How to Draw a Shark - Great White in 8 Marker Steps

Turn the paper landscape. Put a dot near the left edge, about a third of the way down, then a matching dot near the right edge. Those two dots fix how long your shark will be.

Join them with one slow curve that rises into a low mound in the middle. Draw it in a single pass if you can. That hump is the shark's back, and every other line in the drawing hangs off it.

Come back to the left dot and bring a short line down for the nose. Stop, leave a gap about the width of your thumb, then bring a second line down below it. That gap becomes the mouth.

Under the front of the body, draw a long triangle for the pectoral fin. One line out and down, a small notch cut into the back edge, then a line closing it to the body. Add a shorter one behind it for the fin on the far side. Great whites carry black tips on both, so ink the points in.

Start at the bottom of the mouth gap and pull one long curve to the right. Let it dip under the fins, then lift it gradually as you head toward the tail end.

The belly line and the back line should squeeze together near the right edge without touching. That narrow gap is where the tail attaches. Go slow over the last few inches. This one line does most of the work of making the body read as a shark instead of a blimp.

Find the middle of the back line. Run one line up and to the right on a slant, then bring it back down to the body with a small notch near the bottom. That is the fin everyone recognises.

At the tail end, curve a line up off the stalk, pinch it in at the top, and bring it back down to a point below. On a great white the upper and lower lobes come out close to the same length, which is what makes the tail look like it can shift a lot of water.

Curve the upper jaw in from under the nose, then bring the lower jaw up to meet it. Let the upper line dip a little where the two join. That small dip is what stops the mouth looking like a smile.

Halfway between the mouth and the top of the head, draw a circle and fill it solid black. Leave one tiny circle inside unfilled. A shark's eye really is that dark, and the speck of white is light bouncing off it. Add a short comma shape near the nose for the nostril.

Between the corner of the mouth and the pectoral fin, draw five short curved lines. Five gills, evenly spaced, all leaning the same way. Count them out loud if it helps.

Line the upper jaw with fat triangles pointing down, then fill the lower jaw with narrower curved ones pointing up. Do not measure. Teeth that vary in size and lean at odd angles look far more like a shark than a neat row ever will.

Great whites carry more fins than most people remember. Put a small triangle partway down the back, a stubby rectangle just before the tail, and two more underneath near the tail stalk.

Add a short spur sticking out from the side of the stalk. That is the keel, and it steadies the shark at speed. Finish with a long line running from behind the head to the tail along the flank. It splits the gray top from the white belly, ready for colour if you want it.

Run a wavy line straight across the paper so it crosses the dorsal fin. Now the fin cuts the surface and the rest of the body sits underwater. That single line changes the whole drawing.

Behind the shark, add short straight dashes for speed and a few curved ones for movement. Scatter small circles for bubbles. Two tiny fish swimming the other way give it a story. Above the water line, a handful of V shapes read as seagulls off in the distance.