How to Draw a Shark in 8 Steps

by easydrawingtips

This tutorial shows how to draw a great white shark. It consists of eight straightforward steps with clear illustrated examples.

Whether you are a beginner looking to try your hand at some fine art or an intermediate artist expanding your animal portfolio

The focus of the tutorial is on showing how to creating a realistic looking line drawing of a great white shark. It demonstrates how to add the animal’s various parts one at a time or in sets throughout the steps.

Overall, this is a fairly simple drawing guide that can be great if you are a beginner looking to try your hand at some fine art.

Start the drawing in pencil as you will need to erase some of the lines in a few of the steps. Also, try and keep your lines fairly light to make it easier to do so. You can darken them once you’ve defined all parts of the shark.

Supplies Needed for This Shark Drawing

Regular graphite pencil (HB)
Drawing paper
Eraser
Fine point black marker (optional)

Step 1 – Draw the Shark’s Body

Begin the drawing with the outline of the largest part of the shark, its main body.

The overall shape: Make this wider in the middle and narrower towards each end.
The front (the shark’s snout): Draw this pointy but still slightly rounded.
The back: Add a fairly long area towards the back that tapers off as it progresses towards the tail.

Leave the very back of the outline open for the tail.

Step 2 – Draw the Tail Fin

Onto the opening in the previous outline draw the tail.

The overall shape: Make its profile similar to a crescent moon but draw the upper part larger than the lower.
The outer tips: Similar to the front of the shark draw the outer tips of the tail to be slightly rounded.
Subterminal tip: Give the tail a small “bump” just a little bit below its top end. This is called the subterminal tip and helps the shark maneuver.

Step 3 – Draw the Mouth

Near the front of the body define the shark’s mouth. If you’ve been drawing as in the examples, you will need to erase a little bit of the body’s main outline when adding it.

Draw the mouth slightly open and with a downwards curve to its overall shape.

Mouth state: Draw the mouth slightly open as is common for sharks.
Mouth shape: Give the mouth’s silhouette a downwards curve as is fairly distinct for a great white.

Step 4 – Draw the Back & Side Fins

Outline the largest fins. You can start with the one on top (the back fin). This fin is particularly characteristic of such an animal, although, dolphins also have similar fins.

The top fin (dorsal fin): Draw the shark’s top fin curving backwards and getting narrower as it goes out (once again ending with a slightly rounded tip). Also, give the fin a little notch at the bottom of its back end.
The foreground side fin (pectoral fin): Draw the viewer-facing fin on the side of the body. Make its overall shape similar to the top fin but draw it to be slightly narrower. You will again, need to erase a little bit of the body’s outline when adding it.
The background side fin: Add the second pectoral fin on the opposite side of the shark. This should be partially hidden behind its body.

For drawing a dolphin see:

How to Draw a Dolphin Step by Step

Step 5 – Draw the Small Fins

Draw the smaller fins near the back of the shark.

The shapes: Make these fins much wider in relation to their height than the previous sets.
The placement: Position them along the narrow, rear section of the body leading up to the tail fin. First, add the one on top. Next, similar to the pectoral fins, erase a little bit of the body’s outline and add the small bottom foreground fin. Afterwards, add the one in the background. Finally, add the single small bottom fin behind this pair.

Step 6 – Draw the Face (Eye & Nose)

Draw the shark’s eye and nose.

Eye shape and placement: Make the eye round and position it near the upper part of the head.
Nose shape and placement: Indicate the nose with a little curve. Draw it near the bottom of the head, roughly halfway between its front tip and the eye.
Shading and details: After you’ve outlined the eye and added the nose, make sure your drawing looks good and shade the eye leaving a few white reflections inside it.
Darkening the lines: With the major parts of the shark defined, you can now trace over your lines to darken them. Either do this with the pencil or use a thin black marker to get a look more similar to the examples.

Above is a larger illustration of the shark’s head to make the details easier to see.

Step 7 – Draw the Gills

Draw the shark’s gills.

Positioning: Place the gills starting from the bottom of the side fin and going towards the head.
The initial sketch: First, define these with a series of very light curved (barely visible) lines.
The final linework: Go over light lines with darker wobbly strokes that have breaks in some of them (like shown in the example).
The reasoning: A shark’s gills are generally somewhat uneven with parts of them being more closed off and parts more open. The wobbly broken up lines will help convey this. The dark line segments will look like the open areas and the gaps will look like the closed off areas.

Step 8 – Draw the Line of Demarcation

For the final part of the drawing add the demarcation line running all the way from the front of the shark towards the tail. This line will show the separation of the shark’s lighter belly from its darker sides and back.

The linework: Similar to the gills, first define this area with a very light solid line. Next, using this as a guide draw some broken up thin line segments running along it.
The effect: Segmenting the line will help convey that its not defining an actual solid part of the body but simply a split between the shark’s colors.
The actual biology: Although this tutorial does not actually go into coloring the shark, usually, the animal’s belly would be white and the back grey. Such colors are a part of its natural camouflage so that when being looked at from below the shark merges with the lighter sun and sky above and when being looked at from above it merges with the darker seabed below.

Conclusion

This tutorial shows how to make a realistic line drawing of a shark using a step by step breakdown for adding the various parts of its body. As with most guides here on easydrawingtips.com, it illustrates an approach of (generally) working from the larger parts of your subject down to the smaller details.

If you like these kinds of easy to follow step by step drawing tutorials, you might also like the following: