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Hawaii Drawing Ideas From the Nēnē to the Volcano

One real thing from Hawaii with the detail to get right: an animal, a plant, a place or a food.

Hawaii Drawing Ideas From the Nēnē to the Volcano

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  1. A black sand beachAt Punaluʻu the sand is basalt, made where lava flowed into the ocean. Black ground, bright water.

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Animals 15

  • A gold dust day gecko on a leaf A gecko of Madagascar that now lives in Hawaii. Bright green, gold speckles on the neck, three red bars low on the back.
  • A green sea turtle resting on black sand Called honu in Hawaiian. Green turtles are the only sea turtles that commonly come ashore to bask.
  • A Hawaiian monk seal asleep on the sand The state mammal, found only in the Hawaiian Islands. Grey coat, white belly, no outside ears.
  • A honu grazing under water The green turtle is the largest hard-shelled sea turtle, and it eats mostly seagrass and algae.
  • A humpback slapping the water with one long fin The state marine mammal. Humpbacks slap the surface with their long side fins. Bumps mark the head.
  • A humpback's tail flukes The trailing edge is jagged, and the colour patterns and scars on the flukes tell one whale from another.
  • A Moorish idol A reef fish found from East Africa to Hawaii. White with two wide black bands and a yellow saddle on the snout.
  • A nēnē standing on lava rock The Hawaiian goose, the state bird. Black head, buff cheeks and a neck marked with deep furrows.
  • A nēnē's foot beside a duck's foot The nēnē has less webbing between its toes than other geese. Draw the two feet side by side.
  • A shoal of yellow tang, all facing one way A bright yellow reef fish of the Pacific, first described from the Hawaiian Islands. One colour, one outline.
  • An ʻiʻiwi drinking from a flower A Hawaiian honeycreeper: mostly scarlet, black wings and tail, and a long, curved, salmon-coloured bill.
  • The name humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa bent into a fish The Hawaiian name of the state fish. Letter it along a curve so the word makes the body.
  • The state fish, the reef triggerfish A large snout with blue lips, orange-brown along the back, a white belly. Look at a photograph for the bands.
  • Three spinner dolphins in mid-leap A small dolphin of tropical seas that spins round its own length as it jumps. Draw three stages of one turn.
  • Two manta rays, one above the other Triangular side fins, two horn-shaped fins at the head and a wide mouth facing forward.

Plants and flowers 16

  • A banyan with its hanging roots A fig whose roots drop from the branches and thicken into extra trunks. Two were planted at ʻIolani Palace.
  • A breadfruit among its leaves ʻUlu in Hawaiian. The leaves are large and thick, and deeply cut into lobes.
  • A coconut sprouting in the sand The word coconut means the palm or its large, hard fruit. One green shoot from one husk.
  • A hala tree standing on its roots A pandanus, held up by prop roots. The fruit looks like a pineapple, and the leaves are woven into mats.
  • A heliconia stem Also called lobster-claws: a row of brightly coloured, waxy bracts with the small true flowers inside.
  • A koa twig with its curved leaves Koa grows only on the Hawaiian Islands. The grown tree's thick, sickle-shaped leaves are flattened stalks.
  • A kukui branch with its nuts The candlenut, the state tree. In old Hawaiʻi the nuts were burned one by one for light.
  • A lei of plumeria laid in a ring A lei is a garland given to honour someone: a guest, a graduate, a person leaving. May 1 is Lei Day.
  • A monstera leaf with the light behind it The leaves have natural holes. The plant comes from southern Mexico to Panama and now grows in Hawaii too.
  • A plumeria bloom from above Five rounded, waxy petals that overlap one another. Plumeria is one of the flowers most used for lei.
  • A silversword on a bare cinder slope It grows high on Haleakalā: a low rosette of leaves covered in silvery hairs. It flowers once in its life.
  • A taro leaf on its long stalk Kalo in Hawaiian, the state plant and a staple of Hawaiian cooking. Dark green above, lighter beneath.
  • A yellow hibiscus, the state flower Called maʻo hau hele. A shrub native to the Hawaiian Islands with bright yellow flowers.
  • An anthurium A bright, flat bract called a spathe, with a spike called a spadix standing up from it. It comes from the Americas.
  • An ʻōhiʻa lehua blossom The flower is a mass of stamens, fiery red to yellow. The tree grows only on the Hawaiian Islands.
  • An ʻōhiʻa seedling in a crack of black lava ʻŌhiʻa trees grow easily on lava and are usually the first plants on a new flow.

Volcanoes and places 14

  • A black sand beach At Punaluʻu the sand is basalt, made where lava flowed into the ocean. Black ground, bright water.
  • A chain of islands shrinking to the horizon Hawaii is the only US state that is an archipelago. Draw each island smaller and paler than the last.
  • A lava fountain Kīlauea's eruptions send up fountains of lava inside its summit crater. One bright jet against a dark page.
  • A map of the eight main islands From northwest to southeast: Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui and Hawaiʻi.
  • An island seen from the air Hawaii's islands are volcanic. One peak, a collar of green and a pale rim where land meets water.
  • Diamond Head from across the bay A volcanic cone on Oʻahu, above Honolulu. Its Hawaiian name is Lēʻahi. Get the ridgeline right first.
  • The flag of Hawaii The state flag bears a Union Jack, a sign of early British influence. Look up the stripes before you start.
  • Haleakalā's summit above the clouds The volcano that forms more than three quarters of Maui. Its name means house of the sun.
  • Inside a lava tube A roofed channel that lava once ran through. When it drains, a cave is left. Draw the tunnel to a point of light.
  • ʻIolani Palace The royal residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, in Honolulu. Now a museum. Draw it from a photograph.
  • Kīlauea's crater glowing at night A shield volcano on Hawaiʻi Island and one of the most active on Earth. Light everything from below.
  • The Nā Pali cliffs The northwest shore of Kauaʻi. Nā pali means many cliffs. Draw them as folded green ridges.
  • Snow on Mauna Kea above green slopes The highest point in Hawaii. Snow falls on the summit in winter.
  • Waimea Canyon A large canyon on the west side of Kauaʻi. Waimea means reddish water, after the canyon's red soil.

Food and things 14

  • A lilikoʻi cut open The name used in Hawaii for passion fruit: round to oval, yellow or dark purple, full of juice and seeds.
  • A malasada dusted with sugar A flattened round of fried dough coated in sugar. It came from Portugal and is loved in Hawaii.
  • A pineapple growing in a field The fruit sits on a thick stem inside a ring of long leaves with spines on their edges. Hawaii once canned them.
  • A repeating print of one island plant Aloha shirts are made of printed cloth. Choose one plant from this list and repeat it across a square.
  • A shave ice in a paper cone The ice is shaved from a block, not crushed, so it soaks up the syrup. A dome above a cone-shaped cup.
  • A shave ice with three syrups In Hawaii the syrups are often guava, pineapple, passion fruit or mango. Let the colours run together.
  • A surfboard standing in the sand Surfing is the state's individual sport, and modern surfing is thought to have begun in Hawaii.
  • A ukulele Four strings and a figure-eight body like a small guitar. It came from Portugal and was made popular in Hawaii.
  • A ukulele's head and four tuning pegs The name roughly means jumping flea in Hawaiian, perhaps for the way a player's fingers move.
  • An aloha shirt, collar and buttons A collared, buttoned shirt, usually short-sleeved and made of printed cloth. The style began in Hawaii.
  • An open lei and a closed lei A lei may be a closed ring or an open strand. Draw one of each, made from the same leaf or flower.
  • An outrigger canoe pulled up on the sand A float is fixed out to one side of the hull. Outrigger canoe paddling is the state team sport.
  • Half a papaya with its seeds Skin amber to orange when ripe, and a hollow middle lined with black seeds.
  • Macadamia nuts, one cracked open A hard, round, woody shell. The tree is Australian, but the nut was first farmed on a large scale in Hawaii.

How it works

A goose with a furrowed neck, a flower that is a mass of stamens, a fish whose name fills a line. Each of these Hawaii drawing ideas names a real animal, plant, place or food and gives one checked detail.

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Hawaii things to draw, by topic

The Topic groups sort the list four ways. Animals runs from the state bird to reef fish. Plants and flowers holds the state flower, tree and plant beside garden favourites. Volcanoes and places covers craters, cliffs and a map of the eight main islands. Food and things is what you could hold.

Tropical things to draw, named properly

A palm and a sunset could be anywhere. Pick the particular thing: an ʻōhiʻa on new lava, a hala on its roots, a nēnē with its buff cheeks. Use a photograph for anything you have not seen, and write its name, with its marks, under the drawing.

  • Hawaiian names carry the ʻokina, a consonant written much like an apostrophe, as in Kauaʻi. Copy it when you letter a title.
  • Lava rock is nearly black. Leave the paper white for the brightest thing and shade everything else toward it.

Questions and answers

Which Hawaiian things to draw are found nowhere else?

The nēnē, the Hawaiian monk seal, the ʻōhiʻa lehua, the koa tree and the silversword all live only on the Hawaiian Islands.

Are these tropical drawing ideas all native to Hawaii?

No. Plumeria, monstera and the anthurium come from the American tropics, the pineapple from South America, the macadamia from Australia and the gold dust day gecko from Madagascar.

Do you have island drawing ideas with no named place?

Yes. An island seen from the air and a chain of islands shrinking to the horizon need no map. Shells, waves and piers are on the beach list, which is linked below.

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