How does a small child draw the majestic "king of the jungle"? With one simple secret: a lion's face is a cat's face — yes, the very cat from our previous lesson — surrounded by a huge mane that looks like a shining sun. That mane is the lion's entire personality; draw it big and wavy and anyone who sees the drawing will instantly say: that's a lion! In this lesson we draw the lion's face with its glorious mane and small sitting body, fix the three mistakes children make most, and finish with the crazy-manes game — the part kids never want to stop.
Drawing the King, Step by Step
- 1) Start with a medium circle in the middle of the paper — the lion's face. Leave generous empty space around it; we'll need it in a moment.
- 2) Now the real star: around the face, draw a bigger circle with wavy edges — like a cloud surrounding the face, or a sun with short attached rays. This is the mane. Be generous: one-and-a-half to two times the face's width.
- 3) Ears: two small half-circles peeking out of the mane at the top — most of each ear hides in the thick hair.
- 4) The king's face: two confident dot eyes, a slightly wide brown triangle nose in the middle, and a line down from it splitting into two arcs — just like the cat, but with broader features.
- 5) Whisker dots: three small dots on each cheek instead of long whiskers, and an optional touch of majesty: two short eyebrows above the eyes.
- 6) Under the mane, draw a wide oval — the sitting body. Keep it smaller than the mane; all the majesty lives in the hair, not the body!
- 7) Front legs: two lines down from the body with oval paws, plus tiny toe lines if you like.
- 8) The tail: a long arc ending in a little flame or diamond shape — the famous tail tuft that separates lions from all other cats.
- 9) The final touch: darken the mane's lines and add short inner strokes pointing outward so it looks thick like real hair, then color: golden orange for face and body, reddish brown for mane and tuft.
Three Repeat Mistakes — With Instant Fixes
- The shy mane: the most common error is a thin mane like an eyeglasses frame, and the lion vanishes. The one-sentence fix for your child: "the mane is the face's big house — make the hair wider than the face itself."
- The lost face: some children draw the facial features tiny in the middle of the circle and they disappear. Remind them to fill the face with eyes and nose exactly as they did with the cat.
- A body bigger than the mane: if the body grows, the lion becomes a bear with weird hair! The playful rule: "a lion is half hair" — a small body makes the mane grander.
And a reminder for parents: when your child makes one of these mistakes, don't correct their paper. Draw both versions on your own sheet — thin mane and glorious mane — and ask: which one is the king of the jungle? They'll see the difference with their own eyes and fix it themselves at once.
The Crazy-Manes Game
Here the lesson turns into laughter: draw three small lions side by side, each with a totally different mane pattern:
- Zigzag mane: sharp triangular edges — a rock-and-roll lion!
- Rose mane: soft consecutive arcs — a gentle lion who loves gardens.
- Ray mane: straight lines pointing outward like a child's sun — the shining lion.
Then ask your child: which lion's personality is most like yours, and why? This simple game teaches that a single line creates character — a sharp angle means strength, a soft arc means gentleness — real design theory a six-year-old absorbs through play.
From a Drawing to a Scene: A Little Kingdom Around the King
Kings don't stand in a void! When the lion is complete, expand it together into a simple savanna scene with three additions that need no new skills:
- A big sun in the top corner — a circle with rays, and your child will laugh when they notice it looks like their lion's mane!
- Tall grass around the body: short side-by-side strokes rising from the ground line, some of them tilted.
- A rock for the king to sit on: a big gray half-oval under the body — and suddenly the drawing becomes a shot from an animated movie.
End with the open imagination question: "what does the lion see from up on his rock?" — a whole new scene might begin with the answer.
The Bottom Line
A cat face they already know, plus a wavy sun mane, plus a tail tuft — and the result is a complete king of the jungle signed by your child. Notice the deeper idea: your child didn't learn a brand-new drawing from scratch today; they built on a previous skill — and that's exactly how real artists progress, lesson upon lesson. In the Rasm Kids course we continue this building with an ordered video curriculum: every lesson uses the skills of the one before it and adds something new.
