Inside you’ll find an easy Grandparents Day Drawing lesson with a video and PDF to help kids create and personalize a special family portrait.

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Grandparents Day Drawing Art Lesson

Grandparents Day drawing of grandparents on a couch with a young boy and girl

Why This Grandparents Day Drawing Works in the Elementary Classroom

This Grandparents Day drawing gives elementary students a meaningful way to celebrate family while practicing figure drawing, line, color, and composition. Students draw grandparents sitting on a couch with children beside them, then customize the figures with different hairstyles, skin tones, clothing, glasses, and other details.

The step-by-step format makes drawing people feel manageable for young artists and easy for teachers to present. Colored pencils also make it simple for students to add small details and personalize their family portraits.

Family Portraits in Art: Telling Family Stories Through Pictures

Family portraits have been an important subject in art for centuries. Artists use poses, clothing, facial expressions, furniture, and other details to show relationships and tell stories about the people in a family.

In the American painting Family Group of Four on Sofa from the 1830s, the family is gathered around a sofa, much like the arrangement students create in this Grandparents Day drawing. Furniture helps organize the figures and create a connected composition.

Students can use the same idea in their own portraits by adding personal details such as hairstyles, skin tones, clothing colors, glasses, and patterns. These choices help each drawing feel unique and tell a story about the people who are important to them.