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Texas Drawing Ideas From Armadillos to the Lone Star

One thing from Texas with a checked detail: an animal or plant, a place, a food or a state symbol.

Texas Drawing Ideas From Armadillos to the Lone Star

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  1. A sopaipilla puffed like a pillowNamed a state pastry in 2003, with strudel, for a term that ran to 2005. Frying puffs the dough around a hollow pocket.

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Animals and plants 15

  • A bluebonnet spike The state flower since 1901. Small blue flowers stacked up one stem.
  • A field of bluebonnets to the horizon Every kind of bluebonnet shares the title of state flower. Dots of blue that shrink with distance.
  • A golden-cheeked warbler on a twig The only bird whose whole nesting range lies inside Texas. A small bird with bright yellow cheeks.
  • A Guadalupe bass in a clear stream The state fish, found in the creeks and rivers of Texas and nowhere else.
  • A jackrabbit with its ears up The black-tailed jackrabbit is a hare about 2 feet long, with very long ears and strong back legs.
  • A javelina The collared peccary: shaped like a small pig, with a pale collar of hair around its shoulders.
  • A Kemp's ridley on a Gulf beach The state sea turtle, the smallest and rarest sea turtle of all. Some nest on Padre Island.
  • A longhorn standing side on, horns level The state large mammal. Its horns can span more than 8 feet from tip to tip.
  • A mockingbird in flight, white flashes on its wings The state bird. Gray above and paler below, with white patches on its wings and tail that show in flight.
  • A nine-banded armadillo nosing through leaves The state small mammal. It eats ants and termites, and its young are born as four identical quadruplets.
  • A pronghorn running The fastest land mammal in the Americas, at up to 55 miles an hour. All four legs off the ground.
  • A river of bats leaving a city bridge Up to 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats, the state flying mammal, live under one bridge in Austin.
  • A stem of sideoats grama The state grass. Its small spikes hang down along one side of the stem, like oats.
  • A Texas horned lizard seen from above The state reptile. A flat, round body and a crown of horns that are true bone. It eats mostly harvester ants.
  • A whooping crane wading The tallest bird in North America. One flock winters on the Texas coast and flies to Canada to nest.

Places 15

  • A Gulf beach on Padre Island The world's longest barrier island left undeveloped. Its national seashore has 65.5 miles of Gulf beach.
  • Cypress trees standing in Caddo Lake A flooded cypress forest among the biggest in the country, on one of the few natural lakes in Texas.
  • Dinosaur tracks in a riverbed At Dinosaur Valley State Park: footprints 113 million years old, left by two-legged and four-legged dinosaurs.
  • The domes of McDonald Observatory Telescope domes on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Half-spheres on a ridge, one with its slit open.
  • The dunes at Monahans Sandhills Sand dunes up to 70 feet high in West Texas. Smooth curves with one sharp edge along each crest.
  • Enchanted Rock A pink granite dome north of Fredericksburg. One big curve, with small trees at its foot for scale.
  • The front of the Alamo church A mission church in San Antonio. Four of the city's five Spanish missions form a national park; this is the fifth.
  • Guadalupe Peak above the desert The highest natural point in Texas, 8,751 feet above sea level.
  • Hamilton Pool under its rock overhang A natural pool made when the dome of an underground river fell in, about 23 miles west of Austin.
  • Palo Duro Canyon with Lighthouse Rock The canyon's best-known feature is a rock tower called the Lighthouse, at the end of a 6-mile round trip.
  • Port Isabel Lighthouse Built in 1852 to guide ships through a pass near the southern tip of Texas.
  • The Rio Grande between two canyon walls In Big Bend National Park in West Texas, where the river is the border with Mexico. Two cliffs, a strip of water.
  • The Rose Window at Mission San José A carved stone window in the south wall of the church sacristy. Nobody knows who the sculptor was.
  • The San Antonio River Walk from a bridge A walkway one level below the streets. Some buildings have a door on the street and another on the river.
  • The Texas State Capitol and its dome In Austin. About 302 feet tall, which is taller than the United States Capitol in Washington.

Food 15

  • A basket of tortilla chips and a bowl of salsa The state snack. Triangles piled at all angles; only the front ones need all three edges.
  • A bowl of chili The state dish since 1977. Chunks of meat in a dark red sauce, with steam rising.
  • A breakfast taco wrapped in foil Tex-Mex: a soft tortilla, corn or flour, holding eggs, meat or cheese. Crinkled foil is all short straight lines.
  • A chicken-fried steak under cream gravy A breaded beefsteak, fried and covered in white gravy. Rough crust, smooth sauce.
  • A handful of chiltepin peppers The state native pepper: tiny, nearly round when dried, and very hot.
  • A jalapeño, whole and sliced The state pepper. Slice it across and the seeds sit in a ring around the core.
  • A klobasnek A sausage baked inside soft dough, an American Czech snack. In Texas most people call it a kolache.
  • A kolache with a fruit center A sweet Czech pastry: a spoonful of fruit ringed by puffy dough. Much eaten in Texas.
  • A sizzling skillet of fajitas Strips of grilled skirt steak with onions and peppers, a Tex-Mex dish served with tortillas.
  • A slice of pecan pie The state pie. Whole pecans on top, a dark filling under them. The pecan is also the state tree.
  • A sopaipilla puffed like a pillow Named a state pastry in 2003, with strudel, for a term that ran to 2005. Frying puffs the dough around a hollow pocket.
  • Half a red grapefruit The Texas red grapefruit has been the state fruit since 1993. Segments like the spokes of a wheel.
  • Pan de campo in a Dutch oven The state bread, baked in the state cooking implement: a cast iron pot with legs and a lid.
  • Sliced brisket on butcher paper Smoked brisket is a mainstay of Texas barbecue, cooked slowly over pecan, post oak or mesquite wood.
  • Two slices of Texas toast Bread sliced at double the usual thickness, buttered on both sides and toasted.

Symbols and things 15

  • A blue topaz Blue topaz is the state gem, and Texas has a state gemstone cut too, called the Lone Star cut.
  • A bolo tie The Texas legislature named it the official state tie in 2007: a cord with metal tips, held by a sliding clasp.
  • A farm road sign shaped like Texas Farm to Market road signs show a white outline of Texas on a black square.
  • A map of Texas with a star on Austin Austin is the capital. The outline has a square panhandle on top and a long curve of coast.
  • A monarch butterfly on a fence wire The monarch is Texas's state insect. Orange wings with black veins and a dotted black edge.
  • A pumpjack against the sunset The curved end of the beam is called the horse head, because of its shape. It rocks on an A-frame.
  • A row of dominoes for a game of 42 The state domino game is called 42. Draw the tiles standing in a row, spots facing you.
  • A slice of petrified palmwood The state stone is fossil palm wood, found in east Texas and tens of millions of years old.
  • A strand of barbed wire The modern kind was patented in 1874. Two twisted wires with a short barb wrapped around them at intervals.
  • A Texas Dawn waterlily The state waterlily is a variety named Texas Dawn. Pointed petals in rings, flat round pads below.
  • A Texas toad The state amphibian since 2009, a toad of dry country. A squat body, short legs, bumpy skin.
  • A wind farm on the plains Texas produces more wind power than any other state. Three blades each, and the far ones get smaller.
  • An oil derrick with a gusher A well at Spindletop hit oil on January 10, 1901 and blew for nine days.
  • The Lone Star flag Adopted in 1839 for the Republic of Texas. One white star on an upright blue stripe, beside white over red.
  • The state seal: a star in a wreath A star of five points, ringed by a live oak branch on one side and an olive branch on the other.

How it works

A lizard with a crown of horns, a pool under a fallen cave roof, a road sign cut to the shape of the state. Each of these Texas drawing ideas names a real thing and gives one checked detail.

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What is on the list

The Topic list sorts the page four ways. Animals and plants runs from the armadillo to the bluebonnet. Places covers canyons, missions, dunes and the Gulf shore. Food holds the state dish, pie, pepper and snack. Symbols and things has the flag, the seal and a pumpjack.

State symbols, checked

Texas has named a state symbol for almost everything, from a tie to a domino game. Those on this list were checked against the state library's official list or, for the tie, the legislature's own resolution, so a drawing can carry its title: state reptile, state bread, state grass.

  • A longhorn's horns can span more than eight feet. Mark both tips first, then fit the head between them.
  • Distance is pale. Draw the far wall of a canyon lighter than the near one.

Questions and answers

What is the state animal of Texas?

There are three state mammals. The nine-banded armadillo is the small one, the longhorn the large one and the Mexican free-tailed bat the flying one. The horned lizard is the state reptile and the mockingbird the state bird.

What are some easy Texas things to draw?

A bluebonnet spike, a jalapeño, a kolache and Enchanted Rock are each one or two simple shapes. The Lone Star flag is three rectangles and a star.

What is the Lone Star?

The single five-pointed star on the state flag, adopted in 1839 for the Republic of Texas. A star of five points also sits in the middle of the state seal, and the state nickname is the Lone Star State.

Are rodeo and ranch subjects on this list?

No. Saddles, boots, barrel racers and windmills are on the rodeo art list, linked below. This one keeps to the wildlife, places, food and symbols of the state.

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