The secret to learning how to draw a cute puppy, is to make sure that you draw the head extra large. In fact, that pretty much works with any baby version of an animal.

When young students are learning how make the shapes they want with their pencils, and turn them into something, they have a couple of options.

One is to “build” their drawing with squares, rectangles and circles, and not erase any of the lines that connect them. The look is kind of basic, but can certainly look fine with things like robots, buildings and so on.

The next option is to still start with the squares, rectangles and circle, but erase the lines that connect them, such as when legs connect to bodies, etc. The trick is that most young artists aren’t in the habit of erasing as part of drawing, so they often forget to do this. Not terrible, but if they trace their drawing with a marker before they erase, they might start obsessing on getting their hands on some White Out, which could present other problems.

The final option is to have children draw very simple shapes that already have things like legs connecting to bodies. It’s kind of like drawing a simple silhouette. This way tails and legs are attached, there’s no need to erase anything, and the final drawing looks a bit more finished too.

Keep in mind there’s no one right way when it comes to drawing, and what works with one many not be the ideal for the next. So whether you have a room full of eager students, or just one at home, you can test out some of these ideas. This puppy, for instance is an example of the last option I mentioned. It has a super simple silhouette that would be a good project for anyone just starting to work on their drawing skills.