Easter Chick Art – Draw Step by Step!
Let’s draw more than just a little chick—let’s create Easter chick art! By adding details bit by bit, you can turn even a small drawing into a picture full of atmosphere.
You only need colored pencils and paper. My drawing is about 10 x 14 cm (4 x 5,5 inches).
Step 1 – The Shape of the Chick
Color two circles that blend into each other.
Step 2 – Features of the Chick
Use a darker color to add shadows so that the head and the body are distinct from each other. Then, add the eye and the beak.
Step 3 – The Chick’s Legs
Draw large legs that attach to the body at an angle.
Step 4 – Decorations
Get creative and decorate your chick! Notice that decorations can extend outside the body. For example, I added a bow.
If you draw an Easter egg under the chick, sketch it at this stage. This way, you can add decorations so the chick looks balanced on top of the egg.
Step 5 – The Egg
Color the Easter egg. Use your imagination – what happens to the egg when the chick stands on it? My egg has opened, and hearts are bursting out into the air.
Rotate the paper to adjust the shape of the egg.
Step 6 – The Background
Add decorations, grass, and colorful lights to the background.
Keep the background light so the chick stands out. Color lightly and soften the colors with white and light gray.
Continuity helps create a balanced look. In my drawing, the rainbow in the background continues on the other side.
Step 7 – Finishing Your Easter Chick Art
Spend some time finishing your drawing. Color carefully to ensure full coverage where needed so that the chick’s colors are bright and no paper shows through near the outlines.
Hearts and Stories!
I like drawing hearts. They are so simple and direct, yet they make the drawing feel warm-hearted. I also have a course about them: Hearts and Stories!
Let’s keep drawing!
Making The Art Journal More Magical
I have been working on my square-sized art journal again. This week, I share a couple of magical art journal projects that include hand-drawn collage pieces.
My journal is Dylusions Creative Journal. The first project is the decoration of the pocket envelope that’s on the backside of the front cover.
The Magical Mindset for Art Journaling
My journal is almost full, but I have decided not to hurry with the last pages. Recently, I have started to think that using what I have is better for me. That if I rush with the last pages and buy a new journal, it’s not as good as if I slow down and fully honor those few blank pages. You could call this a magical mindset because it makes you appreciate what you already have: skills, little drawings, time, blank paper.
With the magical mindset, you don’t just look forward and think what you could have. Instead, you look back and focus on how you can take the old to the next level.
So, I went to my boxes of joy – the boxes that store my handdrawn collage pieces – and picked a set of leaves from a few years ago and glued it on the envelope. The leaves are a print and smaller than the original drawing. I love some of my handdrawn pieces so much that I have scanned and made prints of them.
I drew some more leaves and then glued the tassel which is an original drawing too. The tassel divides the image in two parts. I drew and colored a seascape on the right side of the tassel.
I love the oldfashioned and luxurious look of the envelope now. The inside cover was made earlier with markers.
I had two tassels to choose from. I love them both.
Magical Stripes on Art Journal Page
The second project is a page with hand-drawn collage pieces. The idea here is to draw stripes and then decorate them. I made my page so that some of the decorations extend over the stripes.
The teacups, the heads of the cats, monkeys and rabbits are prints made from bigger hand-drawn pieces. The rest is drawn with a black drawing pen and colored with colored pencils.
Here you can see the print sheets that I have made for myself and the original drawings. These are all drawn for the courses Magical Inkdom and Animal Inkdom. I had so much fun making these courses. The details are magical and I think the stripy page became magical too.
The rabbit and the teacup are two separate pieces.
I have randomly created on the pages over the years. The page on the right is painted and very different in style, but I think these are just layers of time. Like home, an art journal can have some old pieces, some newer ones, and some that connect all the years. I started my journal in 2020.
The abstract house could be the place where this magical tea party happens.
Magical Letters
In the previous blog post “Mini Drawings on Art Journal Pages“, I showed a spread that was still in progress. That’s finished now. I think letters on the black background with some leaves and flowers look magical too.
I hope these projects inspired you to make your art journal more magical!
Maximalist or Minimalist? Style Experiments in Art Journal Pages
This week, we experiment between maximalist and minimalist styles.
Every time I open one of my art journals, I feel a sense of relaxation. It’s time for experimentation and risk-taking. In art journals, failure can also be success. Page by page, I learn to know myself better and thus, express things that can also be relevant to others. Now I wanted to experiment with style and picked my Dylusions Creative Journal for that.
Maximalist – Multiply!
I know that I’m more of a maximalist than a minimalist, so I started with that and made a spread with the principle of “more is more”.
I’ve started to be fascinated by buildings, both exterior and interior, and here too motifs began to create a sense of space as they turned into ornaments.
It was so fun to add a new detail on top of another that I forgot to take more pictures of the different stages, but I started with watercolors and soon moved on to colored pencils.
I’m fascinated by abundance and luxury. I connect that with the courage to be brave and let it all out. When I feel like that, the maximalist style is born effortlessly.
Adding details and dividing one shape to many can be done over and over again. I could have refined my drawing even more!
Maximalist or Minimalist – Adult or Child?
For me, maximalism is associated with adulthood and minimalism with childhood, although many probably think the opposite: that as a child you sprawl and as an adult you can prune. But when I look at my childhood drawings, I can say that my poor drawing skills made me a natural minimalist as a child.
It was a little unpleasant that the organizer has written the prize in the drawing,
but now it just adds a nostalgic flair to it.
But let’s remember that even as an adult, we can grab a light marker and start coloring with clumsy strokes and without outlines.
Minimalist – Simplify!
I colored the shapes of horses directly on a blank piece of paper without outlines. When I colored the background, I then refined the shapes.
As a child, I loved playing with plastic horses and red tights were my favorite accessory.
While making this art journal spread, I felt a deep connection not only to my childhood in the 1970s, but also to my teenage years in the 80s.
Back then, everything was still possible and ahead. The horses galloped wildly in my small room, but my mind was already far away in the outside world.
The controversy between the style and the content is the key here. The picture is clear, and the colors are raw, but the atmosphere is intense and a little mysterious.
It is as if I were each of those four horses. At the same time, a playing child, a baby seeking support, a galloping youth, and an adult whose life is still a mystery.
When I compare these two spreads, I think that I could give the minimalist a little more space, and it would not reduce the expression, maybe vice versa?
What do you think? See the pics below and leave a comment!
Exercise: Maximalist or Minimalist?
Try the same experiment in your art journal!
Creating Menagerie
This week, I share a recent acrylic painting called Menagerie and talk about the process. This is an example of making the most of the rich visual vocabulary – the topic that I talked about in last week’s video, but now we focus more on the idea of the piece rather than the style.
Recently, I have been thinking about the news feeds and their many truths. Although things are presented in beautiful phrases and pictures, the truth is much more complicated, and there are layers behind them. The same applies to people. Even though we try to be human, we are still animals, too.
When I paint, I struggle with the same thing: should I paint a flower or a soul?
I want to create beautiful paintings, but on the other hand, a painting is like a person. If you treat the painting superficially, you don’t get to see its true beauty.
I seem to paint better if I can partly focus on something else!
My goal is to give my paintings the freedom to be themselves and this painting really revealed its heart to me.
However, my task is not only to reveal the wild nature of the painting, but also to gently train it.
Menagerie is sold already. I hope it will bring joy to its new owner.
Details of Menagerie
Here are detail pics of the finished piece. I like how the style of this painting is partly illustrative. It looks like it’s partly drawn with a brush.
I wanted to create an impression that the animals are captive but still wild and strong enough to break free.
This painting has many layers and details.
I tried to bring up the similarity between flowers and animals.
Here you can see the big flower up close. The brush strokes are loose, but still, I painted them with a lot of thought and care.
I hope this inspires you to create too!