Drawing tips from the professionals at U.S. Kids

1. Do a few practice drawings to get your picture looking just right. Even the most famous artists practice a few times before they start on their final piece.

2. Use your very own original ideas. We want to see what you think, not what someone else has already thought of!

3. Don’t write any words, poems, or your name on your picture. If you want to add any writing, we’d love to see it! Just put it on a separate piece of paper and mail it with your entry.

4. Use nice, bright, contrasting colors to make your picture really jump off the page (and hopefully the cover of your magazine)!

5. Don’t use lined paper.

6. Let your drawing fill up the whole paper! Teeny tiny drawings are hard to see and hard to judge.

7. Don’t draw anything important by your magazine’s logo.

8. You may use your own paper, but make sure it is about the same size as the drawing page in your magazine. You may also print a new drawing page from the Web site on your own paper.

9. Create your entry with markers, colored pencils, crayons, watercolors, acrylic paints, pastels, or anything else you can think of! Just remember to pick a nice, sturdy paper if you use something other than colored pencils or crayons.

10. Fold your entry as few times as possible. Zero times is the best!

11. Have fun and be creative!