Uploaded:	October 27, 2009
Artist:	Dawn
Difficulty:	Novice
Steps:	4
Updated:	October 28, 2009
P.O.V:	Front
Favorited:	2 Times

How to Draw a Starfish

This is going to be a very simple lesson to learn from and draw. I wanted to do another tutorial on a sea crustacean that almost every boy and girl loves to pick up and examine. You will be taught “how to draw a starfish step by step”. Although the starfish that I drew looks like a cartoon starfish, I was kind of going for that chibi starfish look. Drawing any kind of crustacean can be wicked fun to do because they can be drawn in a realistic way, or they can be drawn in a cute cartoon-ish way like our friend and buddy "Patrick Star". Over the years marine scientists have taken it upon themselves to give these starry looking beings a different name. Instead of starfish, they are now labeled and called "sea stars". The reason for the change in name is because starfish, are not fish at all. These critters are related to sea urchins and they belong to the echinoderm family. There are over two thousand different types of sea stars in existence and every one of them have their own unique look. Unlike a lot of the sea population, the sea star or starfish live in both tropical and cold sea waters in all different kinds of oceans around the world. As you know this particular sea urchin have a five arm shaped body that looks like a star. On each arm they have a series of suction cups that are known as "tube feet". The tube feet of a starfish are used by this critter to walk and pump in oxygen which means sea stars breath through the bottoms of their feet. Did you know that starfish have thousands of tiny sharp spines that cover their entire bodies? It's true, the sea star belongs to the echinoderm family. Because the two syllable word has two different meanings, the word “echino” means spiny, and the word “derm” means skin, hence “spiny skin”. All in all these critters come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Another cool fact about the sea star before I go, not all starfish have five arms. There are some with ten, twenty, and even forty limbs. Sea stars also have no blood, or brains. Instead they have a nervous system that is spread through the body which is arms, and blood for this critter is filtered water. Cool huh? I think you will have fun with this lesson on “how to draw a starfish”. I will be back with two more lessons on the way so stay tuned in for more drawing fun.