Draw Characters

Children’s book artists have contributed entertaining lessons in how to draw some of their favorite characters. Each individual drawing instruction is available to follow by viewing online (or to print) for children, teens, and book lovers everywhere. If you love them all, download the full Drawing Characters Book.

Hanna Al-Shaer
Rashad Doucet

Nathalie Beauvois
Chloe Douglasss

Debasmita Dasgupta
Georgia Dunn

Luke Flowers
Kara Kramer

Marlo Garnsworthy
Julia Kuo

John Hare
Ryan Law

Corinna Luyken
Tiffany Rose

Natalie Nelson
Isabel Roxas

Juliana Perdomo
Annie Ruygt

Jane Smith
Peter Willis

Bob Staake
.

Ricardo Tokumoto
.

Click on each image to view or to download.

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Check out the #HowDoYouBook drawing characters step-by-step featuring art by the talented [insert relevant @handle here. See below]! Get it here https://bit.ly/3ccvH5C #everychildareader

Want to learn how to draw your favorite characters? Check out these #HowDoYouBook step-by-step pages from beloved, talented illustrators! https://bit.ly/3ccvH5C #everychildareader

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About the Step-by-Step Draw Character Creators

Hanna Al-Shaer (Crimson Dragon Publishing)
Hanna Al-Shaer earned a BFA in Digital Media and Illustration, focusing in concept and visual development art, from Kendall College of Art and Design in, Michigan. Her goal is simply to tell a great story through art. She loves traveling to learn about culture, architecture, and of course food! 
| Visit the website. | Facebook. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Nathalie Beauvois (Brown Books Publishing Group)
Nathalie Beauvois is the illustrator of Armadillo Antics by Bill Martin Jr and Michael Sampson. She has a graphic design background in advertising and has also studied industrial design. Nathalie started her career in the art departments of ad agencies and eventually transitioned into freelance illustrating. Since then, she has illustrated many books and magazines from countries all over the world. Her creations start the traditional way (pencil and paper) and then mix in techniques such as watercolor, collage, vector drawing and photoshop coloring. She also lives in Argentina and bakes great cakes!
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Debasmita Dasgupta (Mango and Marigold Press)
Debasmita Dasgupta (aka Smita) is an internationally published, award-winning, Kirkus Best Prize-nominated illustrator & graphic novelist based in the UK. She enjoys drawing both fiction & non-fiction for children & young adults. She has illustrated picture books, comics & poems working with publishers across the globe including HarperCollins UK, Mango & Marigold Press USA, Scholastic India, World Scientific Singapore, and Penguin Random House India. She has also illustrated animated stories that have been showcased in the Raindance Film Festival in London & Toronto. As an art-for-change advocate, she tells stories of changemakers from around the world partnering with global non-profits such as the Story Centre in New York. As a guest speaker for international literature festivals, global international schools, and national book councils, she mentors aspiring and emerging picture book artists in Asia. 
| Visit the website. | Behance. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Rashad Doucet (Oni Press)
Rashad Doucet is from New Orleans by way of Eunice. He is a Ville Platte, Louisiana, native who’s been drawing comics since his grandma gave him a pencil and some paper to keep quiet during church. He’s known for his work with Oni Press on comics like Invader Zim, Rick and Morty, and Alabaster Shadows. He’s also worked with DC Comics, Stela, and most recently was a part of the Eisner-winning Elements: Fire Anthology. Rashad is currently a professor of sequential art at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, where he can often be found listening to ’80s power ballads and watching way too much anime.
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Chloe Douglass (Magination Press)
Chloe lives in Tooting, south London where she works from her home studio creating illustrations and story ideas. She graduated from Kingston University with an MA Illustration degree in 2012. When she’s not in the studio she can be found gardening or on the allotment, pub quizzing (history round is her forte) bothering cats or geeking out over cartoon series, tv or films.
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Georgia Dunn (Andrews McMeel Kids)
In addition to being a syndicated cartoonist, Georgia Dunn is also a children’s and fantasy/sci-fi illustrator. She sells her watercolor and ink illustrations on Etsy, in bricks and mortar shops, and to educational magazines and independent publications.
| Visit the website. | Facebook. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Luke Flowers (Sourcebooks)
Luke Flowers is the illustrator of Unicorn Day and the New York Times bestseller A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers. He also wrote and illustrated Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: The ABC Storybook and illustrated That Monster on the Block. Luke lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. You can find him online at lukeflowerscreative.com.
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Marlo Garnsworthy (Web of Life Children’s Books)
Marlo Garnsworthy is an Australian-American author, illustrator, editor, and science communicator. Her published works include fiction and nonfiction, with her illustrations featured most recently in The Turtle Dove’s Journey—A Story of Migration by Madeleine Dunphy and Bristlecone—The Secret Life of the World’s Oldest tree by Alexandra Siy. Marlo is the veteran Education & Outreach Officer of two Antarctic research cruises so far and the US Outreach Coordinator for the international SWAIS 2C (Sensitivity of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to 2 Celsius of Warming) project. When she’s not working or making art, you’ll find her kayaking, hiking, or birding. Find out more at www.IcebirdStudio.com.
| Visit the website. | Facebook. | Twitter.

John Hare (Holiday House/Peachtree Publishing Company Inc.)
John Hare is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer as well as the creator of Field Trip to the Moon (an ALA Notable Children’s Book and A Golden Duck Notable Picture Book) and Field Trip to the Ocean Deep. He lives in Gladstone, Missouri, with his wife and two children. You can visit him at johnhareart.com.
| Visit the website. | Instagram. 

Kara Kramer (Enchanted Lion Books)
Kara Kramer is the illustrator of the picture books Atticus Caticus, Make Meatballs Sing: The Life and Art of Corita Kent, and the illustrator/author of the forthcoming Tell Me a Lion Story. She loves to create with all kinds of art materials and is happiest when her hands are moving in some kind of making. Kara lives and plays with her family in Brooklyn.
| Instagram. 

Julia Kuo (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
Julia Kuo is a Taiwanese-American illustrator who has worked with the New York Times, Google, and Science Friday. Julia has taught illustration courses at Columbia College Chicago and at her alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. She is the illustrator of Drawing Leaves and Trees: Observing and Sketching the Natural World, Livia Blackburne’s I Dream of Popo, Katrina Goldsaito’s The Sound of Silence, Roni Schotter’s Go, Little Green Truck!, and Melissa Gilbert’s Daisy and Josephine as well as 20 Ways to Draw a Dress, 20 Ways to Draw a Cat, and Everyone Eats. 
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Ryan Law (Lawley Publishing)
Ryan Law loves animated movies/ tv shows, video games, and soda pop. He is a kid at heart with a big imagination. He thinks stories written for kids are the best because they are allowed to be silly. He prefers drawing cartoons because they have no limits and can make you feel all the feels.
| Visit the website. | Facebook.

Corinna Luyken (Penguin Young Readers / Penguin Random House)
Corinna Luyken is the author-illustrator of the New York Times bestseller My Heart, The Tree In Me, and The Book of Mistakes. She is also the illustrator of Adrian Simcox Does Not Have a Horse, Nothing in Common, and Something Good. You can visit Corinna at corinnaluyken.com or follow her on Twitter and Instagram @corinnaluyken.
| Visit the website. | Facebook. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Natalie Nelson (Quirk Books)
Natalie Nelson is an illustrator, picture book maker, and collage artist. Trained in graphic design and illustration, she works in a mixed media hybrid of cut paper, collage, and digital art, with an emphasis on intriguing shapes, textures, and layers. Her previous titles include Dog’s First Baby (Quirk 2021) and Holiday!. Her art is in demand from national clients including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Curbed, Eater, The Bitter Southerner, Teach for America, Vox Media, Mailchimp, and more. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, their dog, Coach, and their young son.
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Juliana Perdomo (Candlewick Press)
Juliana Perdomo is an author, illustrator, graphic designer, and art therapist. She loves to create joyful, heartfelt stories and illustrations based on everyday inspirations and childhood memories. She is the illustrator of El Cucuy Is Scared, Too! by Donna Barba Higuera and What Is Baby Going to Do? by Laura Knowles, among other books. Juliana Perdomo lives with her son in Bogotá, Colombia.
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Tiffany Rose (Little Bee Books)
Tiffany Rose is a left-handed illustrator and author who’s currently living and working in China. She’s a lover of coffee, wanderlust, massive curly Afros, and children being their imaginative, quirky, free selves. She is a full-time teacher, part-time author/illustrator, and world traveler. Rose remembers what it was like as a brown child not seeing herself reflected in the books and characters she loved so dearly, and has been inspired to create art and meaningful stories, like this book and her debut, M Is for Melanin, so that underrepresented children can see themselves in books. Pencil in hand, she’s changing that notion one illustration at a time.
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Isabel Roxas (Nobrow/Flying Eye Books)
Isabel Roxas is the author and illustrator of The Adventures of Team Pom: Squid Happens. The first book in a series, it features three questing kids, a lonely giant squid, dramatic synchronized swimming routines, nefarious rats in bowler hats, mayhem and pigeons. Isabel was born in Manila, Philippines, was raised on luscious mangoes, old wives’ tales, and monsoon moons. She has illustrated several books for young readers, including Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli, Let Me Finish! by Minh Lê (named an NPR Best Book of 2016) and Day at the Market by May Tobias-Papa (2010 winner of the Philippine National Book Award). Follow her on Twitter @studioroxas and Instagram @studioroxas.
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Annie Ruygt (Astra Young Readers/Astra Publishing House)
Annie Ruygt earned her BFA in Illustration from Cal State Fullerton. Before settling down in California and pursuing a career as a freelance artist, she spent some time traveling and playing gigs as a singer-songwriter; this helped her develop an ear for rhythm and rhyme that shows in her picture books.
| Visit the website. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Jane Smith (West Margin Press)
Jane Smith is an author-illustrator of children’s books, including the popular Chloe Zoe! picture book series (Albert Whitman), Hello, New House (Albert Whitman) and Miss Meow (West Margin Press). Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, she spent her childhood finding inspiration in all the books her librarian mom brought home. This interest led her to earn her BFA in Illustration from the Columbus College of Art & Design and then to become an art director of children’s novelty books. She currently lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
| Visit the website. | Facebook. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Bob Staake (mineditionUS)
Bob Staake has authored and/or illustrated over 75 books including The Donut Chef, Bluebird, Bugs Galore, Hello Robots, Look A Book, This Is Not A Pumpkin, Pets Go Pop, and others. The New York Times named his book The Red Lemon one of the 10 Best Illustrated Books of 2006 and his books have been translated into over 12 languages around the world. One of the nation’s most prolific illustrators, his clients have included The New Yorker, TIME, McDonald’s, Vanity Fair, Amtrak, American Express, Sony, United Airlines, Nickelodeon, Sports Illustrated For Kids, Hershey’s, Target Stores, The New York Times, among countless others. He lives in Chatham, Massachusetts in a 200-year-old house on the elbow of Cape Cod.
| Visit the website. | Facebook. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

Ricardo Tokumoto (Bushel & Peck Books)
Ricardo Tokumoto was born in Limeira, Brazil. He moved to Belo Horizonte and attended the Faculty of Fine Arts at UFMG and graduated with a BA in Animation Cinema. Today, he works on webcomics, creates comics for authors and publishers, and also works as an illustrator and animator.
| Facebook. | Behance. | Instagram. 

Peter Willis (Mims House)
Peter Willis brings characters to life through a digital collage technique. His nonfiction illustrations for the Moments in Science series (Mims House) are quirky and humorous, but always faithful to the facts. His books have received starred Kirkus reviews, JLG selections, two NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books, an NCTE Notable Children’s Book in Language Arts, an NCSS Notable Social Studies Book, and a Eureka! NonFiction Book Award Honor. He lives in northeast England with his wife and daughter.
| Visit the website. | Behance. | Twitter. | Instagram. 

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