How to Draw a Four-Eyed Butterfly Fish

The four-eyed butterfly fish is a tropical looking fish, but is found all the way up to Massachusetts and down to South America. It is known for a spot on the opposite side of the body from the head, which looks like an eye. This is thought to serve to confuse predators. The four-eyed butterfly fish has a laterally compressed shape, meaning it is the type of fish that is narrow from side to side. To draw one, that is the basic fish shape you need to remember, along with parallel lines and the spines that line the fish's top side. It is not hard to draw a four-eyed butterfly fish if you follow just a few steps.

Things You'll Need

• Drawing of four-eyed butterfly fish
• Paper
• Pencil
• Colored pencils or Crayons

Instructions

1. Find a drawing of a four-eyed butterfly fish. This can be easily found on the Internet or in a marine-life book.

2. Draw an oval, tapered on one end, with the oval forming the body and the tapered end forming the mouth. The mouth is pretty small compared to the rest of the fish, like a rounded triangle.

3. Draw a shape like the bottom of an equilateral triangle on its side, at the opposite end from the mouth, on the back of the oval. Face the base away from the body. Next, draw curved lines from the base that face inward and straighten out halfway to the triangle point. The tail is mainly integrated with the fish's body profile, so only protrude it a short distance.

4. Draw backward facing lines along the top of the body oval. Angle them toward the tail from where they begin on the body, but not extending too far out from their base.

5. Draw a small line at the center of the mouth, to delineate the upper and lower jaw.

6. Draw the real eye, close to where the fish's body is tapering toward the mouth. Make this a small double circle with the inside circle shaded in.

7. Add two concentric circles, a little larger than the real eye, where the tail begins, but slightly above center. Shade in the inner circle.

8. Draw a wavy line from the bottom of the fake eye, along the middle of the body, to about three-fourths of the way to the front of the fish. From this line to the top of the fish, add parallel lines to it that angle 45 degrees, facing toward the back. Below the center line, add similar lines at a much lower angle to it on the bottom half of the fish. Do not make these details too dark.

9. Erase any guide lines if you used them. Add shadings and color based on the picture or your imagination.