How to Draw a Crocodile

Have you wanted to learn how to draw a crocodile? We've got the perfect tutorial for you! Crocodiles have powerful jaws that can apply five thousand pounds of pressure per square inch! While large and fierce, you can draw these animals as cartoon characters for illustrations and fun projects.

So let's get started with these step by step drawing exercises and draw a fascinating creature.

Before we begin, gather all of your drawing tools together. Our drawing tutorials are designed to be used with any medium, from colored pencils to digital programs like Procreate. For this drawing tutorial, we are using Procreate along with these great Procreate ink brushes.

Step 1 - Sketch the Head of the Crocodile

Let's start off by sketching the head. You can use any drawing supply that can easily be covered or removed later on when adding color.

For the crocodile head, start by sketching a rough circle to the left of your page. Make sure your circle is small enough to allow space to draw the mouth on the left. Also, leave space for the whole body and tail on the right.

Then, starting at the top left of your circle, sketch a bump. Carry on drawing a curved line going to the left and rounding it out for the nose. Continue drawing your line back towards the lower half of the circle, and creating an upward curve for the end of the mouth.

Lastly, sketch the bottom half of the mouth, drawn in blue in the sketch image below.

Step 2 - Sketch the Body and Tail

Next, we are going to sketch the crocodile body and tail on the right side of the circle. For the body, roughly sketch a horizontal oval that is flatter at the top, connected to the head.

Now, we can sketch the crocodile's tail. Begin at the top of the body, curve down and around like a hook, and then connect back to the bottom part of the body. Make sure the tail is wider closer to the body and narrower towards the end of the tail.

Step 3 - Sketch the Legs of the Crocodile

In this step, we are going to sketch the legs using small guides. The small guides will be composed of lines and circles, which will break up the segments of the front and back legs for easier drawing.

Create the Leg Segments

Our crocodile drawing is viewed from the side. We will be adding three line segments to the two legs that are in view. The other two legs will only have two line segments each, viewable beneath the body.

Let's begin with the two main legs that are in view. For the front leg, draw the letter Z, then add a circle where each line segment joins. Draw the letter Z backwards for the back leg and add the circles.

For the other two legs that are partially hidden behind the body, draw two line segments per leg with a circle at each joint. Follow the image below for a visual guide.

Place the front legs closer to the head, while the back legs are placed at the start of the tail. You can pose your legs in any way you want to. Our main front leg is bending back in a walking motion.

Round Out the Leg Shape

Use ovals to round out the shape of your crocodile legs. The segment connecting to the body will be the biggest, the middle narrower and longer, while the foot segment will be the smallest.

Step 4 - Sketch the Details of Your Crocodile

Now we are going to add details to our crocodile's face, body and tail. We are adding minimal details, but it's entirely your choice what details you add.

Add Detail to the Face

On the head, sketch sharp edges along the mouth line for the teeth. On the front top half of the mouth, make a small circle with a curved line above it for the nostril.

Towards the back top of the head shape, sketch an oval with pointed ends for the eye. Then draw a curved line above it. See our example sketch below.

Add Detail to the Body and Tail

Connect the body to the head with two curved lines for the neck. Then, following the curve of the body and tail, draw two rows of spikes, also known as scutes, along the back of your crocodile.

Join the spikes further down the tail, and continue with one row to the end of the tail. You can make your spikes pointy or rounded like ours.

Roughly sketch a divider line in the middle of the body. This will be for the top and bottom of your crocodile, ending on the tail.

Step 5 - Outline Your Rough Sketches

With our rough sketches complete, it's time to outline our crocodile. Use a medium that creates definition like a liner pen, or marker. Begin outlining the outermost sketch lines first, then the inner sketch lines that you want to include. Pay attention to overlapping lines that you don't want to keep.

We didn't fully outline the legs where they connect to the body, but you can if you want to. After outlining your crocodile, go ahead and remove your rough sketches.

Step 6 - Add Color to Your Crocodile

In the final step of our crocodile sketch, let's add color and shading. For our main color palette, we chose green for the top and lighter green for the bottom of the crocodile. The teeth were left white and the eye filled in with black. We will be adding the final shading, highlights and shadows next.

Use a darker shade of green and the rough edgeink Procreate brush to create some depth with shadows. We then added white highlights on a few areas, including the eye, to complete our crocodile clipart.

You did a snapping job of drawing your very own crocodile! Why not add some background details like grass and rocks, or draw crocodiles from other parts of the world like a saltwater crocodile? We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and drawing a crocodile with us.