Cartooning is a classic art which is accessible to so many people of all ages.  Kids especially seem to love drawing barnyard animals and no paper farm would be complete without the Rhode Island Red.  I could name a whole host of famous chickens, but the vibrant colors and distinct traits of the Rhode Island Red makes for a great art topic both inside and out of the cartooning world and many fine paintings of these chickens have been done.  You don’t have to be that talented, just grab a pencil and get cracking to have your own little masterpiece in no time at all.

The first thing I draw is the eyes, hens should have soft larger eyes, and roosters should have smaller beady ones.  Eyes should be first because if they aren’t right, nothing else will be so start there and work around them.  After the eyes are right, I work the beak in.  Again, males will differ from females, and I give my roosters a larger, more masculine beak while I give hens a small, short one.  This will help the body shape, Rhode Island Red hens will have a large bulbous body, like a chubby cuddly favorite aunt might.  She can be drawn in aprons, with rolling pins, the short wings make for great analog arms and hands.  Roosters on the other hand, just like in real life, will be taller and should have some appearance of being at least mildly muscular, meaning instead of being bottom heavy like the hen, they should have more on the top, excepting of course the large tail feathers.  Make sure these are curled, and they should go up and then come down towards the ground.  Rhode Island Red roosters need longer legs than the hen too, with three long toes holding him up.  The hen needs only the three small toes peeking out of her skirt of feathers.