Whale Lesson

Write about your drawing.

Color your drawing.

Color the drawing with crayon.

Get more practice!
The more you practice, the better your writing and drawing will look. Find plenty of practice material in the eight-book Draw Write Now series. Each lesson is presented on two pages; one page has a drawing andBlue Whale lesson—Draw Write Now, Book 4 four short sentences, and the other has the step-by-step instructions.

Look at an object and visually break it into smaller, more manageable shapes and lines.

A child may use the Draw Write Now books independently, or the lessons can be augmented following this basic format:

1. Introduce the subject
2. Draw the subject
3. Create the background
4. Write about the drawing
5. Color the drawing

Complex Made SimpleFind the major shapes and lines that form the whale’s body. Then, focus on the details: the eye, fin and tail.

The ProblemIt can be hard to know which line or shape to focus on first. Some lines are recognizable, like the line making up the whale’s belly—it looks like a big smile—but, the line that makes up the top of the whale’s body is more difficult—it gently curves up and down. A gently curved line can be more difficult than it appears.

The SolutionWith drawing, we learn to study lines and shapes before recreating them. The following tips will serve as an example. Remember to look at the color drawing and use the step-by-step drawing as a reference.

Tip 1—Take a little time to study the whale’s back (Step 2). Before drawing it, run your finger over the line from tail to mouth. It might help to make the shape in the air—with your finger in front of your face, move left to right. The finger gently moves up and down. 

Tip 2—Look at the long line that runs the length of the body. Start near the tail end and focus on curving the line toward the bottom of the eye, make the little dip at the eye, then continue along with the mouth line.

Study the lines and shapes in a subject to break the image down into smaller, more manageable pieces. With that skill, we can draw just about anything!