How to Paint Cherub Angels

In a Biblical sense, cherubs can be anything from angels to abstract ideas. In popular culture, cherubs are specifically portrayed as children with plump, healthy bodies, either nude or in white dresses. These iconic images are often seen in umbrellas, posters, samplers and painted on ceramic and porcelain figurines. When painting your own cherubs, it is helpful to keep in mind these angels are often meant to be cute, funny, sweet and "homey."

Things You'll Need

• Paintbrushes
• Paint (skin tone, hair color, gold, pink, white, light blue, and other colors as desired)
• Canvas, paper or porcelain figurine
• Jar of water
• Fine tip permanent marker

Instructions

1. Draw the outline of a cherub on your canvas or paper. If you're painting an angel or cherub figurine, then skip this step. The outline of a cherub can be as complex as you'd like to make it, but the easiest way to draw the outline of a cherub is to draw a triangle for the dress, place a circle on top for the head, draw two small wings (curved upward and coming out of the back), and two curved arms around the front, that meet in the middle to form praying hands. For a more realistic rendering of a cherub, find a painting or drawing of a cherub to use as inspiration. Keep in mind that for a cherub, the body should be shortened in proportion to the head, as it would be for a child. The wings should be small, to imply smallness.

2. Dip your paintbrush in the skin-toned paint you've selected, and paint the round face. Clean the paintbrush and dip it in the hair-colored paint. Paint the hair draping around the outer top part of the face.

3. Dip your paintbrush in the light blue paint, and mix in some white, for a shimmery, light blue-white color. Paint the dress and arms of the cherub.

4. Paint the wings of the cherub white. You may skip this step if the surface you're painting the cherub on is already white.

5. Paint a horizontal oval over the head of the cherub. This is the halo. This step will not be possible if you're painting a figurine.

6. Dip your paintbrush in light pink, and paint each cheek of the cherub light pink.

7. Wait until the paint has dried. Use your permanent marker to draw a line delineating the curved top of each cheek, to show the chubby cheeks of a child. Draw a dot for each eye, and add small lines radiating outward from the center of the top of each eye, to show the eyelashes. Finally, outline each arm on the cherub (not necessary if you are painting a porcelain figurine).

References

• Drawing Coach: How to Draw A Cartoon Angel
• How to Draw Funny Cartoons: How To Draw a Cartoon Angel