Want to learn how to draw a dinosaur?

Now is your chance! Follow this tutorial by this year’s BC Summer Reading Club artist, Jeni Chen! Watch the video tutorial to the right to learn to draw a dinosaur. Additional tips can be found below.

Contest Details

Share your dinosaur drawing with us and enter our draw a dinosaur contest from July 10 until August 12, 2023. We’ll post submissions on our website and Jeni will select a winner and 2 runner-ups by August 14, 2023. The winner will have their dinosaur drawn into an exclusive print with this year’s dinosaurs and a prize pack of BC SRC swag. Runner-ups will receive BC SRC swag. Submit your drawing via the submission form at the bottom of this page.

Submission Requirements

• Must have your parent or guardian’s permission to enter the contest and share your work
• Submit a clear scan of your hand drawn artwork OR a digitally drawn image
  • Preferably a larger drawing
  • PNG, JPG, or PDF format only
• Must be original and not copied from someone else

Thanks for sharing your drawings! The contest is now closed. Be sure to check out all the drawings below including the winners!

What Jeni had to say: “No question this is my favourite! Elodie used painted papers/collage – similar to what I used for the dinosaur skins in the SRC poster. It was the total package of creativity and such great execution! I also loved her other dino she submitted!”

What Jeni had to say: “I love the colours, composition and how chill the dino looks! Her other entry was also stunning!”

What Jeni had to say: “I love love how interesting this dino looks! Love the graphic style and colour palette. It reminds me Paul Klee’s paintings.”

Tips from Jeni

Digital Drawing Tool Recommendations

I personally use Procreate for my digital drawings, but it costs money and only available on Apple devices. For a free online drawing tool, you can try Autodesk Sketchbook. I also know some professionals who use MediBang Paint, but if you’re just starting Autodesk Sketchbook might be easier to try.

Coloring Tips

You can use dry media such as coloured pencils, crayons, markers, pastels, etc. Or use wet media such as watercolours, gouaches, acrylic, inks, etc.

When you use wet media, make sure the black marker you used is waterproof or it will smudge! You can test your blacker marker by drawing a line on paper first. Then add some water to see if the line spreads. 

I like to mix different media. For example, I can colour the dinosaurs with crayons first and then add watercolours. You can try different media combinations to see what you like. Have fun! In my experience, sometimes my mistakes turned out better than what I’ve originally planned, so don’t be afraid of making mistakes!

Sketchbook

This page really shows the progression of my drawing process. I started drawing realistic looking Herrerasaurus (page on the left) by looking at reference photos in books and on the Internet. The sketches gradually became more stylized, more cartoon-like as seen on the page on the right.

On the bottom right of the sketchbook, you can see that I drew simple ovals shapes for the head and the body, but really trying hard at drawing different feet/claws to come up with the ones that I like. I spent the most time on figuring out how to draw its feet.

Drawing Claws and Feet

Here are some bonus videos with close up details for drawing claws and feet.

Check out your dinosaurs!

Click the image to enlarge.