How to Draw a Cartoon Turtle

The steps in this simple tutorial will show you how to draw a cartoon turtle with a smiling face for beginner artists.

As we mentioned in our cartoon cow drawing tutorial, this style has many characteristic features and techniques that artists use.

The main ones are simplification, exaggeration, and anthropomorphism. In other words, a cartoon animal should have minimal detail, exaggerated features, and elements typical of humans, such as facial expressions.

This simple step-by-step guide will show you in detail how to apply all these elements when drawing a cartoon turtle, as well as help you practice your skills to create other animals in the same style.

How to draw a cartoon turtle step by step

Step 1: Outline the turtle’s body shape

Start by sketching the torso of the cartoon animal, specifically its base in the form of a large sphere. You will add all the necessary details later, so use very light lines and do not press hard on the pencil.

Step 2: Draw the cartoon turtle head and neck

Now draw the head of the cartoon turtle, connecting it to the torso with a thin neck. At this stage, you can define the shape of the head as well as the angle of the neck. For a more cartoon-like effect, the neck is intentionally made very thin.

Step 3: Sketch the animal’s shell lower edge

Using two smooth, long lines, draw the lower edge of the shell that curves around the neck and extends toward the back of the torso. This part of the turtle’s body somewhat resembles a pizza crust.

Step 4: Draw the cartoon turtle legs and tail

Now draw the legs of the cartoon turtle, placing them directly under the lower edge of the shell. First, sketch the legs that are closer to us, then indicate the ones behind them. The shape of the legs should resemble slightly curved rectangles that widen toward the bottom. At the back, draw a short tail.

Step 5: Sketch the cartoon eyes and mouth

On the head, draw the eyes as large spheres with round pupils inside. One eye should slightly overlap the other to create a sense of volume. Slightly below, draw the mouth as a curved line with a short stroke at the end to emphasize the cheek.

Step 6: Remove the guidelines from the animal

Take an eraser and remove all the construction lines from the cartoon turtle drawing, trying not to affect the final lines. As you erase the unnecessary lines, refine the drawing and give the body parts a more finished look.

Step 7: Draw the claws and shell texture

On the legs, draw the animal’s claws at the bottom. Then move on to the shell and add a texture similar to the one shown in our ball drawing tutorial. On the lower edge of the shell, depict the texture using short crosswise lines.

Step 8: Add shading to the cartoon turtle

Despite the overall simplicity of the style, shadows can add a bit of volume and make the drawing more interesting. First, outline the shadows with light lines, then add simple single-layer hatching.

Step 8: Trace the animal with bold lines

The cartoon style is most often characterized by thick, defined lines. So take a softer pencil, such as an 5B, or a black pen, liner, or any other tool that can create such lines, and trace the entire drawing. You can make the lines slightly thicker in the lower areas for an additional sense of volume.

Cartoon animals drawing practice

You have just learned how to draw a cartoon turtle and convey all the key fundamental elements characteristic of this style in your drawing.

Now you can apply these skills to draw any other animal with similar proportions. For example, you can draw a cartoon snail, which has a very similar body shape with some differences.

The same methods, with slightly greater adjustments, can be applied to more distinct animals.

A good practice would be to try drawing cartoon turtles with different facial expressions, in motion, as well as with additional elements and accessories, such as glasses or a hat.