Summer Vacation Activities – Drawing Tutorials

The first few weeks of my children’s summer vacation fly by effortlessly every year.  Early morning alarms are no longer needed, everyone is thankful for the extra time to sleep in and relax, days are easily filled with activities they haven’t had the time to do during the school year, and heading to the local pool every afternoon is still a novelty.  Without fail, however, soon after the 4^th of July I usually hear the first dreaded “I’m bored!  There’s nothing to do!”  And then begins my number one challenge every summer, finding ways to keep the kids (and even myself!) from feeling too restless.  Over the next few weeks, I am excited to share fun Disney-inspired boredom busters that we tried last summer.  They proved to be very entertaining and filled gaps of time when I otherwise might have had a house full of unhappy campers. First up – drawing tutorials!

My kids love to color and draw, and recently they have really been enjoying watching tutorials that teach them how to sketch popular animated characters. They have found some of their favorite drawing tutorials on the Disney Parks How-To-Draw Series on Youtube, as well as in posts on the Disney Parks Blog.  One of the neatest parts of these lessons is that they are led by professional Disney Character Artists!  My pirate-crazed son recently tackled a lesson with Disney Imagineer Luc Mayrand where he learned how to create a swashbuckling scene complete with a pirate ship, dangerous sea creature, and hidden treasures. He spent almost an entire afternoon and evening totally invested in drawing his scene – a definite win! He was especially thrilled about a new shading technique he learned from Mayrand, and he was equally as fascinated to hear anecdotes about Mayrand’s time spent creating artwork for the Mission: Space attraction at Epcot.

This pirate scene is just one of many tutorials available in the Disney Parks “Learn to Draw” series. Take a look below for links to other Disney favorites that were also presented as part of this series. I hope your children have as much fun doodling and sketching as mine have!