Learn how to draw a seahorse with all its wonderful bumps and textures. A simple step by step tutorial makes it easy for those that want to draw one that looks pretty realistic.

Seahorses are tiny fish that are named for the shape of their head, which looks the like the head of a horse. They can be found in tropical and temperate costal waters. Many can change their color in minutes, from black or gray to bright yellow or orange.

Seahorses are unique because the male seahorse hatches the eggs in a pouch on his belly. When the babies are ready to be born, the male expels them with contractions. He gives birth at night and is ready for the next batch of eggs by morning when his female mate returns. Pretty efficient!

Getting Started with Drawing Guides

The best way to get students off to a good start to any drawing lesson is to show them how to use guides as a reference point.

You may have noticed that all of the tutorials on this site have a dashed line running through the center of each step, both in the horizontal and vertical direction. If students make their own centered lines on their own paper, before drawing, they will have an easy reference to follow.

For instance, as seen in Step 1 below, the big circle for the head centers on the middle line of the paper, and sits just a bit down from the top of the paper. It’s important to get that shape in place before the curve of the the seahorse’s body is added below.

Drawing skills are all about getting the size and placement of lines on paper, so having some visual reference point to get started, will always help anyone learn how to be a little more accurate.

So does that mean students need to get out a ruler to draw a big fat line down the center of their paper before they start? Goodness no, please don’t! That will most likely be hard to erase and distract from any finished art. No, simply fold the sheet of paper in half both ways, make a crease, and unfold. The beauty is that by the time the drawing is done and colored in, the creases will disappear.

And now, on to the seahorse drawing project.