How to Draw a Tortoise

This is another animal drawing lesson in which we will show you how to draw a tortoise step by step.

These creatures look as if they crawled out from ancient times. Their unusual appearance and interesting habits have made them characters in a variety of cartoons and films. For example, TMNT, Squirtle, and Bowser are tortoises.

To learn how to draw a tortoise, you need a fairly simple set of a pencil, paper, and an eraser. If all this is already in front of you, then let’s proceed to the drawing lesson.

How to Draw a Tortoise

Step 1

Firstly, sketch out the head as a small circle and the torso as a large bean-shaped geometric figure. Leave a small space for the neck between the head and torso.

Step 2

Now let’s get down to the details of the tortoise drawing. First, draw the upper jaw, then draw the lower one, which should be noticeably smaller in size than the upper one.

Step 3

Draw a small eye at the top of the head. Next, connect the head and torso by drawing a long neck using a pair of long and slightly curved lines.

Step 4

Now go to the torso and draw the front legs of the tortoise. Note that they look like the feet of a person wearing thick winter socks.

Step 5

Now draw the hind feet in the same way. Finish this step by drawing a short, triangular tail. Remember that you can check the proportionality of your tortoise drawing by looking at it through a mirror.

Step 6

Using a long and slightly curved line, draw the bottom edge of the upper half of the shell. This line has a different shape on different turtles.

Step 7

Now let’s add some details to make the tortoise drawing more interesting. Draw an opening in the shell with a couple of simple lines. Next, draw the short claws of the tortoise with a few triangular lines.

Step 8

To make the tortoise drawing more realistic, add a pattern to the shell. Pick a pattern you like and draw it on the shell of your reptile to add personality to it.

Step 9

Set aside the drawing objects, take an eraser, and erase all unnecessary guidelines from your tortoise drawing. To make your artwork more expressive, darken the necessary lines.

Step 11

Paint your tortoise drawing in shades of green. To give the reptile drawing a more voluminous look, add shadows, as in our example.

So, the drawing of the tortoise is complete, and it’s time to come up with something interesting and make it even cooler. Try to draw a natural environment for your tortoise by drawing animals and plants around it.

Next, you can try to depict a different kind of turtle using this drawing tutorial. For example, you can draw a snapping turtle or a Galapagos turtle using the steps you already learned from this tutorial.