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     Drawing Lessons: Chimpanzees  Click here for a gibbon lesson.  

Step one   We started with two circles, sort of like a snowman upside down.  Do this in pencil, because we are going to erase some lines later on.

 

Step two  We've added eyes, a mouth, and a couple of lines under each eye.  The arrows show the lines we are going to erase.

 

Step three  Nicki, who is 11, finished off the face by adding a nose (just two curved lines with a little space between), two big ears, and lots of hair on the sides of the face and top of the head.  She also erased those two lines, and made a small opening by erasing the top part of the bottom circle (right above the nose).

 

Okay, now that we've got his face, how are we going to do the rest of him? Nicki had a neat idea.  Her sister Hannah (who's 9) had some trouble with our chimp's body, so Nicki did this:    We thought this was a great idea if you don't want to do the whole chimp. To look at our lesson on leaves, just  click here.

 

Another idea is "monkey up a tree," by 10-year-old Michael.  Since chimps spend so much time in trees, this is a really good place to put him.  Notice how long his arms are.  You can lay out the body with a circle, and remember: chimps have no neck, so start the shoulder line at the face.  If you do your monkey up a tree, make your chimp cover at least half of the tree (remember, long arms!) For more advanced body lessons,  click here