How to Draw a Cow & Step-by-Step Guide

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Learn how to draw a cute and friendly looking cow with our How to Draw a Cow tutorial; complete with a printable step-by-step guide to help your kids’ master the cow drawing process!

With its big beautiful eyes, a cartoon-like appearance and an ultra adorable face, this cow illustration is not only easy for kids and beginners to draw, it’s appealing too!

Our cow design can be easily drawn with a series of connected round shapes and lines, which is perfect for children of all ages who are learning to draw.

And for the preschoolers and very young children; a cow coloring page is included in the step-by-step printable guide download – designed to encourage kids to color, trace or add their own unique details to the cow.

More Cow and Farm Animal Crafts for Kids:

If you’re using this drawing tutorial as part of a Spring or Farm topic at home or school, we have a number of fun and easy arts and crafts to bolster the lesson plans with lots of fun activities that top into different creative and fine motor skills:

3D Bobble Cow Craft
3D Paper Frog Craft
Paper Roll Horse Craft
How to Draw a Bunny
Paper Roll Spring Animal Crafts (including: a lamb, chick, bunny and frog)

How to Draw a Cow – Draw the Cute Cow Shape in just 7 Steps!

Materials:

• White Card Stock or Paper for Drawing
• Pencil
• Black Marker or Crayon for Outlining
• A Favorite Coloring Medium

Printable Step-by-Step ‘How to Draw a Cow’ Tutorial and Cow Coloring Page

The printable download consists of three templates: A step-by-step illustration of How to Draw a Cow; a complete cow coloring page and a cow outline for children to trace or add their own detail.

The printable Step-by-Step ‘How to Draw a Cow’ tutorial and cow coloring/tracing page
is available to members of the Arty Crafty Kids club. 
Members will need to log in to access the templates: https://www.artycraftykids.com/product/flow-drawing-how-to-draw-a-cow-templates/

Not a Member?

Watch the How to Draw a Cow Tutorial:

Step 1: Draw the cow’s head with two adjoining shapes; an oval and curved rectangle.

Position the pencil into the center of the page and draw a large oval shape.

If necessary, repeat the shape over and over until the dominate line emerges – this is a particularly good drawing technique for young children who are learning how to draw.

The repetition builds rhythm, enabling children to relax into the process and draw in much freer way.

Once the oval is drawn, draw a large rectangle with curved corners on top – this will complete the basic shape of the cow’s head.

Step 2: Draw a pair of ears on both sides of the cow’s head.

Draw the cow’s ears just below the curved corners of its head.

The cow’s ears can be drawn as a pair of oval shapes or with narrow tips ( very similar to how we would draw a leaf).

Step 3: Draw a pair of cow horns.

Draw a cow’s horn along each of the curved edges.

Step 4: Draw the cow’s face.

Cow’s are known for their big beautiful dark eyes so our drawing of a cow’s face begins with its eyes!

Now draw a large pair of oval eyes within the large rectangular head.

Step 5: Complete the Cow’s face with nostrils, a smile, detail to the ears and a large pair of pupils.

Within the large oval shape, make the cow look super cute with a big happy smile and add a small pair of oval nostrils.

Draw two smaller ovals within the eyes to create pupils.

And finally, divide the ears in half with a line from the cow’s head to the tip of the ears.

Step 6: Next, draw a huge arch to create the cow’s body.

To make our drawing of a cow super easy for kids, we’ve designed our cow from a front view angle, which not only adds a cute and fun cartoon quality to the drawing but also snapshots their large incredible presence.

From the bottom of the sheet of paper, begin to draw a single line arch that stretches beyond the ears, above the horns and then back down to the other-side.

The cow’s head will be enveloped by this single line that forms the cow’s body – Easy Peasy!

Step 7: Draw a second smaller arch to create two front legs.

The second arch should be drawn under the cow’s mouth, leaving space either side to create a pair of front legs.

Step 8: Now decorate the cow with patchy markings.

The patches can be drawn anywhere on the cow’s head or body.

For fun, we’ve drawn a little heart!

Step 9: Use a favorite medium to color in the cow.

With the cow drawing complete, Arty Crafty Kids can bring their drawings to life with a splash of color.

Since the drawing is rather large and crayons can be strenuous on little hands for long periods of time, why not offer the kids’ an opportunity to paint their cow?!

Paint can cover large area’s quickly and if acrylic or watercolor paints are used, it dries quickly too!

The cow can be colored in traditional colors (black and white) or Arty Crafty Kids can get creative with their design and use multi-colors, draw patterns within the patches and decorate the surrounding white space with grass, flowers and a blue sky.

As always, we love to see Arty Crafty Kids’ creativity in action and if you happen to share their completed makes on social media, please do give us a tag or/and use the #artycraftykids – happy crafting!

Our drawing tutorials use the ‘flow drawing’ technique to help children engage and create with their natural rhythms.

What is Flow Drawing? 

Flow Drawing is an art technique developed by us to encourage children​ to understand shapes and create illustrations, in a much ‘freer’ way.

 By removing restrictions, flow drawing encourages children to fully engage in the moment and discover their natural flow, making every line count and bringing mindfulness to their creative process.

You can think of the flow drawing technique as a ‘how to draw’ guide with a difference – children won’t just draw a picture, they’ll create a unique work of art, right from their soul.

Flow Drawing Benefits:

Although the process of flowing more naturally in art might seem a little alien to children at first, it’s really worth encouraging them to have a go. 

Flow drawing has so many benefits and helps little hands and minds to:

• Explore simple shapes and how they work together to create larger forms
• Discover their natural flow and rhythm through repetitive movements
• Learn how to combine mediums, with a fun and easy approach
• Build confidence in their own creative ability
• Combat ‘perfection-seeking’ in art, providing a much needed alternative to rigid ‘how to draw’ guides
• Bring mindfulness to the creative process and boost mental health
• Foster a love of art and self-expression.

How to Draw Tutorials for Kids and Beginners