How to Draw a Shark Step by Step (Easy for Beginners)

Sharks look tricky because of all those fins, yet the body underneath is about as simple as animals get: a long, smooth torpedo. Once that shape is down, every fin just slots into place. In this lesson I'll walk you through how to draw a shark step by step, from a light pencil oval to a grinning great white with a white belly and a few bubbles. The teeth stay small and the eye stays round, so the result looks friendly instead of scary.

Your shark grows a little in every picture below. The part drawn in blue is the only thing you add in that step. Gray lines are already on your paper from before, and the pale blue shapes are guides you will rub out once the inking is done.

Quick overview
⏱️ Time: about 25 to 35 minutes
🎯 Level: easy, good for kids from about 6 up
✏️ Steps: 12
🦈 You'll draw: a friendly great white shark swimming to the right

Shark Sketching Kit

• A pencil (HB is fine)
• An eraser that doesn't smudge
• A black pen or thin marker for inking
• Colored pencils or markers: blue-gray, a darker gray-blue, pink, light blue and black
• A sheet of paper turned sideways

Sharks are long animals, so a landscape page keeps the tail and the snout from running off the edges.

How to Draw a Shark Step by Step

Step 1: Sketch a long body oval

Start with a stretched oval across the middle of the page, roughly four times as wide as it is tall. Leave space on the left for the tail and above for the fin. This oval is only a guide, so draw it with very light pressure. You'll trace the real shark over it in a moment.

💡 Tip: Hold the pencil further back from the tip. You can't press hard that way, and guides stay faint.

Step 2: Add the fin and tail guides

On top of the oval, a little right of center, draw a tall triangle for the dorsal fin. Its tip should lean back toward the tail. At the left end, draw a sideways V that opens to the left, with the top arm longer than the bottom one. Under the body, add two slanted lines for the pectoral fins.

💡 Tip: Make the upper tail line clearly longer. That uneven tail is what says shark rather than fish.

Step 3: Draw the torpedo body outline

Now the real outline. I start at the snout on the right, which comes to a soft point, and curve up over the head. The back runs fairly flat to the fin, then slopes down to a thin tail stalk. Underneath, the belly bulges a bit lower than the oval before it narrows toward the tail too.

💡 Tip: Keep the snout pointy but rounded at the very tip. A blunt nose makes it look like a whale.

Step 4: Shape the tall dorsal fin

Follow your triangle guide, but bend the front edge outward so it bulges like a sail. The back edge does the opposite: it curves inward as it drops to the body. That pair of curves gives the fin its famous hooked look, which is the first thing people recognize on a shark.

💡 Tip: Stop the fin lines right where they meet the back. Don't draw across the base.

Step 5: Draw the crescent tail

Use the V as your skeleton. From the top of the tail stalk, sweep a curved line up and back to a point at the end of the upper guide, then come down the inside to a small notch. The lower lobe is shorter: from the notch out to its tip, then back to the bottom of the stalk.

💡 Tip: Most beginners make both tail lobes the same size here. Give the top one about twice the length.

Step 6: Add two pectoral fins

The near fin hangs below the belly like a long, slanted blade, pointing back toward the tail. Draw it fully, and let it overlap the belly line. The far fin sits on the other side of the body, so you only see a short piece of it peeking out a little further forward.

💡 Tip: Draw the far fin smaller and shorter than the near one. That small difference adds depth.

Step 7: Draw the eye and a smiling mouth

Place a round eye on the head, about a third of the way back from the snout tip and well above the lower edge. Put a tiny circle inside for the shine. Below and slightly behind it, draw the mouth as a wide crescent that dips in the middle, then add a short upward flick at the back corner. That flick is the smile.

💡 Tip: A round eye with a shine reads friendly. Narrow or angled eyes would make the shark look mean.

Step 8: Add little friendly teeth

Along the top edge of the mouth, draw a row of six small triangles pointing down. Keep them tiny and evenly spaced, so they sit inside the pink area with room to spare. I skip the bottom row on purpose. One neat row says shark without turning the face into a horror movie poster.

💡 Tip: Draw the teeth with short, light zigzag strokes and slow down near the mouth corners.

Step 9: Draw five gill slits

Behind the mouth and in front of the fins, draw five slightly curved lines, each one bowing toward the tail. Space them evenly and keep them about the same height. Real great whites have five gill slits on each side, so counting them out loud is a nice detail to share with kids.

💡 Tip: Lightly mark the first and last slit before filling in the middle three.

Step 10: Add the wavy belly line and bubbles

Great whites have a white underside with a ragged edge where it meets the gray back. Draw a gently wavy line from the snout, between the eye and the mouth, back along the body until it meets the lower edge before the tail. Skip it where the near fin covers the body. Finish with three bubbles above the head, from big to small.

💡 Tip: Let the waves be soft and uneven. Perfect bumps look like a pattern on a sock.

Step 11: Ink the lines and erase the guides

Go over every line you want to keep with your black pen: outline, fins, tail, face, gills, belly line and bubbles. Leave the oval, the triangle, the V and the fin lines in pencil. Give the ink a minute to dry, then erase every bit of pencil until only the clean drawing is left.

💡 Tip: Turn the paper as you ink long curves, so your hand always pulls the pen toward you.

Step 12: Color your shark

Fill the back, dorsal fin, tail and near fin with blue-gray. Use a darker gray-blue for the far fin so it falls back into the shadow. Leave the belly and teeth white, color the inside of the mouth pink, and make the eye black with the shine left white. The bubbles get a pale sky blue.

💡 Tip: Color the back in strokes that run from head to tail, the same way the shark swims.

When Your Shark Starts Looking Like a Dolphin

• A curved, beak-like snout. Dolphins have a bulging forehead and a beak. Keep the shark's head as one smooth slope that comes to a point.
• A tail with equal halves. A shark's upper tail lobe is longer than the lower one. Make the top clearly bigger.
• Teeth that are too big. Large teeth turn a cartoon shark scary fast. Keep them small and inside the mouth.
• A dorsal fin in the wrong spot. If it sits right over the head, the body looks unbalanced. Place it a little behind the middle of the back.
• A straight belly line. A ruler-straight edge looks like a stripe. Let it wave gently, the way the white underside really does.

Remix Your Great White

Once this shark feels easy, play with it. Stretch the head sideways into a T shape and you have a hammerhead. Add white spots on a dark blue back for a whale shark, or shrink everything and give it big eyes for a baby shark. Younger kids can skip the gills and teeth; the tall fin still says shark. If you want to fill a whole ocean scene, add a friendly blue whale from the whale drawing tutorial nearby, or a goldfish from the easy fish drawing tutorial.

Free Shark Coloring Page and 12-Step PDF

Prefer paper? The free shark coloring page has a finished example at the top and a color key showing which gray goes where, with a big clean outline underneath for coloring. The step-by-step PDF guide holds all 12 steps with their tips. Both fit Letter and A4 paper.

📱 On a phone? Tap a download button, then open the file and choose Share → Save to Files or Print. On a computer, the PDF opens or saves straight to your Downloads folder.

Shark Lesson on One Pinnable Sheet

Out of the Water: More Animals and Outfits to Draw

Each of these links opens one step-by-step tutorial, with numbered pictures for every stage.

• Chicken Drawing: The chicken drawing tutorial draws a hen and her chick on a patch of grass.
• Suit Drawing: Learn how to draw a suit, from the navy jacket to the red striped tie.
• Shoe Drawing: A red high-top and a low-top sit side by side in the sneaker drawing step by step lesson.
• Dove Drawing: Draw a flying dove with an olive branch in its beak using this peace dove drawing tutorial.
• Hoodie Drawing: The hoodie drawing tutorial shows the front and back of one sage hoodie.
• Feather Drawing: Two feathers, teal and orange, grow from a curved line in the feather drawing tutorial.
• Mask Drawing: This masquerade mask drawing tutorial adds a gem, pearls, feathers and ribbons.
• Fish Drawing: Stay in the water with the goldfish drawing tutorial, scales and seaweed included.
• Lion Drawing: A lion with a big mane and a tufted tail takes twelve steps in the how to draw a lion guide.
• Ladybug Drawing: The ladybug drawing step by step lesson puts one ladybug on a leaf and another in flight.
• Dog Drawing: Three circles become a beagle-style dog in this side-view dog drawing tutorial.
• French Bulldog Drawing: Draw a Frenchie with a flat nose and a bow tie in the French bulldog drawing tutorial.

Shark Drawing Questions I Hear Most

What is the easiest way to draw a shark?

Begin with a long oval, then add a triangle for the fin and a sideways V for the tail. Trace the body outline over those guides. Building from simple shapes keeps every fin in the right place.

How do you make a shark drawing look friendly?

Use a round eye with a white shine, a curved smile that turns up at the corner, and small teeth. Soft colors help too, along with a few bubbles.

How many gills does a shark have?

A great white has five gill slits on each side of its head. Most sharks have five, while a few kinds have six or seven.

What colors do I need to color a shark?

A blue-gray for the back, white for the belly and teeth, pink for the mouth and black for the eye. A darker gray-blue on the far fin adds a little depth.

Your shark is waiting at the bottom of a blank page, so sketch that long oval and see how wide yours ends up smiling. 🦈✏️

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