How to Draw a Water Boatman

In this quick tutorial you'll learn how to draw a Water Boatman in 7 easy steps - great for kids and novice artists.

The images above represent how your finished drawing is going to look and the steps involved.

Below are the individual steps - you can click on each one for a High Resolution printable PDF version.

At the bottom you can read some interesting facts about the Water Boatman.

Make sure you also check out any of the hundreds of drawing tutorials grouped by category.

How to Draw a Water Boatman - Step-by-Step Tutorial

Step 1: Draw a sideways crescent moon shape for the head. Add a vertical line through the middle and angles in each end.

Step 3: On the upper part of the body, draw a semicircle, an oval connected to it, and another, larger oval connected to the end of that for the first leg.

Step 7: Using the image to guide you, draw a segmentation pattern on the body. You have drawn a water boatman! You can color it grey. These bugs like to swim near the bottom of ponds or streams. Most water boatman are non-predatory. Instead, they inject plants or algae with digestive enzymes and drink the liquid.

Interesting Facts about the Water Boatman

The Water Boatman is an aquatic bug that is found in fresh or brackish water. Brackish water is freshwater mixed with some salt from an ocean or bay. They are found worldwide with about 525 different species. There are 132 varieties in North America alone. In some ponds or lakes, they may be very high numbers of them all over.

Did you know?

• Water Boatmen are grey in color with an elongated oval body in length from 0.13 to 0.50 inches.
• Their eggs are attached to aquatic plants as they are being laid.
• They have large eyes, short flat front legs, slim and long middle legs and oar-like hair covered back legs that aid them in swimming.
• Water Boatmen can swim very fast but spend most of their time on aquatic plants.
• Like most other aquatic bugs, they do not have gills and breathe air at the surface. They carry an air bubble on their body or under their wings while under water and will pull oxygen from that while they are under water.

Most water Boatmen will feed on algae and minute aquatic organisms. Some may also feed on small aquatic animals and mosquito larvae. In this way, they help to control the aquatic pests. They have a large beak that allows them to eat solid food as well as liquids. The Water Boatman is also a source of food for larger aquatic animals as well.