Breakdown of Этот рисунок сделала моя дочь.
мой
my (мой, моя, моё) / mine
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
дочь
daughter
сделать
to do (perfective) / to make (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Этот рисунок сделала моя дочь.
Why is Этот рисунок at the beginning of the sentence if it is the object?
Russian word order often puts the most important new information at the end of the sentence. By placing the subject моя дочь at the very end, the speaker heavily emphasizes who made the drawing.
If Этот рисунок is the direct object receiving the action, why doesn't its ending change to show the accusative case?
It is actually in the accusative case! For masculine inanimate nouns like рисунок, the accusative form is identical to the dictionary (nominative) form. The demonstrative pronoun этот follows the exact same rule.
Why does the past tense verb сделала have a feminine ending when the word right before it is masculine?
Verbs always agree with the subject of the sentence, no matter where the subject is placed. Even though the object comes first here, the actual subject doing the action is моя дочь (feminine), so the verb must be сделала.
Could I use standard English word order and say Моя дочь сделала этот рисунок?
Yes, that is completely correct grammatically. However, it sounds like a neutral statement answering 'What did your daughter do?' rather than 'Who drew this?', which is what the original sentence naturally answers.