Kids are naturally drawn to animals so it’s understandable that it’s one of the first things they take interest in capturing through drawings. Whether you’re looking for a fun activity to keep your little ones occupied while they stay at home or you’re looking for ways to make drawing more easy and exciting for your kids, there’s no better place to find awesome resources than on the internet.
We’ve rounded up 20 amazing websites and Youtube channels that will help your kids draw their favorite animals effortlessly. Check them out below!
In this article, you’ll discover:
Gone are the days when kids were kept off of the internet because they were too young for it. Today, it would seem like the internet is made for kids, with tons of blogs, websites, and platforms dedicated to learning resources that make it easy for anyone to learn anything. Here are some of the best places online to run to for animal drawing tutorials and ideas.
Free Animal-based Drawing Websites for Kids
How 2 Draw Animals is a free animal-based drawing website for kids. They have step-by-step instructions in video form and text form, so you can choose which one to let your child/ren follow. What’s great about this website is that they have an extensive collection of animal drawing tutorials, sorted in alphabetical order, both in cartoon style (for kids and newbies) and realistic style (for pros).
We Draw Animals is another one of the many kids’ drawing websites on the internet that offers step-by-step video tutorials and visual instructions on how to draw animals. From cute and cuddly house pets to wild and savage prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs, this website has it all! They even have several variations of the animal drawing you’re trying to learn such as head only, face only, sitting pose, standing pose, and more so you can capture the image of your animal of choice is whatever position you want.
Learning doesn’t have to be boring and BBC Earth Kid’s Earth Sketch Pad proves just that. Watch Lorna, Musa, and Ricky draw your favorite animals in 3 minutes or under in this fun series on the BBC Earth Kids website. It’s also available on Youtube! While you’re online, you might want to explore the website itself, too. It contains tons of trivia and facts that any animal lover is sure to enjoy.
Ranger Rick is the National Wildlife Federation’s raccoon mascot. The NWF has dedicated a website for kids who would like to learn more about their friends in the wilderness and it’s filled to the brim with awesome content, from drawing tutorials to comics that tell of Ranger Rick’s exciting adventure with his friends! If your little one has mastered the art of drawing everyday ordinary animals like cats and dogs, check out Ranger Rick’s tutorials to learn how to draw mountain goats, elephants, lemurs, and more!
Miss going to the zoo? Zoo New England’s website can help with that. Check out this website and bookmark it if you’re looking for something fun, educational, and interactive. Aside from learning more about animals, you can also book trips to the Stone Zoo and Franklin Park Zoo here. What’s more is that they have tons of kid-friendly activities, including drawing animals with some of their best zoo keepers, that’ll keep the little ones occupied and entertained for hours.
Free Drawing Websites for Kids with an Animal Category
Looking for kids drawing websites dedicated to animals can be pretty challenging. Thankfull there are tons of generic art websites for kids that have an animal category. The best thing about these sites, of course, is that they’re free!
Easy Drawing Guides makes learning how to draw fun and fresh. Instead of learning how to draw a generic dog, you’ll see tutorials for different dog breeds like the dachshund, poodle, corgi, and more. You’ll also find awesome step-by-step tutorials on how to draw animal characters from your favorite movies and TV shows like Dumbo, Peppa Pig, and Chase from Paw Patrol!
If you’re looking for tutorials that a newbie with zero experience can follow with no problems, go to Easy Peasy and Fun! The drawing guides are pretty basic, but stil very cute. They have an animal category with a fair amount of choices and they have other categories as well and they also have crafts and printables in case you get tired of drawing for a bit.
Another awesome drawing website for kids is Hello Kids. They have a bunch of animal drawing tutorials in video form and written/drawn form so you’re definitely free to pick your pace and choose a method you’re most comfortable with. On the website, you’ll also find cool online games, reading and learning resources and more stuff to keep kids from being bored while they stay home.
Art Hub for Kids is one of the best and most loaded art websites for kids out there. It has drawing guides, an origami section, cute holiday art projects, a painting section, and more. If you’re an art lover who also happens to be an animal lover, this website will blow your mind!
Drawing Tutorials 101 is the ultimate drawing website for kids who love to draw, whether it’s animals or anything else. They have drawing guides that are super easy to follow for intermediate-level little artists and they have categories that range from cute animals to powerful superheroes and even random stuff to draw when you’re bored.
Paid Drawing Websites for Kids with an Animal Category
While most people share drawing guides on kids’ drawing websites for free, there are also those who do it for a living. Often times, these paid ones are a little more advanced and they teach you to draw with a bit more detail. There are also membership-type or subscription-type sites that provide a bit more of a personalized experience, either by doing live one-on-one classes or by providing video lessons tailored to your skill level and drawing preferences.
Village Kids UK is a membership site that uploads basic drawing guides suitable for beginners and intermediate-level artists. A membership costs around $25 for a whole year which is pretty inexpensive considering the fact that you get unlimited access to everything on their website.
Founded by animal lover and professional artist Brittany Rogers, The Drawing Room is where love for art, animals, and nature come to life. Since the pandemic, The Drawing Room has started offering Zoom classes where kids (and adults, too!) can meet some of her pet animals and then, later on, draw them with Brittany’s guidance. While most of her services are for sale, she also has a few free videos up on her Youtube channel (check it out below) where she teaches kids how to draw live animals.
Udemy is a platform where experts can share their knowledge to anyone and everyone who’s interested to learn for a very minimal fee. They have an animal drawing class called the “Ultimate Animal Drawing Course” for beginners to advanced level artists that teaches students how to draw animals in different styles. The class, created by Jaysen and Quinton Batchelor, is currently priced at $12.99 but is on sale for $9.99.
Another paid platform with great courses on animal drawing for kids is Outschool. This particular course, created by Meghan Campbell, teaches children from 8 to 13 years old how to draw baby animals from around the world. It’s a live interactive online class that your kids can join so they can mingle with other kids while learning to draw, too. The course costs $12/week per learner for a 70-minute class that is conducted once every week.
For $174/year or $17.49/month, you could get your kids access to Aaron Blaise’s classes on animal drawings, animation, and more on the Creature Art Teacher website. Aaron Blaise is a professional illustrator and a serious animal lover. He helped create some of the most iconic Disney films as an illustrator with movies like The Lion King, Brother Bear, and Beauty and the Beast under his belt. His classes are great for intermediate-level artists as well as pros who would like to delve into digital art and animation.
YouTube Kids Drawing Channels with Animal Tutorials
Another amazing place on the internet where your little ones can learn how to draw their favorite animals is Youtube. The great thing about learning through Youtube is that it feels a bit more personalized since content creators try their best to sound like they’re talking to you, like in those fancy art websites for kids that charge for one-on-one classes, but it’s totally free!
Let’s Draw has a playlist that you can watch on Youtube with your kids where he turns words that spell animal names into the animals themselves. It’s a very interesting and very creative technique that’s easy to follow for anyone and it’s a great way to teach kids about animals, spelling, and art too.
Got beginners who are feeling a bit overwhelmed with drawing? Okidokids makes art and drawing less intimidating by showing kids how to draw animals from basic shapes in this playlist. These lessons are perfect for preschoolers who are into animals and art as the instructions are quite simple and easy to follow.
Draw So Cute is a Youtube channel dedicated to teaching kids how to draw cute little characters from their favorite TV shows, movies, toy lines, and more. She has a huge assortment of videos that any kids will surely go crazy for and her “How to Draw Animals” playlist is one of the best. She has several variations of animal drawings, too, from simple and basic to unicorn-style and Beanie Boo plush. Her playlist for how to draw aquatic animals is fantastic and is sure to lead to hours of underwater drawing fun!
QWE Art’s drawing tutorials are simple but detailed. His videos are short and straight to the point, but he doesn’t forget to include a tip or two to make your drawings look better. Aside from his “How to Draw Animals” playlist linked above, he also has another playlist for drawing pet portraits and animal-based cartoon characters like Tom and Jerry and The Lion King.
Earlier, we mentioned The Drawing Zoo which offers paid sessions where kids can meet the animals and draw them live. If, for whatever reason, booking Brittany and her animals isn’t a feasible option for you, you can always just go to her Youtube channel instead. She uploads videos showing off her lovely pets and does a follow-along kind of tutorial so kids can learn how to draw the featured animal.
Bonus #1: 5 Tips to Encourage Kids to Draw
Not everyone has a natural desire to draw. Fortunately, it’s something that you can definitely coax your kids into. If you love drawing and doing art, but your kids don’t seem to show the same interest and enthusiasm for it, you might want to check out these tips.
- Lead by example– kids learn best when you teach by example and when you lead by doing. Instead of telling them to draw, show them how you do it. Let them see how much fun you’re having when you’re drawing and it’ll help pique their interest.
- Level with them– overwhelming your children is a big no-no when you’re tying to get them interested in drawing. You may be a pro, but they aren’t so level with them and get them started with the basics instead of jumping into complicated styles and techniques immediately. Visit kids drawing websites for inspiration and guidance on how to level with them in terms of drawing skill and style.
- Leave tools out for them– maybe your child is shy or maybe she’s the kind who does things on her own time. If this is the case, making sure that drawing tools and materials are always somewhere in your house, ready for her to use, is important. Let her know it’s there and tell her she can use it whenever she feels like it. That way, she won’t feel pressured to draw.
- Make it interesting– basic lines and shapes can be boring for some kids so make sure to keep your drawing sessions fresh and interesting. Draw animals from tracing of your hands or try shadow drawing. Don’t limit their imagination with a pen and paper and try to do some drawing outdoors, too, using other materials like sidewalk chalk or try making sidewalk puffy paint to draw your animals. Some kids become more interested in learning when they’re presented with fun materials to use.
- Draw things they’re interested in – animals are really easy to draw which is why they’re great for beginners but, if your child is interested in other things, feel free to teach them how to draw those too! It’s important for kids to love what they do and involving their favorites in the process can help a lot. Aside from learning from online platforms, illustrated bookswould also be a good place to take drawing inspiration from.
Bonus #2: 5 Drawing Benefits for Kids
- It improves hand-eye coordination– hand-eye coordination is a cognitive skill that children need to develop early on and drawing is a good way to practice it.
- It develops fine motor skills– for young artists, the ability to grasp a pencil and control it to make lines and shapes is already a big achievement. If you’re looking for activities that will help develop kids’ fine motor skills, try drawing.
- It encourages creativity and imagination– creativity and imagination are two things that any person will always benefit from, whether during childhood or well into their adult life. It’s a great stepping stone to success and it’s something that kids can develop as early as their toddler years.
- It teaches persistence– persistence is, sadly, something that a lot of kids no longer have in this day and age where everything can be had in an instant with a simple tap or a simple click. With drawing, kids learn the age old adage “practice makes perfect.”
- It helps train kids to concentrate – if you have a kid who has a short attention span, you may notice how it has some negative effects on your child’s performance at school. A good way to deal with short attention span is to practice concentration and drawing is just the right activity to get your kids in the zone.
You don’t have to be a pro artist yourself to teach your kids how to draw. In fact, it would be an amazing experience for you and your child to learn how to draw together if you’re someone who didn’t get practice drawing as much when you were younger. When learning from online platforms like websites, blogs, and Youtube, always make sure your children are under adult supervision. The internet may be an amazing place for learning resources, but it can be undeniably dangerous for unsupervised children, too.
