How to draw a chick — easy step by step drawing ideas

Chick drawing ideas are where I start with the very youngest artists in the studio, and there is no better first animal. A baby chick is one fluffy egg shape with a face on it. There are no legs to line up, no long neck, no tricky ears — just a round yellow ball of feathers with two big eyes and a tiny beak. Learning how to draw a chick takes ten minutes, and it comes out cute every single time.

I also love how much room a chick leaves for play. Once children can draw one, they draw ten: a row of chicks following a hen, a chick hatching out of an egg, a chick wearing a party hat. It is the perfect little character to practise expressions with, because the whole face is just two eyes and a beak, and moving them a tiny bit changes everything.

In this tutorial we will build a fluffy yellow chick in six easy steps, following the practice sheet below. I will share the pro tips I use when teaching it, the mistakes that trip up nearly every beginner, and quick fixes for when your chick starts looking like a duck or a lemon. Grab a pencil and a yellow crayon, and let us draw.

The 6 steps to easy chick drawing ideas

Step 1 — Draw the body

Start with the body, right in the middle of the paper. Draw one big egg shape standing on its wide end: rounded at the top, a little wider and flatter at the bottom, with soft sides. That is the whole chick — head and body together in a single shape. Make it big and plump; a chubby egg is a happy chick.

If you like, let the sides bulge out very slightly where the wings will go, so the egg has two soft shoulders. It is not essential, but it makes the wings sit more naturally in a later step. Keep the pencil light; you will darken the keeper lines at the end.

Step 2 — Add the face

Now the chick gets its personality. In the top half of the egg, draw two big round eyes, set a little apart, with a small white shine dot in the upper corner of each. Big, round, widely spaced eyes are the whole secret to a chick that looks sweet rather than surprised.

Between and slightly below the eyes, draw a small sideways triangle for the beak, pointing toward you, with a short line across the middle to split it into a top and bottom half. Then add a soft round blush circle on each cheek, just outside and below the eyes. That is the entire face, and it already looks like a chick.

Step 3 — Add the wings

On each side of the egg, about halfway down, draw a small rounded wing: a soft curved shape like a little leaf or a teardrop lying on its side, with the rounded end pointing down and slightly outward. The wings should be small — a baby chick's wings are barely bigger than its eyes — and they sit on the outside edge of the body, half on and half off.

Draw a tiny curved line or two inside each wing for feathers if you like, but do not fuss over them. Little stubby wings are one of the things that make a chick look like a baby, so if they seem too small, they are probably just right.

Step 4 — Add the tuft and tail

Right on top of the egg, draw a small tuft of feathers: two or three little curved points sticking up, like a tiny flame or a sprout. This is the fluffy bit of down that every baby chick has, and it is what makes the top of the head look soft instead of bald. Keep it small and slightly off to one side for a cheeky look.

Then, low on one side of the body at the back, draw three small pointed feathers fanning out for the tail. They should be about the same size as the head tuft, poking out just behind the wing. Tuft on top, tail at the back, and the chick is nearly finished.

Step 5 — Add the feet

At the bottom of the egg, draw two small feet, one on each side of the middle. Each foot is just three short lines fanning out from one point, like a tiny bird's footprint, with the outer toes angled out and the middle toe pointing forward. Keep them small and close to the body; a chick has almost no visible legs.

Make sure both feet sit on the same imaginary ground line, so the chick stands level. If you like, add a very short line above each foot for a leg, but most cartoon chicks look best with the feet poking straight out from the bottom of the fluff.

Step 6 — Finish and color

Darken the lines you want to keep and erase the light scaffolding underneath — the part of the egg outline hidden behind the wings, and any ground line you sketched. Then color: fill the whole body, wings, tuft and tail a sunny yellow, and color the beak and the feet bright orange. Add pink to the blush cheeks.

Leave the shine dots in the eyes uncolored so they sparkle. Then give your chick somewhere to be — a bit of green grass, a cracked eggshell beside it, a few yellow flowers, a mother hen. Sign your name in the corner; every finished drawing deserves a signature.

Common mistakes to avoid

Drawing a separate head

This is the mistake that turns more chicks into chickens than any other. Hands want to draw a head circle on top of a body circle, the way they would for almost any animal — but a baby chick is a single fluffy ball.

Draw one egg shape and put the face in the top half of it. If you have already drawn two circles, erase the line between them and smooth the outline into one egg. The chick will instantly look younger and rounder.

A beak that is too big

A wide, flat beak makes a duck; a long, pointed one makes a sparrow. Beginners often draw the beak the size of an eye or bigger, and the whole face changes character.

Keep the beak a tiny sideways triangle, no wider than one eye, sitting just below and between the eyes. Small beak, big eyes: that is the chick recipe.

Eyes that are too small or too close

Small dot eyes or eyes squeezed together in the middle of the face make the chick look nervous or cross-eyed, and take away the sweetness that makes it fun to draw.

Make the eyes big and round, set them a little apart, and put a shine dot in the same corner of each. That is nearly all the personality a chick has, so give the eyes plenty of room.

Troubleshooting

“My chick looks like a lemon”

The egg is probably too pointed at the top. Round the top off, add the little feather tuft so the shape has some fluff, and make sure the wings and tail feathers are clearly there. A lemon has no wings.

“My chick looks like a duck”

Almost always the beak. Shrink it to a small triangle no wider than an eye, and make sure it is split with a short line rather than drawn as a wide flat bill. Rounding the body more helps too.

“It looks flat and boring”

Add the blush cheeks and the shine dots in the eyes if you skipped them, tilt the head tuft slightly to one side, and angle the feet outward. Those three tiny touches add all the character.

Key takeaways

FAQ

What age is this chick drawing tutorial for? This is the easiest tutorial on the site: one egg shape and a few small details. It works from about age 3 with a grown-up nearby, and most kids around 5 and up can follow the sheet completely on their own.

Does the chick need a separate head? No. A baby chick is a fluffy ball, so the head and body are one egg shape. The eyes sit in the top half and the wings in the bottom half, and that is what makes it look like a chick rather than a chicken.

What materials do we need? A pencil, an eraser, paper, and a yellow crayon or marker for the body plus orange for the beak and feet. A touch of pink for the cheeks is a nice extra.

How do I draw the beak? A small sideways triangle in the middle of the face, just below the eyes, with a short line across the middle to split it into a top and bottom. Keep it tiny: a big beak turns the chick into a duck.

That is your chick! Whether it came out neat and round or a little bit lumpy, you built a whole animal out of one egg shape — and that belongs on the fridge. Keep the sheet handy, draw a whole line of chicks following a hen, and come back tomorrow for a new tutorial.

More tutorials: All tutorials · How to draw a duck · How to draw a penguin · How to draw an owl