Chunky Monkey's Rainforest drawing lessons

Insects
     Tarantulas, ants and butterflies

TARANTULAS   The rain forest is home to some of the biggest spiders in the world.  They are called tarantulas!  Now these are big, fuzzy bugs, so don't make yours look like a mosquito.

Step 1  Our tarantula starts out looking like a turtle.  The head is shaped like a house built at a tilt, although the side in front is shorter than the side in back.  If you want to make your head a circle, that's okay too.

 

Step 2  We've added some wide stripes, and lots of little hairs to give our big bug the fuzzy look, which is very important if you want to make it look like a tarantula.

Step 3    Now it's time to add the legs, four on each side.

 

Here's a close-up of how we did the leg. We made it out of four oval shapes, and connected them together to give it a flexible, spidery look.  Don't forget the fuzz and stripes.

 

Step 4  A lot of kids have a problem with the perspective (how things look from different angles or distances) of the legs on the right side. The legs go up first, then down. Also, you don't have to draw the whole leg, but we still know it's there (that's called foreshortening). Try it with a pencil first. We also added two neat "pincher hands" in the front and some brown coloring.  Remember, the tarantula is not crawling with his belly on the ground, but is lifted up by his giant legs.  In the Amazon, tarantulas can reach a length of almost 10 inches, including the legs.

 

ANOTHER VIEW Here he is crawling forward. If you want to put him on a giant leaf, that would be great.

  GO TO ANT LESSON GO TO BUTTERFLY LESSON

 

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