable for drawing such a giraffe. This drawing will cheer up the child, and it is not difficult to draw at all.
To draw a cartoon giraffe, you need to follow these steps in sequence:
- Place a sheet of landscape paper vertically.
- Draw a circle (the giraffe's body) just below the center of the sheet.
- From the left part of the circle and from the middle of its upper part, draw two lines upwards (this will be the neck).
- Draw an oval muzzle slightly to the left of the top of the neck (half of the muzzle should overlap half the width of the neck). Then you need to draw two nostrils (in the form of circles) inside the contour of the muzzle.
- Above the muzzle, draw a head in the form of a semi-oval (round side up) and eyes in the form of dots. Then you need to finish drawing the right line of the neck so that it connects to the right side of the head.
- Draw horns (mushroom-shaped) and ears (petal-shaped) pointing to the sides above the head. Then add a horizontal stripe along the center of each ear.
- Draw 2 front and 2 back legs in the form of long rectangles at the bottom of the body.
- At the bottom of the legs, draw hooves in the form of trapezoids, divided in the middle by a line.
- To the right of the body, draw a small tail directed to the side. The tip of the tail should be drawn in the form of a tassel.
- Outline the giraffe with a black pencil.
- Draw round and oval spots on the giraffe's body and neck with a black pencil (the distance between the spots should be greater than the spots themselves).
- Color the giraffe yellow.
- Color the spots, hooves and face red or orange.
In order for the child to draw a giraffe, it is necessary to explain all the stages of drawing step by step, and also to show how to hold a pencil or brush correctly. The child should remember that the main color of the giraffe is yellow or orange, and the spots are always brown or red.
Drawing animals is very useful for children and fosters their love for nature, as well as developing analytical thinking and fine motor skills.
Video about giraffe drawing
Master class on drawing a cartoon giraffe: