Watch it draw itself · tap to replay

How to Draw a Shrimp

12 steps · Medium · about 9 min

Draw a shrimp in 12 easy steps, about 9 minutes. Free, with a printable worksheet.

Each picture adds one red line. Draw that line, then scroll to the next picture. Rub out any dashed helper lines at the end. First up: the head shell.

Step 1: The head shell
On the left of your paper, draw a plump sideways egg for the head. Leave room on the right.
Step 2: Spike and feelers
On the top front of the head, draw a short pointy spike. Behind it, draw 2 long feelers swooping back.
Tip Feelers are long and bendy, longer than the whole shrimp.
Step 3: Big eye and smile
On the front of the head, draw a big round eye with a black dot. Add a little smile below.
Step 4: The back
Start on top of the head. Draw a tall rainbow over to the right, curling down and in, stopping low.
Tip This is the biggest line. Go slow and keep it round like a comma.
Step 5: The tummy
Start under the head. Draw a shorter curve inside the back, bending down and round, stopping near its end.
Tip Fat near the head, skinny at the tail: that makes it a shrimp.
Step 6: Fan tail
Start at the tummy tip, draw a short line across to the back. Add a fan of 3 plump paddles.
Step 7: Tail rings
Draw 4 curved lines across the tail, from the back down to the tummy, closer together toward the tip.
Tip The rings are the plates of the shrimp's shell.
Step 8: Little legs
Under the back of the head and the tummy, draw 4 little bent legs pointing down and forward.
Step 9: Sea floor and bubbles
Draw a long sand line across the bottom. Add 2 pebbles in the sand and 3 bubbles by the spike.
Step 10: Colour it peach
Go over your lines. Colour the head, the spike and the whole curled body peach, leaving the eye white.
Step 11: Pink fan and legs
Colour the fan tail and the 4 little legs pink.
Step 12: Sandy floor, blue bubbles
Colour the floor under the sand line sandy, pebbles too. Colour the bubbles sky blue.