Cool but still easy
Drawing ideas for 8 year olds
Drawing ideas for eight-year-olds: dinosaurs, sharks, dragons, sports, vehicles and heroes, drawings that look cool and are still built from simple shapes.
Eight is the “make it cool” age. Cute is out, dragons and sharks are in, and there is a real appetite for detail: scales, teeth, wheels with hubcaps. The lessons below lean that way while keeping the method: big light shapes first, detail last. They also make good art projects, the projects page has ideas for turning one of these into a card, a poster or a comic panel.
Cool animals and dinosaurs
How to Draw a T-Rex
11 steps
How to Draw a Shark
12 steps
How to Draw a Dragon
15 steps
How to Draw a Tiger
15 steps
How to Draw an Eagle
12 steps
How to Draw a Triceratops
12 steps
How to Draw a Great White Shark
12 steps
How to Draw an Octopus
13 steps
How to Draw a Snake
12 steps
Sports and vehicles
How to Draw a Basketball Player
14 steps
How to Draw a Skateboard
12 steps
How to Draw a Monster Truck
13 steps
How to Draw a Sports Car
11 steps
How to Draw a Jet
13 steps
How to Draw a Dirtbike
13 steps
Heroes and villains
How to Draw a Superhero
11 steps
How to Draw a Ninja
13 steps
How to Draw a Knight
14 steps
How to Draw a Pirate
12 steps
How to Draw a Zombie
11 steps
How to Draw a Vampire
12 steps
How to Draw a Skeleton
12 steps
How to Draw a Robot
11 steps
How to Draw an Astronaut
13 steps
How to Draw a Viking
13 steps
How to Draw a Wizard
13 steps
Tips for drawing with 8 year olds
- Let them go over the final lines with a fine black marker; it is the single thing that makes an eight-year-old’s drawing look ‘finished’.
- Shading: a little scribble under the chin and belly, same direction, makes anything look solid.
- Keep a sketchbook. Eight-year-olds like seeing the pile grow.
Questions parents and teachers ask
What are cool things for an 8 year old to draw?
A T-rex, a shark, a dragon, a monster truck and a superhero are the perennial favourites, and all five are lessons here.
Art projects for 8 year olds?
Draw a dragon and turn it into a birthday card; draw the city street set and add your own cars; design a monster from the monster lessons. See the art projects page.