In this quick tutorial you'll learn how to draw an American Eel in 5 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 American Eel.
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How to Draw an American Eel - Step-by-Step Tutorial
Step 1: Draw the outline of a thick hook shape.
Step 2: In the round end, draw a small line with a tiny circle above it for a mouth and eye. Add a small curve behind this for a gill. Now it has a face!
Step 3: Draw an oval behind the gill for a fin. Draw a line that goes from the midpoint of the body to the tip of the tail.
Step 4: On the top of the body, at the midpoint, draw a curve that meets the tip of the body. From this point, draw a large angle within another angle that meets the curve of the body—use the image as a guide if you have trouble.
Step 5: Draw a curve along the bottom of the body for the other fin. You have drawn an American eel! You can color it a dark black or brown with pale underside. This creature lives along the east coast of North America. Its body is covered in a mucous layer, which makes it appear slimy and masks its scales.
Interesting Facts about American Eel
The American Eel is a snake-like fish that makes its home in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. They range from Greenland and south through the Atlantic Coast to Panama, West Indies and Trinidad.The eels are commonly mistaken as a snake but if you look close you can see it has fins. These fins are called pectoral fins and a continuous long dorsal, anal, and tail fin combined. Their head is long with small eyes placed well front on the head. The jaw on the bottom is longer than their upper jaw as well.
Did you know?
- Eels prefer calm water with muddy bottoms.
- The eel is active at night and hides during the day making this animal nocturnal.
- Their diet consists of fish, insects, snails, clams and worms.
- American Eels are popular bait for crabbing and fishing.
- Every eel caught in rivers, bays or ponds are hatched from an egg in the Sargasso Sea which is southwest of Bermuda.
The eels begin to migrate to the Sargasso Sea in fall where they will spawn in February. A female will lay ten to twenty million eggs in one season. The eels hatch to larvae and carried by currents to the Atlantic coast. Once they are two inches, they will move to freshwater rivers where they will remain for years until they mature.
How to Draw an American Eel – Step-by-Step Tutorial