How to Draw a Turtle

There are many different kinds of turtles. Some weigh hundreds of pounds while others weigh just a few ounces! In your artwork, you can make this turtle as big or as small as you want.

Learn how to draw this turtle.
Learn how to draw this turtle.

In this section, we’ll show you how to draw the above turtle. Either draw it freehand while looking at your computer monitor or print out this page to get a closer look at each step.

Follow the red lines in each illustration to learn exactly what to draw in that step. The lines drawn in previous steps are shown in gray. We’ll show you an illustration of each step and then give you a description of how to draw it.

First, draw shapes for the turtle's head and shell.

Step 1: Draw an egg shape for the head. Add a large shape for the upper shell and a shallow crescent below it for the lower shell.

Next, draw shapes for the turtle's leg, tail, and neck.

Step 2: Add shapes for a leg, tail, and neck.

Draw the turtle's eyes, nostrils, and legs.

Step 3: Draw ovals for the eyes and nostrils. Add pupils to the eyes. Draw two more leg shapes. Use some curved lines for the mouth and hair on the head.

Add details to the turtle drawing as shown.

Step 4: Put in curved lines to show where the head and legs come out of the shell. Draw boxy shapes for shell detail. Add some curved lines for toe and neck detail.

Trace the lines you want to keep in the turtle drawing and erase the others.

Step 5: Trace the lines you want to keep with a felt-tip pen, and erase the extra pencil lines.

Now you can add your finished turtle drawing to your animal art collection. Learn how to draw more animals to improve your artistic abilities.

The tiger drawing in the next section may seem complicated at first, but just follow our six simple steps and you'll master it in no time.

Want to expand your drawing skills? See: