Seasonal art for kids

How to Make an Easy Heart Drawing

January 1, 2023

305 Shares

Celebrate love and friendship with these colorful Valentine’s Day drawings. Create heart mandalas together for easy heart drawings.

Updated January 2023

Doing an interactive heart drawing is one of our favorite activities for slowing down and connecting through creativity this time of year.

These are a Valentine take on the back-and-forth mandala drawings we do year-round. We love the process of creating a joint artwork and taking turns to add our own design or layer.

We also LOVE the symbolism of your heart inside my heart inside your heart! So sweet!

You can do this with each of your kids separately and also do heart mandalas all together. Here’s a video of this drawing activity in action as well as some notes of materials, steps, and variations below.

valentine's day drawings pin — Photo by Jean Van’t Hul

Easy Heart Drawing for Kids

MATERIALS

Paper
Drawing tools*

*Anything goes, really. We’ve done this drawing activity with markers, pens, pencils, crayons, oil pastels, and even paints.

INSTRUCTIONS

Draw a small heart
To begin, the first person starts by drawing a small heart in the center of the page.
Add a layer
Then, the second person adds a layer to the heart drawing, with another heart or some sort of design element around the first.
Keep going!
Continue back and forth until both parties decide that the heart is complete.

To finish, sign your collaborative heart art or add a message to it, if you like.

These heart drawings are beautiful and worthy of displaying!

Variations on Easy Heart Drawings

Include a larger group in this activity. We usually do our heart mandalas one-on-one, but sometimes do a three- or four-way heart drawing. You could do this with the whole family or a group of friends.
Instead of going back-and-forth right away, leave the heart drawing out over a few days and let each person add their layer at their leisure.
Use paints instead of, or in combination with, drawing.
Try collage (as with these sticker mandalas).
A single person can make a heart mandala drawing by adding consecutive layers of drawing elements or colors.
Do regular back-and-forth mandala drawings (circles) rather than hearts.
Tailor this activity to another holiday. We add design layers to Easter egg drawings around Easter, for example.
Do regular back-and-forth drawing together.

Looking for even more Valentine crafts for your family? Check out our Valentine’s Arts and Crafts bundle from the Kids Art Spot!

Filled with 10 fun Valentine activities, each with a step-by-step video tutorial and printable instructions, plus 10 fun drawing invitations to encourage your kids to think and draw creatively. PLUS, you get 10 bonus Valentine activity printables AND 10 printable posters!