Art Sub Lesson Plan - How to Draw a Monster

How to Draw Doodle Monsters

This is the time of year that kids are most intrigued by monsters. They're everywhere you look in the stores and on TV! At school though, you don't want your students to work on grisly, bloody creatures. So, I like to teach them how to draw doodle monsters.

Doodle monsters are friendly looking and not at all scary. Drawing a doodle monster lets kids be creative and draw as crazy a creature as they can imagine.

Step-by-Step for Drawing a Monster

When I have kids drawing doodle monsters, I like to have lots of visuals around. Having examples of cartoon eyes, noses, mouths, ears, hair, arms, bodies, and legs is key. Examples give kids a good jumping off point. They are less likely to have  artist's block when they can see so many options.

Doodle monsters are made of such simple shapes, anyone can draw them. 

Let me show you how to draw a super simple one.

Step 1.  Draw a simple shape for the monster's body. Using a variety of lines makes it look interesting.

Step 2.  Draw simple eye shapes. It can be one eye, or many.

Step 3. Draw a mouth. It might be toothy or not.

Step 4.  Color in the monster. Start by outlining the shape.

Step 5. Color in the shape neatly.  To make it look more three dimensional, color more heavily around the edges.

One monster, DONE!

They can fill a whole sheet with these simple creatures. Varying the shapes, lines, patterns and colors will make the drawing more interesting. The more examples you have around to inspire the students, the better.

Get the Lesson Plan and Visuals

I love teaching how to draw these monsters, so I have created lesson plans for teaching doodle monsters during the different seasons. They were written for a sub, so they are fully scripted; use simple materials; and have lots of examples.

Here are some visuals from the one I created for Halloween. I have made versions for kids who want to draw Halloween monsters and another for kids who want to draw fall monsters. (Not all students are allowed, nor want to, draw Halloween imagery, so I have taken this into account.)

Here's where you can find my lesson and all the visuals:  Art Sub Lesson - Doodle Monsters at Halloween. It's only $4.00 and will save you hours and hours of time.

Blog Posts about Doodle Monsters

Check out these blog posts about Doodle Monsters at other seasons:

Doodle Monsters at Christmas and Winter

Doodle Monsters at Valentines Day