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How to Draw a Dinosaur — Easy Step by Step Drawing Ideas

For kids & beginners · about 15–20 minutes · pencil, paper, eraser, crayons

If you're searching for dinosaur drawing ideas that a five-year-old can actually finish — and be thrilled about — you've dug up the right tutorial. Learning how to draw a dinosaur is, in my experience, the single most requested lesson at any kids' drawing table. Something about dinosaurs turns even the most reluctant "I can't draw" kid into someone who suddenly needs three more sheets of paper.

And here's our little secret: a cute cartoon dinosaur is one of the easiest animals in the entire studio. There's no tricky fur, no whiskers, no complicated ears — just big friendly shapes. A round head, a plump egg body, a thick tapering tail, and a row of little triangle plates marching down its back. If you can draw a circle and a triangle, you are fully qualified for this job.

So grab a pencil, keep your eraser nearby, and find something green (or purple, or turquoise — dinosaurs stopped enforcing color rules about 66 million years ago). Follow the worksheet below panel by panel, or read the full steps underneath where I've tucked in pro tips, the classic mistakes I see most often, and easy fixes for wobbly first tries. Let's meet your dinosaur!

How to draw a dinosaur in 6 easy steps

Step 1 — Draw the head

Start with a big, rounded circle in the upper part of your paper, a little off to one side. Baby dinosaurs — at least the adorable cartoon kind — have huge, chubby heads, and that oversized head is doing most of the cuteness work in this drawing. So make it bigger than feels sensible.

Keep your pencil pressure whisper-light. This circle is scaffolding: parts of it will disappear later when the body and plates overlap it, and light lines erase without leaving ghostly gray smudges. We'll save the bold, confident strokes for the very last step.

Step 2 — Draw the body and tummy

Under the head, slightly overlapping it, draw a plump egg-shaped body — wider at the bottom, cozy at the top. Think of a friendly water balloon sitting on a shelf. The head should snuggle into the top of the egg with no visible neck; cute dinosaurs are all soft roundness, like they're made of marshmallows.

Now add my favorite detail: the tummy patch. Draw a gentle curved line inside the body, following its bottom edge, to mark out the lighter belly. It's one line, it takes two seconds, and it instantly makes your dinosaur look like it walked out of a picture book.

Step 3 — Add the legs and tail

Give your dinosaur four short, stubby legs — two in front, two behind — each one a simple thick column with a flat, rounded foot. Resist any urge toward long elegant legs: stubby is the whole aesthetic. A cute dinosaur should look like it would waddle rather than sprint.

Then the tail, which is the most dinosaur part of the dinosaur. Start it thick where it meets the body — almost as thick as the legs — and let it taper in one smooth curve to a soft point. Sweep it out to the side or curl it around the feet. One confident curve beats three hesitant ones, so draw it lightly a couple of times and keep the best line.

Step 4 — Add the back plates

Here comes the detail that makes everyone smile: the plates. Draw a row of small, rounded triangles marching from the top of the head, down along the back, and all the way out to the tip of the tail. Keep them evenly spaced, like little mountains in a row, and make them gradually smaller as they head down the tail.

Rounded is the key word — soft, slightly puffy triangles read as sweet and huggable, while sharp spikes start looking dangerous, and this particular dinosaur is clearly a herbivore with excellent manners. Five to eight plates is the sweet spot; more than that starts to look like a mohawk.

Step 5 — Give it a face and details

Time to bring your dinosaur to life. Draw two big round eyes on the head, spaced wide apart, and fill them in dark — but leave a small white circle uncolored in each one. That little highlight is pure magic: it's the difference between "drawing of a dinosaur" and "dinosaur that wants to be your friend."

Add a wide, happy mouth — one long curved line across the lower part of the head — plus two tiny dots for nostrils. Then the finishing touches: a rosy blush circle on each cheek, and two or three short toe lines on each foot. Small details, enormous payoff.

Step 6 — Finish and color!

Cleanup time. Go over your favorite lines with firmer pencil pressure or a fine marker, then erase all the light scaffolding — the overlapping seams, the extra circle edges, any wobbles you've outgrown. This is the most satisfying ten seconds of the whole tutorial: watch a sketch become a dinosaur.

Then color! The classic look is soft green with a lighter cream or yellow tummy and slightly darker green plates. But dinosaur coloring is a lawless, joyful frontier: teal with orange plates, purple with pink plates, or full rainbow are all scientifically unfalsifiable and artistically excellent. Add a few ferns, a volcano, or a tiny butterfly friend to build a whole prehistoric scene.

Common mistakes to avoid

Making the head too small

A small head on a big body instantly turns your cute baby dinosaur into a serious museum dinosaur. It happens naturally — we know real dinosaurs had smallish heads, so our hands try to be accurate.

Fight the accuracy. In cute-style drawing, the head should be almost as big as the body. If your finished dinosaur feels "off" and you can't say why, compare head to body — nine times out of ten, the head needs to grow.

Sharp, scary spikes

When the back plates come out as long pointy spikes, the whole personality changes — suddenly it's a dragon guarding treasure instead of a friend who shares snacks. Sharp angles read as danger everywhere in a drawing.

Round every plate's tip, keep them small relative to the body, and space them evenly. If your plates already look fierce, simply round off the points with your eraser and redraw the tips as soft bumps.

A skinny, deflated tail

A thin tail glued onto a round body looks like a piece of string and drains all the dinosaur-ness out of the drawing. Beginners draw thin tails because tapering feels hard.

Start the tail as wide as the leg, hug it against the body outline, and narrow it gradually — imagine squeezing toothpaste from the body outward. Thick at the base, gentle taper, soft point. That's a tail with presence.

Troubleshooting

"My dinosaur looks like a lizard!"

Lizards are lean; cute dinosaurs are round. Chubby up the body, shrink the snout, shorten the legs, and — most importantly — add that row of rounded back plates. Plates are the dinosaur's uniform; nothing says "dinosaur, not lizard" faster.

"The legs look wrong on both sides."

Draw the two near legs fully, and show the two far legs as slightly shorter shapes peeking out from behind them, a touch darker or offset. If that still fights you, take the classic shortcut: draw just two legs. Countless beloved picture-book dinosaurs stand proudly on two visible legs.

"The plates are all different sizes and it looks messy."

Lightly mark small dots along the back first, evenly spaced, then draw one plate over each dot. Spacing before drawing beats eyeballing every time. And remember the size rule: biggest plates over the back, smallest at the head and tail tip — a gentle hill of plates, not a random skyline.

Key takeaways

• A cute dinosaur is just four friendly shapes: a big round head, an egg body, stubby legs, and one thick tapering tail.
• The row of small rounded back plates is what makes it read as "dinosaur" — keep them soft, even, and modest-sized.
• Draw whisper-light until the final step, then darken the lines you love and erase the scaffolding.
• Big wide-set eyes with white highlights plus blush cheeks are the fastest route to maximum cuteness.
• The tummy-patch line is the highest-value single line in the whole drawing — never skip it.
• Draw the same dinosaur three times and watch it improve — repetition beats talent, even in the Jurassic.

FAQ

What age is this dinosaur drawing tutorial for?

It's built for kids 5+ with a grown-up nearby to read the steps, and kids 7+ can usually follow the six panels on their own. Beginner adults enjoy it too — dinosaurs are a wonderfully forgiving first subject.

What kind of dinosaur is this?

A friendly cartoon dinosaur inspired by a stegosaurus, thanks to those little back plates. Once you've drawn it, you can easily remix it — longer neck for a brontosaurus feel, tiny arms and bigger teeth for a T-rex.

What materials do I need to draw a dinosaur?

Just a pencil, paper and an eraser. Green, yellow or teal crayons make the coloring step extra fun, but your dinosaur can be any color — purple dinosaurs have a long and proud history.

My dinosaur looks more like a lizard — help?

Make the head and body rounder and chubbier, shorten the legs, and add the row of back plates. Round shapes plus back plates read instantly as a cute dinosaur instead of a lizard.

And there it is — your very own dinosaur, plates gleaming, tail swishing, grinning like it just found the fern buffet. Sixty-six million years of waiting and it finally got drawn by you. Stick it on the fridge, draw it a dino friend tomorrow, and come back soon: a new animal joins the studio every single day.

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