How to Learn to Draw Marine Animals

With a little practice, drawing can be fun.

Drawing is a popular pastime. From doodling to detail-heavy sketches that take hours to complete, when many people pick up a pencil a drawing is bound to emerge. Like chess, drawing is easy to learn but difficult to master. Anyone can draw a person, even if it's just a stick figure. Few people can draw a person so well the drawing seems like it wants to leap off the paper. Drawing animals is more difficult than drawing objects. Animals have muscles and proportions that make translating what is seen a challenge. Marine animals are easier, but it requires patience and practice to draw them correctly.

Things You'll Need

• Pencils
• Paper
• Book on perspective drawing
• Book on light and shadow techniques

Instructions

1. Practice drawing lines. Lines are the most basic elements in any drawing. Curved lines, straight lines, jagged lines and broken lines all perform the same job--they separate space. Draw lines until it becomes second nature. Lines should be smoothly made with the pencil, not slowly and methodically pushed across the paper. The lines that make up marine animals come in all forms, and when it comes time to draw the complete animal, smooth practiced lines will make a world of difference

2. Draw shapes. Start with basic geometrical shapes like circles, triangles, ovals and squares. Move on to more advanced shapes and combinations of shapes. Shapes help define objects, and advanced drawings begin with shapes. Look at the shapes that make up marine animals--ovals for bodies, trapezoids for fins, long twisty triangles for tentacles.

3. Study proportion and perspective. Proportion is how large one object is compared to another. Proportion is a very important aspect of drawing, especially where animals and humans are concerned. Marine animals have proportions that seem strange to people unfamiliar with the creatures, so studying proportion is imperative. Perspective is how close or far something appears to be, which needs to be mastered to draw a scene with more than one animal.

4. Learn to reproduce the effects of light and shadow. Find a good book for reference. Light and shadow give a drawing life and create dimension. Drawing without using shadow creates a two-dimensional figure that looks flat and unrealistic. Marine life is often filmed with strange light angles created artificially by the cameras and crew studying them. Learning to handle light and shadow will make drawing marine animals in what appears to be a natural light much easier.

5. Draw everything and anything. Draw daily. Start with common objects and slowly build up to more difficult things. With enough time and practice, drawings will begin to appear more professional and realistic.

6. Study marine animals. Watch how they move and learn how they're built. In order to draw something well, there needs to be a familiarity with it. Study pictures others have drawn, visit aquariums and watch underwater documentaries on television to get as much exposure as possible.

7. Draw marine animals. Expect that the drawings will look amateurish at the beginning. Practice until drawing fish and shrimp and crabs and any other aquatic critter becomes second nature.

Tips & Warnings

• The Perspective Drawing Handbook by Joseph D'Amelio is an excellent resource to get started learning perspective in art.

• Drawing Academy: The Basics of Drawing/Line and Shading/Light and Shadow/Perspective by Parramon's Editorial Team is also an excellent resource.

References

• Learn to Draw
• Animal Drawings