How To Draw a Triceratops
Have you ever tried to draw a triceratops? Now is as good a time as ever to start. Drawing prehistoric dinosaurs from Jurassic Park is a superb way to practise your sketching and colouring in skills. In this art guide Quickdraw teaches you how to crreate an amazing triceratops artwork in three simple steps. You can choose to watch the full video tutorial ... or follow the step by atep guide below. Don't forget to follow Quickdraw on YouTube for more incredible drawing ideas.
Art materials needed:
A plain sketchpad to draw on, a sharp pencil to draw with, an eraser to rub out messy lines, a black marker pen to go over pencil lines, and a bunch of colouring pencils or felt tip pens to add a splash of colour!
Step 1: Drawing with pencil
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The first part of the triceratops we are going to draw is the head. Our dinosaur is going to be facing sideways so the head will need to be over to the left.
Create a small circle. And next comes its body, which is going to be much larger.
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Draw a large oval or egg shape that joins up to the circle. Then inside the circle mark out some guidelines so we know where to add in the eyes, nose and mouth. One across and one down.
From the middle of our dinosaur’s head we are going to draw the spikey piece of skin that protects its neck. This is called a frill. It’s tough and strong like body armour. Give this frill about four or five sharp spikes.
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On the other side of the triceratop’s head draw its mouth, which is more like a beak. It actually looks a bit like crabs’ pinchers.
Some extra detail on the mouth now, nice and sharp for chewing dinosaur food.
Let’s give our prehistoric friend a small horn on the top of its mouth.
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Now for an eye inside it’s circular head.
And then another horn, but this time much smaller, and level with its mouth.
This is a fun part. Drawing the sharp horns at the edges of the triceratop’s frill. One for each point you have drawn.
Time for another horn. Let’s go crazy and make this one ginormous.
One last horn on its head and our dinosaur is ready to fight off other prehistoric creatures that cross its path.
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Now we need to pin the tail. Across its body, draw a sloped line out and back in again. As long or as thick as you like.
Our triceratops isn’t going anywhere fast at this rate, so how about some legs. Big scaly, chunky ones to carry all that weight.
The top of the legs should be in line with the tail. Give them a little bend at the knee for extra detail if you want.
Hmmm… maybe this tail isn’t fierce enough. We’re going to make it longer and thicker.
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Ok time to fetch the eraser and remove some of these pencil guidelines around the head, tail and spikes so the drawing looks tidier.
How can we make our triceratops more interesting..? How about a few wild stripes across its back? Long, jagged stripes like this - similar to a tiger or zebra.
That’s right, all the way down to the tip of this dinosaur’s tail.
And now to finish off the legs by drawing two stumpy feet with sharp claws.
Erase the pencil inner lines once you’ve drawn the feet and claws.
The final touch… a low line across its body so we can use a different colour for the belly.
Step 2: Drawing with pen
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Grab your black marker, we’re ready to ink in those pencil lines. Let’s go!
Start anywhere you like, we’re going to focus on the head and then legs.
Dinosaurs with big bellies and heavy body armor needed sturdy feet to get around - the closest thing that we have to creatures that size alive today is a rhino or elephant. Their feet are quite similar too.
Take it nice and slow, don’t rush those masterful penstrokes.
After the head, horns, legs and feet move onto the bendy tail.
Not forgetting the stripes.
Ok, looking super awesome now. That’s a cool looking triceratops.
Back with the eraser. Ince the black ink lines are dry, rub out all the pencil lines.
Step 3: Colouring in
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Here we go, time to bring our drawing to life with a bunch of different colours.
If you don’t have a set of coloured pens in your art kit you can use coloured pencils instead.
What colour will your dinosaur be? Green, red, purple, orange..? There are no rules. You decide.
If you are stuck for ideas a good tip is to match the horns on the head with the spikes on the frill, and claws on the feet.
Then you can give the body a different colour.
And even use a third coloured pen for the triceratops’ stripes.
Great job so far, nice colouring in.
Whilst we’re adding colour to our artwork let’s share five fun facts about triceratops…
No. 1: The actual name triceratops means 'three-horned face'. That’s true.
No. 2: The triceratops dinosaurs lived a long, long time ago way before we were born. This time was called the Late Cretaceous Period.
No. 3: The nose horns you have drawn on the face are mainly used for defence.
No. 4: Scientists around the world believe this dinosaur species was up to 9 metres (30 feet) long.
And no. 5: A triceratops weighed 5 tons (this is about as much as a large lorry or truck).
How’s that coloring looking so far? Going well. Great job.
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If you are interested in Quickdraw making a video especially for you, leave a comment on this video and let us know what animal, place, object you would like us to help you draw.
Just finishing up now.
And there we are - a fully grown, friendly triceratops dinosaur. A work of art - give yourself a thumbs up.
More animal drawing ideas right here...
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Now that you have drawn and coloured in a fierce Triceratops dinosaur you might be interested in similar art ideas. Ever draw a T Rex? What about cats or dogs? Give one of our online art tutorials a go today!