How to Draw a Coelacanth

Step 1: Eye and big mouth

Draw a big eye. From above it, curve a blunt head down to the chin. Add a long mouth line.

Tip The eye sits a quarter in from the left, and the mouth reaches under it.

Step 2: Thick body

From the head, arch a big back down to a short neck. Draw the tummy the same way below.

Tip The body is long and heavy, more than twice as long as it is tall.

Step 3: Fan tail, tiny lobe

From the back's end draw a fan tail round to the tummy's end. Give it a tiny middle bump.

Tip The tiny middle lobe is the coelacanth's secret: no other fish has one.

Step 4: Spiky back fin

Near the front of the back, draw 4 soft spikes like a crown, starting and stopping on the back line.

Step 5: Leg-like back fins

Near the tail, draw a short stalk up from the back ending in a round paddle. Add one below too.

Tip Coelacanth fins grow on little legs: a stalk with a paddle on the end.

Step 6: Gill

Behind the eye draw a tall C for the gill, bowing toward the tail, from back to belly.

Step 7: Side and tummy fins

From the gill, draw a stalk fin with a round paddle, back to the gill. Add one under the tummy.

Tip Both stalk fins point back toward the tail.

Step 8: White spots

Draw 7 little round spots on the body, behind the gill and off the fins.

Step 9: Bubbles

In front of the face draw 3 bubbles floating up. Make each one bigger than the last.

Step 10: Sand and seaweed

Draw a long wavy sand line across the bottom. Stand wiggly seaweed on it at each side.

Step 11: Sand and bubbles

Colour the sand below the wavy line sandy and the bubbles light blue.

Step 12: Green seaweed, blue fins

Colour the seaweed green, then colour the tail and all the fins blue.

Step 13: Dark blue coelacanth

Colour the body and head dark blue, going around the side fin. Leave the eye and spots white.

Tip Go over your lines at the end, and your coelacanth is done!