How to Draw a Shark

Drawing a shark can be a very easy project if you let yourself draw with ease and lightness. Sharks can be made to look funny, comical, scary or dangerous, depending on the way you handle the various elements of the drawing. Keep your hands loose as you draw and, in that way, find the shark you want to create.

Instructions

1. Start with a large, egg-like oval shape. Draw it lightly and quickly, so as to create the closest possible approximation to an organic form. Think of how a shark bends as it moves through the water, and allow your oval shape to show some sense of movement.

2. Keep in mind the borders of your paper and how far you want your shark to extend. You may want part of the shark to be off the edge of the page, which gives the big fish a greater sense of power and size.

3. Draw a wide, crescent shape at the front of the shark, which corresponds to the narrower end. This is the mouth. For a happy shark, draw the crescent as an upward curve; for a mean, angry shark, draw the crescent as a downward curve.

4. Add many little triangles, up and down, along both edges of the mouth. Make them as large or as small as you want, thinking of how impressive you want these teeth to look.

5. Put eyes--large or small, depending on how light or dark you want this picture to be--with eyebrows of your choice. Angle the eyebrows downward to create a mad shark; upward to create a more happy shark.

6. Position the tail by drawing a long, ever-narrowing cylinder from the end of the oval shape, outward as far and with as much curve as you want. Add two interlocking triangles on the end to make the tail fin.

7. Create the top fin by putting another triangle on the top of the oval shape. Add vertical crescent-shaped gills alongside the mouth and you have every element in place. Darken in the lines you want to keep, erase those you don't and add colors of your choice.