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Artists of Any Age Can Make This Cool Art!
We're feeling inspired by the beautiful colors of Springtime and, since Easter is coming up, we thought we'd do a cool bunny painting! This is a super fun Springtime themed project where we'll learn about symmetry and how to work with watercolors and pencil.
What You'll Need
- Watercolor Paper
- Watercolor Paint
- Watercolor Paintbrushes (medium and small sizes)
- Pencil
- Sharpie
- Water Jar
- Paper towels
First, let's use masking tape around the edges of our paper so that way, at the end of our project, we can take the tape off and our art will have a border, like a frame. Beautiful!
Step 1: Draw Your Bunny Head
PRO TIP: For this step, we suggest drawing REALLY lightly. Since we're using pastel watercolors, your pencil lines may show through if they're very dark or thick.
Grab your pencil and start in the middle of the paper. Draw a rainbow - this will be the top of your bunny's head. Make sure you don't do it too high because you will need room for your ears! You can always erase and adjust if you make a mistake or a change. Now, we'll draw the bunny's cheeks. Draw two circles that touch underneath the rainbow. Where the two circles touch should be in the middle of the rainbow.
PRO TIP: try drawing the shape with your eraser first, and if you like it, then draw over that with your pencil.
Now you've got the head shape down - let's start drawing some outlines of the face. Draw two lines up from the big circles, and connect them with a small rainbow curve. Right under that, let's draw two slanted dashes- those will be the nostrils on your bunny's nose! Then, draw two smaller circles inside your big circles. This will be the final touch of the white furry part on your bunny's face. You can also make this styled however you want, but try to match it on both sides so that it's symmetrical.
Finally, let's draw some eyes. Draw two ovals on either side of the white part of your bunny's face. Then, draw two tear ducts underneath the eyes really small on the insides of the eyes. Then, go to the opposite side on the top and draw another little oval. Make sure they're teeny tiny! Finally, let's add some highlights. Add a little oval in the corner of each eye, and split it in half with a line in it.
Step 2: Draw the Bunny Details
Right above the nose, draw two small lines going up off of your bunny's head. Then, go one finger space apart and make another vertical line on the outside of the middle lines. That will be the bottom of the ears.
Toward the top of the drawing, make two tiny rainbows. Then, connect the lines you drew to the tiny rainbows, but be sure to draw your line out and then in on both sides so your ears are puffy instead of rectangular!
Then, let's draw the bunny's shoulders. Draw two rainbow curves coming down from the cheeks and that's his shoulders. You can also add a rainbow curve in between his cheeks for his mouth.
The last step is to draw the whiskers! Start in the center and draw 5 to 8 different whiskers on each cheek. Make sure they're whispy and drawn lightly, because later we're going to erase our whiskers.
Step 3: Paint the Ears
Okay, we're done drawing our guidelines, so we're ready to start painting! Choose the color you want for your bunny. Our examples are brown bunnies, but you can pick any color you want to do. Start by filling in the ears. If your color is too dark, use some water to dilute it and make it a little more light. Remember, we're going for pastels in this painting to make it look extra Spring-y! Using your medium sized brush, color in your ears.
Switch to your small brush for this next step. Color around the eyes, being really careful about staying inside the lines you drew. If you need more color, just use a dot and build your color. If you need to make it lighter, use a little more water. If it's too wet, you can always blot gently with your paper towel.
Step 4: Paint the Cheeks - But Be Careful!
This step can be really tricky, please read first before doing it. Because the whiskers are white we want to paint around the whiskers. Using your small brush and your body color, paint your bunny's fur right up to the whisker, but leave a little bit of space. Touch the pencil line but leave a little bit of white above it. This is a very advanced technique that will give this a really unique look. Make sure to go slowly and do this for each whisker. When your painting is dry, we'll go through and erase all the whisker pencil lines, so it'll look white!
Once that's all done, fill in the body, too.
Step 5: Paint the Background
While that's drying, we're going to focus on the background. You can pick any color you want. Using the skinny brush. we're going to do the same thing with the whiskers that we did in the last step. Start painting your background, but make sure to leave some white space where your whiskers are. It's an advanced step, but it'll look really great when we're done!
Once you do the whiskers, you'll notice the background in our example is blotty. You can do that too. Make sure to switch to your medium brush and add some paint and enough water to get blots. This makes it look like whatever the background is is far away and out of focus. You can also blot some dark and light spots, too. Make your painting your own! Fill in your entire background!
ADVANCED CHALLENGE: If you want to take on the challenge, just like we did with the whiskers, leave a little bit of white outline in between your bunny's face and the background. When we erase our pencil marks, it'll pop a little bit more and look like a cool white outline.
Step 6: Add Shadows on Your Rabbit
The first detail we're going to add is some shadows on our bunny. Take a darker color than the body color (it can be totally different if you want), and wiggle a little on the shadow sides of the ears. Then, go all the way down the face and cheek on the same shadow side, making sure not to go over your white whisker spaces.
Add a little shadow under the mouth as well. You can take a little water and blend that into your bunny's body.
Step 7: Paint Details on Your Rabbit
Let's add some details to our rabbit! For the nose, find a pink or red color that you like. Paint very lightly over the nostrils you drew earlier.
Then, pick a bright color to add to your bunny's fur color. Add a few highlight colors on the cheeks, body, face, and ears, and blend it through to add a little bit more color and dimension. You can add this wherever you want, but make sure it's light and blendy, and that we're keeping our white whisker spaces separated.
You can also do the same thing with your background. Add a new color to your background and make it splotchy, like you did with your fur. Make sure you go all the way to the tape edge!
If you want to add some pink or red to your bunny's mouth, you can do that too! Just follow the mouth line you drew earlier.
Step 8: Draw More Details
The area around your eyes should be pretty dry at this point- if it's not, you can wait a little bit, or use a blow dryer to help your painting dry faster. Take your Sharpie and outline the shapes of your eyes. Fill everything in your eyes except the highlight we drew earlier.
OPTIONAL: If you want your bunny to look more like a girl, take the top line you drew and curve it to look more like an eyelash!
If your mouth is dry, we're going to draw using the very tip of your marker on top of your mouth and nostrils. Fill in the triangle shape it makes below it black for the bunny's mouth! Where it goes underneath the cheek, draw a little bit underneath. Make sure these lines are very thin!
Feel around where your painting is dry. Wherever it's dry, start to erase all of those pencil lines. When your painting is completely dry, then make sure all of those lines are erased!
The Final Product!
