HOW TO DRAW A COW

My Kinder classes embarked on painting animals last month (owls, cows and sheep). Basic drawing skills were enhanced plus I shared what little knowledge of holstein cows I had.

I talked a small bit about cow anatomy…big heads, all those stomachs, hooves and the best part of all, udders. They giggled a bit about the udders but I like to bring a little practical farm sense to my suburban students.

Drawing the Cow

We drew in oil pastel and painted with liquid tempera paints. To learn how to draw a cow, I start by drawing one myself on the whiteboard. As I go, I like to talk about the different parts of the body, spending some time on the head as that’s the hardest part.

I have a great little cow handout in my Drawing Animals PDF but basically, it goes like this: draw 2 dots for the eyes, then a horizontal line over the head with little droopy ears at the end of the line.

Add two horns then connect the ears with a big letter “U” for the face.

At the bottom of the face, add a square with two nostrils.

The body is pretty much self explanatory but add the two side legs first, then the udder and finally the backside legs.

Look at the udder in this drawing…this is the joy of teaching Kinders!

Painting the Picture

I used black, blue, green and pink paint on white Tru-Ray construction paper. When the background and cows were painted ( I encouraged the kids to leave their fence posts and cow bodies unpainted) children outlined their cows with black tempera paint. To check out what art supplies I use, visit my Art Supply page.

About outlining with black paint:

I tend to outline this way as I think it really develops fine motor skills. They learn not to press too hard with their tiny brushes and they can see how little paint a small brush holds compared to a medium sized brush.

I think these are good practices to learn early, so if you are fearful about this last step, don’t be. It’s a great thing to learn.

Kinder Painted Cows…each one a delight!

Here is another Cow Art Lesson I did with my Kinders.

Want to learn more about Holstein cows? Check out this site about cows.

Download this free lesson guide on our Chicken Little template for more farm animal art inspiration!