How to Draw Underwater Animals
The undersea world has long fascinated scientists and has inspired a slew of artists over the centuries, from ancient craftsmen to Renaissance painters to modern animators. The creatures of the sea are varied in design and color and so drawing your own means paying attention to the small details and simple geometric shapes that form the nearly everything under the sun (or in this case, the waves). Although the choice of subject matter is seemingly endless, the following article will cover drawing a basic shark and a Moray eel.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Drawing a Shark
-
1
Draw a slightly flattened oval in the center of your paper, sized according to how large or small you want your shark to be. This shape serves as the basis for the shark's torso. Add a cone shape attached to the left of the oval to create the shark's snout, using smooth contours to your lines versus pointed lines to give the impression of the shark's sleek and streamlined body.
-
2
Draw a line on the bottom and top of the oval that juts out to the right, carrying the lines outward and narrowing them as you reach the end of the paper. This will create a basic "torpedo" shape. Erase the dividing lines between the shapes to make one cohesive solid shape. This is the shark's body.
-
-
3
Add a triangle on top of the shark, about midway between the head and the tail, to create the famous dorsal fin. Remember to round off the top point with a smoother line. Add another downward-pointing triangle slightly above the bottom line on the shark's body to create one of the pectoral fins. Erase any overlapping lines.
-
4
Draw in the small details like the eyes, mouth and gills near the front of the head. Then add another pectoral fin slightly in front of the other to give a more three-dimensional presentation of the shark. Trace the shark in black ink to make your art stand out on the page.
The Eel
-
5
Draw a backwards "S" shape on your paper, again sized according to how large or small you want your eel to be. This will serve as the body of the eel. Add a small oval to the top end of the "S" to create the head shape.
-
6
Add another "S" shape slightly to the left of the first that mimics that same "S" contours, thus fleshing out the eel's body. Make the top and bottom spaces between the "S" shapes slightly thicker than the middle to give the three-dimensional impression of the eel twisting as it swims through the water.
-
7
Erase the dividing line between the head and body to make the body seem more solid. Add similar "S"-shaped lines both above and below the body that stretch from the animal's head to the first bend in its body. Then add similar lines to the bottom of the "S" curve to create the eel's top and bottom fins.
-
8
Erase the left end of the oval, then redraw a contoured 45-degree line that angles from the bottom of the head to the top to create the face and jaw line. Add in a mouth line with several jagged teeth jutting out to create the eel's famous, fearsome visage.
-
9
Complete the drawing by adding a circle with a center dot to create the eye. Then trace the eel in black ink to make it stand out on the page.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit underwater life image by Sandra Makara from Fotolia.com
