By Show Me Step by StepPublished
Based on a video by Art for Kids Hub.
This sea turtle is drawn from above, the way you would see one gliding under a boat. A pointed oval shell, long front flippers, a ring of border plates and a honeycomb of plates in the middle. The team at Art for Kids Hub draws it with a black marker, then colors it with green, gold and two browns. They aimed this one at older kids, around 11 and up, but it is a good grown-up project too.
Plain white paper and a black marker for the outline. For color, a light green, a yellow-brown or gold, a medium brown and a dark brown. Markers work for the base colors. Colored pencils are better for the shading and spots because you can press light or hard. There is no pencil sketch step, so go slowly and keep your lines loose. A wobbly line looks more natural on a turtle anyway.
The line drawing on its own still looks like a cartoon. The color is what changes it. Shade each plate dark at the edge and lighter in the middle, so the shell looks domed. Put big spots near the edges of the flippers and small ones toward the middle. Then darken the skin right next to the shell and inside the wrinkles. Use the side of the pencil tip for soft shading. For more on that, see how to shade and how to draw with colored pencils.
Draw side by side on two sheets, the way this video does, and take turns choosing the next step. Younger kids can stop after the marker outline and color it any way they like. Older kids can try the plate shading. Pause the video as often as you need. The coloring part goes fast. When you are done, cut the turtles out and glue them onto blue paper with a few wavy lines for water. That makes an easy ocean scene for the fridge.
Stay under the water with how to draw a fish or how to draw a shark. If you are new to drawing, how to draw covers the basic shapes and lines that every animal starts from.
10 steps · about 10 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Start in the middle of the page. Draw a big curve for one side of the shell, then the other side. The shape is an oval with a soft, rounded point at the bottom. Close the top with a line that runs almost straight across, then curves back in. That flat part is where the head comes out. A slightly lopsided shell is fine. Turtles are not perfect ovals.
Tip
Leave room on both sides of the shell. The front flippers reach a long way out.
Draw two short lines coming up out of the flat top of the shell. That is the neck. On top of them, draw an upside-down U with a small point at the very top for the head. Keep it small compared with the shell. A big head pushes the drawing toward cartoon, and this one is meant to look real.
Tip
If the head looks too round, make the point at the top a little sharper.
From the upper right side of the shell, draw a diagonal line going out, then curve it down. At the tip, curve again, then draw a straight line back toward the shell to make an elbow. Curve in once more and join it to the shell. Repeat the same moves on the left so the two flippers mirror each other. Add a couple of short wrinkle lines where each flipper bends.
Tip
Turn your paper as you go. Curves are easier to draw when your hand moves toward you.
At the bottom of the shell, draw a short S line coming out on each side. Then draw a second S line on the outside of each one to close it into a small paddle. These back flippers are much smaller than the front ones. Finish with a tiny pointed tail sticking out between them at the very bottom of the shell.
Tip
Keep the two back flippers angled out, like the turtle is steering.
Put two small dot eyes near the top of the head. Then draw the border on the shell. Start with a straight line across the top, right under the neck. Follow the outside of the shell all the way around with a wobbly line, keeping a narrow gap between it and the edge. That gap becomes the ring of small border plates.
Tip
Keep the gap even all the way around. A ring that gets fat at one side looks off.
Draw short lines across the border ring to split it into small sections. They look a bit like bricks laid in a circle. Space them roughly evenly and go all the way around the shell. These are the marginal plates of a real sea turtle, and they make the shell edge look thick and solid.
Tip
Do not measure. Slightly different widths look more natural than perfect spacing.
Draw two short lines down the middle of the shell. Close each side with a sideways V to make a six-sided center plate. From each corner, draw lines out toward the border. Add shorter diagonal lines, then connect pairs of lines with curves to close more plates. Finish the bottom with a rainbow-shaped line and the plates around it. Now the shell has its honeycomb look.
Tip
Do the top half first, then the bottom. It is easier to keep the pattern balanced.
Color the head, flippers and tail light green. Fill the shell plates and border with a yellow-brown or gold. Stay inside the black lines and keep the color even. This is the base layer, so it does not need to be perfect. The shading in the next steps will cover small gaps. Markers give strong color fast. Pencils give a softer texture.
Tip
Color in one direction on the shell so the texture looks tidy under the shading.
Take a medium brown pencil. Go around the inside edge of each plate, pressing harder at the edge and lighter as you move toward the middle. Leave the center of each plate gold. Work plate by plate until the whole shell is done. The shell now looks domed instead of flat. A second pass with dark brown makes it richer.
Tip
Use the side of the pencil tip, not the point, for smooth shading without hard lines.
With dark brown, add spots to the flippers and head. Make them big near the outside edges and smaller toward the middle so they blend. Then shade the skin right next to the shell and inside each wrinkle. Do the same around the neck and back flippers. That last bit of shadow is what makes your sea turtle look like it could swim off the page.
Tip
Press lightly first. You can always go darker, but colored pencil is hard to erase.
Keep going
How to Draw With Colored Pencils (Layering a Realistic Pear)
10 steps · about 12 minutes
How to Draw a Sea Turtle (Realistic, Step by Step)
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