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

9 Halloween Art Sub Lessons

9 Halloween Art Lesson Plans Easy Enough for a Sub

Here are some fun lessons for October. I’ll add some that can be adapted for those kids who cannot use Halloween imagery for religious or personal reasons.

First, here’s one I just created. Kids love drawing “doodle monsters.” They are easy shapes to draw and there are so many options for adding fun details. 

In this art lesson, I gave examples of doodle monster drawings that are either Halloween focused, with mummies, ghosts, witches, and the likes plus an example of one with none of that. It has footballs, fall trees, hot cocoa, and warm clothes. Kids will appreciate that options are given for either direction.

You can find that lesson in my TpT shop:  Doodle Monsters at Halloween.

At the Mrs Art Teacher Lady blog. you can find a directed drawing. "Halloween Bats and Frankenstein Monsters" is a lesson that both upper and lower elementary kids will have fun drawing. It uses simple materials, so would be great for a substitute teacher.

The TpT shop, "Cool Classroom Stuff" has an activity that would be super easy for your sub to teach. This one is focused on Mexican Sugar Skulls. Your kids will be engaged and happy to work on this one.

Here's another one at "Cool Classroom Stuff." This is a fall themed one and would be good for fourth grade through middle school. 

This radial symmetry lesson has templates and sample templates to help kids out.

Amy, at Makes and Takes, gives step-by-step instructions and many visuals for this lesson. She used black paper and oil pastel, but this could easily be done with crayons on lighter paper.

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At Panicked Teacher, Susie gives you step by step instructions on how to make this patterned pumpkin.  I believe she is a classroom teacher who has to supplement art instruction in her class for most of the school year.

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This lesson, at ArtfulNest, was written for middle school.  You could write it up as a fifth-grade lesson or a sixth-grade one.  You could also bring it down to the upper primary grades with a change of media.  Leave your subs some good visuals.  They could teach this!           

 

This Halloween art lesson is fun for students and easy to teach. The prep for this is minimal. Students will need paper; one black crayon per student; and assorted other crayon colors. I call it a “print and go” lesson as that is all you need to do.

It includes full instructions and visuals. You could even post it as an art learning center in the classroom.

“Creating Silly Monsters” is a fun lesson about monsters that you could use in an art center; as a regular art lesson; or for an art sub. It is super easy to teach and kids will love it. Check it out at TPT Shop: Centers and Early Finishers  It would be timely around Halloween but could be taught any time.

This lesson was posted on a blog called, “Clown and Poodle.” It appears that it no longer exists. However, I had written a blog post inspired by the original, and that still exists. You can see that complete lesson in my blog post here: Purple People Eater

How to Draw a Turkey for Thanksgiving - Kindergarten

Turkey Directed Drawing for Thanksgiving

If you have an art sub who can lead a simple directed drawing, here's a super cute one for fall. Proud to be Primary has a lesson on her blog with complete directions.  Kindergarten kids will love it!  Of course, you might not want to leave paint with a sub.  (By the way, YOU DON"T WANT TO LEAVE  PAINT WITH A SUB!!!)  But, kids can draw this and color it with crayons and still end up with a lovely work to take away with them.

 Art Lesson Plan for Kindergarten

If you would like an early finisher activity about turkeys, I have this worksheet at my TPT shop: Art Sub Lessons.  "Create a Turkey in Disguise." Great for elementary kids.

If you are interested in a lesson on how to draw a simple turkey, check out this blog post: 

Art Sub Lesson: Thanksgiving Drawing.

How to Draw a Turkey in Disguise - Elementary Art Lesson

This is a complete lesson plan on drawing a turkey.  There are simple directions on the basic turkey shape and then examples for how it might be in disguise. This is a fun lesson for elementary kids and can be taught by anyone. 

You can find this lesson here in my TPT Shop:  Art Sub Lesson - Create a Turkey in Disguise

Cubism Autumn - Easy Fall Art Lesson

Cubism Autumn - Easy Fall Art Sub Lessons

Here is a lovely fall lesson that a sub could totally do.  There are plenty of visuals but there is even a video to show to do this.  Check out the blog post here:  Cubism Autumn

.....And check out the YouTube video here: Cubism Autumn Art Lesson Video