Living in Santa Barbara means we are no strangers to fire dangers. Devastation from wild fires can affect an area’s ecosystem for decades. These beautiful animals are fighting to survive. It’s VERY scary and affects the air quality for miles around. We want to take time to send love to everyone involved in helping control these fires and saving these animals.

This blog post is dedicated to all our friends down under who are suffering through nature’s wrath. Especially our furry friends.

I hope you will share this marvelous marsupial with your kiddos so we can all keep Australia close to our hearts.

This lesson includes drawing & tracing skills, painting and creating tints, as well as using chalk pastel to create texture.

Watch here for a quick video version of the lesson:

Click the yellow button below to DOWNLOAD the Koala Drawing Guide. Add your name and email and we’ll send it to you!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• 12″ x 18″ orange sulphite paper

• Oil pastels (black, gray, green, brown)

• Liquid tempera paint (black, white, green, brown)

• Paintbrush

• Water & paper towels

• Chalk pastels (black, white, light blue, yellowish gold)

DRAWING THE KOALA:

Using a black oil pastel on orange 12″ x 18″ sulphite paper, begin drawing the head with two big ears, one with a straight line connecting them at the top and one curved line connecting to the bottom.

Draw two more curved lives inside the body to make the koala’s belly.

Draw one arm on each side of the body using two sets of curved lines going off the paper.

Add two lines separating the ears from the face. Starting just above the chin, draw a short straight line.

To start the nose placement, add a shorter curved line in the middle of the face. Then, connect the two lines with straight vertical lines to complete the nose.

Make two ovals for eyes and two curved lines for the expressive eyebrows.

If their eyes are too small, have them be the pupils and draw a larger oval around the first.

DRAWING THE BACKGROUND:

Draw a long, curved vertical line starting on the right side of the koala’s shoulder and stopping until you get to the ear, then continue through the other end of the ear going all the way up the page.

Repeat this step to complete the tree, explaining to students that this is called OVERLAPPING, to make an object appear behind another.

Add leaves to the background and explain to your students the important of BALANCE, and how as artists we want to fill in any empty space we might see in our artwork.

PAINTING THE KOALA:

Use black, white, green & brown tempera paint, begin painting the koala. Start by painting the lightest color on the koala and work your way to the darkest.

Using the double loading technique, have the students start by dipping their paintbrush into the white and then a small amount into the black to paint the ears and belly of the koala a light gray.

Wipe off the brush with a paper towel if the color is too dark, and add more white to make it lighter.

Create a darker gray tint for the rest of the koala’s body.

Repeat the double-loading technique for the leaves but with green and white tempera paint.

ADDING TEXTURE:

After the paint has dried, use a white or light blue chalk pastel to create texture by drawing lines around the body to look like fur.

Fill in the eyes with a light color, smoothing out with one finger.

Final Step: Outline the koala’s body and background trees and leaves with a black oil pastel.

Check out my Facebook Live tutorial for a full demonstration of the art project:

Click the yellow button below to DOWNLOAD the Koala Drawing Guide. Add your name and email and we’ll send it to you!