Draw a Tyrannosaurus rex

This is Thomas the T. rex
at the Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles
County. If there were shoes
made for a T. rex like
Thomas, they would be HUGE!
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Draw a Tyrannosaurus rex
. . . that has accurate proportions and looks life-like!
Here’s what you need to know:
When an artist illustrates the natural world, they might spend hours, days, weeks, or even
more time studying what they plan to draw! One thing an artist will study closely is
proportions. A
proportion is how the size of one thing compares to another. For example,
you might have heard that the average human body is 7 “heads” tall – meaning that if you
draw an oval to represent a person’s head, you could estimate their height by stacking 6
ovals of the same size underneath, for a total of 7 heads!
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You’ve probably heard about
T. rex before, but did you know . . .
Tyrannosaurus rex
was a big,
meat-eating dinosaur that lived about 66
million years ago. Compared to other
dinos, that’s pretty recent! They
are known for their knife-like teeth and
short arms. From the fossils
paleontologists find, we think that T. rex
would have grown new teeth if they
broke one crunching through the bones
of their prey. They also grew really big
really fast – during a growth spurt in
its mid-teens, a T. rex could gain 1,500
pounds a year!
T. rex is from a group of dinosaurs known as
Theropods. Theropods are closely
related to birds of today, and scientists think that T. rex might have cared for their
babies like birds and crocodiles do. There is even a fossil of
another Theropod, Citipati, sitting on a clutch
of eggs!
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Drawing is important!
Even the earliest humans would draw as an important way to communicate and
understand their world. Today, drawing is used for all sorts of things!
Maps are drawn by cartographers, who draw earth
based on measurements and observations.
Architects draw
what they plan to
build so other
people can
understand their
ideas.
Draw some more examples of ways that
drawings are used here:
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Get ready to draw your Tyrannosaurus rex!
List all the materials you plan to use. There’s a few here to get
started. If there are other materials you need, add them too!
paper
T. rex
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pencil
Start Drawing!
Draw a Tyrannosaurus rex that has accurate proportions!
step 1:
Find a T. rex! This can be a figure, a
picture, or even a skeleton at the museum!
step 2: Start by drawing the dinosaur as
large simple shapes. For example, Use your
pencil to measure the height and length of the
T. rex’s head, and draw an oval that matches
these measurements.
step 3: Once you’ve drawn simple ovals for
the whole body, start drawing a basic outline
(like the red lines in the drawing to the left).
step 4: Finish the drawing with details like
claws and teeth!
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Draw your T. rex here, or tape in a
picture of your drawing!
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Artists like Stephanie Abramowicz at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
County have to understand
anatomy, or body structure of an animal. For example, an
artist drawing a dinosaur needs to understand the dinosaur’s skeleton and how it might
have moved for the drawing to be realistic!
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