Okay, so I had this idea to draw a cartoon oriole bird. You know, something simple and cute that even my niece could follow along with. I’m not exactly an artist, but I enjoy doodling from time to time, and I figured, why not give this a shot?

I started by thinking, “What’s the easiest way to start a bird drawing?” Then I remembered seeing someone turn a dollar sign into a bird once, and I thought, “That’s it!” So I grabbed a piece of paper and drew a big dollar sign in the middle. It looked a bit wonky, but hey, it was a start.
Next, I turned the top curve of the dollar sign into the bird’s head. I just rounded it out a bit more and added a little bump for a beak. Easy peasy. Then, for the body, I used the bottom curve of the dollar sign. I extended it a little to make it look more bird-like, and added a tail at the end. Nothing fancy, just a simple, curved line.
Now for the fun part – the details! I drew a big, round eye on the head. Cartoon birds always have those, right? I gave it a little sparkle to make it look cute. Then, I added some feathers on the head and body. I just drew some squiggly lines here and there, nothing too complicated. For the wings, I drew two curved lines coming out from the body. Again, super simple.
I wanted to add some feet, so I drew two little stick legs coming down from the body. To make it look like the bird was perched on something, I added a branch. Just a simple line with a few leaves, and there you have it! To really make it pop, I decided to color it in. I used bright yellow for the body, orange for the beak and feet, and black for the wings and tail. Of course, I added some green leaves on the branch to complete the scene.
- Start with a dollar sign.
- Round out the top curve for the head, add a beak.
- Extend the bottom curve for the body, add a tail.
- Draw a big, round eye with a sparkle.
- Add squiggly lines for feathers, curved lines for wings.
- Draw stick legs and a branch.
- Color it in.
It wasn’t perfect, but it definitely looked like a cartoon oriole bird! I was pretty proud of myself for turning a simple dollar sign into a cute little drawing. I even showed it to my niece, and she loved it! She’s now asking me to teach her how to draw other animals, so I guess I’ll be doing more of these cartoon tutorials in the future. Maybe next time, I’ll try a different shape as a starting point. Any ideas?
