How To Draw: Rockpool Special

The summer holidays are here and the children are out of school. So why not take them to the seaside for a spot of rockpooling. You will have hours of fun as long as you keep an eye on the tide and are careful where you tred. By carefully lifting rocks, you may be surprised to what you will find. To add to the fun, why not draw what you discover. In this week's How To Draw, I will teach you to draw a few of the creatures you can find in a rockpool.

Stage One

One of the most commonest of our rockpool creatures are crabs. I am going to draw two crabs, one with a view from the front (left) and the other is of a view from above (right). For the one on the left, I draw a rugby ball shape and for the one on the right, I draw a circle.









Stage Two

Next, I create the shape of the carapace (the main body). The crab on the left was divided and shaped like a pie. The top part is like the crust, while the bottom part is like the dish the pie is in. The 'dish' part is divided further to create the jaws, eyes and the ridges of the crab's underside. I draw a series of squares and triangle for the legs and claws, which all connect underneath the underside of the crab. Draw the claws first before drawing each leg, which gradually disappears behind one another.

The crab on the right is drawn like the shape of a slice of toast with spikes and two dips for eye sockets at the top. Then on either side, draw eight likes and two claws (10 limbs in all). Again it is a series of squares and triangles for each limb. For the three hind legs that group together on both sides of the crab, I drew a small square which I divided with two lines to create a base to draw the legs from and from there, I drew each leg, starting with the one at the top, then the middle leg and then the bottom leg.



Stage Three

Redraw over the pencil guide lines in pen and shade in your crabs. The upperside of the carapace is darker than the underside.










Stage Four

Finally, colour in your crab however you like. These two are shore crabs which are green or brown. I have used yellow and the ink of the pen that I used to shade in earlier, which has blended in to create the green colour I was after. The underside of the crab on the left is heavily layered in yellow and I highlighted it with green and orange.






Stage One

My next rockpool creature is very easy to draw. To draw a starfish, I create a rough large circle. In the centre of this circle, I draw a smaller circle, which is the main body. From this small circle, draw five (or more) limbs radiating from it. These limbs can be straight or droop down something like a rock, it is up to you. I have added a stone for my starfish to sit on. If you draw a stone, etc, make sure only part of the top limb is visible as it droops out of sight.






Stage Two

 Draw over in pen and rub out the pencil marks. Down the centre of each limb, draw a line of tiny circles that meets in the centre of the starfish which makes a central circle built up of tiny circles. Then lightly shade in a scribble-like manner on each side of the line of tiny circles and shade in the rock.

Stage Three

Colour in your starfish. I used a light layer of yellow first and then a light layer of orange on top. The rock is grey. And that is all that is needed. Easy as can be.

Stage One

To finish off this week, my final rockpool creature are anemones. I will draw two anemones for you. The one at the top will be a snakelocks anemone and the one below it will be a strawberry anemone. To begin with, I create a rough circle for both and an extra circle for the strawberry anemone's blob-like body.






Stage Two

Drawing the tentacles is a case of drawing as many squiggly spaghetti-like shapes as you like and in whatever direction you like, overlapping without a worry. As the snakelocks anemone is nothing but long tentacles, you can go as mad as you like. For the strawberry anemone, however, the tentacles are short and are restricted to poke out from the top of its body. The body is decorated with lines of tiny circles.





Stage Three

 Draw over in pen next. You can add more or fewer tentacles at this stage if you wish.






Stage Four

Now to colour in your anemones. The snakelocks anemone is vivid green with pink tips, while the strawberry anemone is red with a bit of orange and grey for the body. I have also gone over the outlines of some of the tentacles, spots and edges of the body in pen and have shaded in part of a rock for the anemone to attatch to.

And there you have it. Of course there are many other creatures hiding in the rockpools waiting for you to draw. By the time the tide comes in, you will have pages of drawings of every species that you come across. A rockpool is full of weird and wonderful creatures, the drawing possibilities are endless.