How to Draw a Crab

Today, our fun and easy drawing exercise will show you how to draw a crab. Amazing creatures of the land and sea, we will be drawing a very interesting Horned Ghost Crab. This crab clipart is just perfect for your sea life illustrations, sublimation, or educational projects.

With each step, improve your drawing skills as you go from a sketch to adding color and bringing your animal clipart to life.

Begin by gathering your drawing tools together. Use any medium you prefer for the sketches, outlines and color palette. You can use traditional drawing supplies or even digital programs with our drawing tutorials.

Want to explore more drawing tutorials like this one? From drawing fruit to cute animals, Design Bundles has a bunch of FREE drawing tutorials just for you.

Step 1 - Sketch the Crab Body and Legs

We want to use a removable or light-colored medium for our rough drawing. In this step, we are going to sketch the body, legs, and claws.

Create the Body Shape

For the body, sketch a half circle with the rounded shape at the bottom. This will be the front view of the crab's body.

Sketch the Claws of the Crab

Roughly sketch the claws in front of the body. Looking at our image below, you can see that the small claw (in red) on the left is shaped like a long oval. The claw on the right is slightly bigger.

Draw three oval shapes next to each other just above the right claw for the claw arm (in blue). The middle oval should be smaller than the other two.

Add the Crab Legs

Next, we are going to sketch six legs, three on either side of the body. Each leg has three sections. The largest section extends up and out from the lower part of the body. This is followed by a thinner section that extends down and then a short, sharp tip for the end of the leg.

The legs on the left side will be more visible, as the left claw is smaller. The legs on the right are partially hidden behind the claw arm.

Following our image below, begin sketching the red legs first. These will be the front legs. Part of the front leg is also visible on the left side of the body under the left claw. Then, carry on to draw the middle legs (seen in blue) and the back legs (green).

Step 2 - Sketch the Crab Face Details

We are going to add the horned ghost crab's eyes, shell and mouth details. Feel free to mimic our sketch or create your own details and eyes.

Add the Eyes

At the top of the body, sketch a small circle in the center (indicated in red). Then, draw a long pointed shape (indicated in blue) going up on each side for the horns. Close to the body, inside the horns, sketch an oval with a line in the middle for the eye (indicated in green).

Sketch Details on the Crab

On the crab's body, we are going to sketch details that make up the mouth part. In our sketch below, we create a hook-like shape on the top left and right for the crab shell.

Then, draw a small line down the center of the body. Next, sketch two curved shapes on either side of the line, mirroring each other as we did below (in blue). This is for the mouth part.

Step 3 - Outline The Crab Rough Sketch

Our rough drawing is now done. We can move on to creating permanent outlines before adding color. For the outlines, you can use a dark color of your chosen medium, a pen or a marker. Outline the outermost sketch lines first so you can determine what lines to keep and what to remove.

Then, outline the legs, and claws (seen in red below). For our claw outline, we added a line on the left claw and a loop on the right where the claw opens. A small curved line was added just above the left claw for the barest hint of an arm.

Outline the details of the eyes, the shell, and the mouth part of your crab. Once your outlines are done, you can go ahead and remove your rough sketches.

Step 4 - Add Color to Your Crab Drawing

In the final step, we are going to add color to our little sea creature. You can choose any color for the base and shading of your crab sketch. For our color palette, we used shades of blue, green, and yellow. A reference photo is great for accuracy or your own imagination.

If you are using Procreate, be sure to check how to add a reference photo to make your life that much easier.

With our base color added, we used lighter shades to add some highlights and texture. Design Bundles has a great selection of Procreate texture brushes for adding that final touch to your sea life clipart.

You just drew your very own crab and doesn't this awesome little character look amazing? Drawing step by step builds up your confidence and your skills. We hope this tutorial has inspired you to keep on creating!

We've also got a great tutorial on how to draw a cute octopus for your creative library. Turn your design into a digital image for stickers, t-shirts and so much more.