Caroline
Snakes have a bit of a bad reputation. Symbolically, they usually represent evil or can be used to describe someone who is dishonest.
This reputation is a bit unfair to actual snakes, and they can come in all manner of sizes and colors in the world.
Despite their negative reputation, they also have their fair share of fans in the world, and because of the many looks and colors they can come in, they are a favorite among artists.
This step-by-step guide on how to draw a snake in just 7 easy steps will have you drawing a scaly new friend before you know it!
Prepare For This Snake Drawing With These Tips
When you think of professional or seasoned artists, you probably imagine them sitting down and sketching beautiful pictures and cartoons like it’s nothing.
Some artists can draw like this from their heads, but we have a little secret for you. Even the best artists prepare their drawings before they begin.
You can do the same thing before you begin this guide on how to draw a snake. As you can see, we are drawing a cute cartoon snake, but this may not be as simple as you assume.
Drawing cartoon characters is harder than it looks, so you might find it to be more challenging than you thought. Don’t worry, however, as you can make it easier on yourself.
First, make sure you have the right tools for the job. Any art teacher will tell you that having a good variety of art tools is key to success.
You should aim to have as many different pencils, pens and other tools as possible. Even if you favor pens, having some pencils on hand allows you to sketch out your drawing first.
If you go straight to pen, there will be a little part of your brain that is worried about making a mistake. This could ironically cause you to make more mistakes!
But if you’re using a pencil first, there’s none of that stress! You can simply draw and enjoy the process without worrying about what you’re doing.
You can also look up pictures of snakes to aid you. There are plenty of cartoon snakes you can look to for inspiration, but you can also look at pictures of real snakes to help you.
Even if it’s just to plan out the pose or make variations, these pictures can help!
How to Draw A Snake – Let’s get Started
Step 1
As you might imagine, there will be a good deal of curvy lines in this guide on how to draw a snake.
This first step is no exception, and we shall kick things off with a very curvy line that will be the basis for the body of your snake. The reference image will be a guide on how this line should look.
Step 2 – Draw in some more of the snake’s body
Using the line you drew in the previous step, we shall be drawing on more of the body for your snake drawing.
Starting at the end of the line at the right-hand side, draw in another line that follows the direction of the first one to make the body of the snake looking as it does in the reference image.
Step 3 – Now, start to draw the head
Now that you have the body of your snake, we shall draw in a face for your snake drawing in this step.
You can start off with some large oval shapes to give your snake some big eyes. Then, use a curved line coming from the eye on the right down to the body that you drew in the previous step.
Step 4 – Next, give your snake a belly
In this step of our guide on how to draw a snake, we shall add in a belly for your snake.
Starting from the bottom of the head, draw a line inside the body until you get around three-quarters of the way along the body.
Once you have it looking as it does in the picture, you’re ready for the next step.
Step 5 – Now, draw in some face details
Your snake drawing needs some personality, so let’s add facial details in this image to give it some!
We will be adding a few details in this step. The main one will be some big pupils for the eyes. You could also change the look of the eyes to change the facial expression.
We will then use some curved lines to give the face some nostrils, and then finally draw in a forked tongue coming out of the mouth.
Step 6 – Add some finishing touches
For step 6 of our guide on how to draw a snake, we shall add in some last details before moving on to the coloring stage.
The main details will be on the belly of your snake. Draw some horizontal lines all along the belly section that you drew in earlier.
Then you can add in some last, final details to give your snake drawing even more personality! We added a few lines, and did some crosshatching details on the body of the snake.
You can make this crosshatching mark by drawing four lines intersecting with each other. They will look a bit like the pattern you would play tic tac toe in.
This mark can help to give some scaly texture to your snake drawing. These are the details we chose for this drawing, but you should add in any extra fun details that you would like for your drawing!
Step 7 – Finish off your snake drawing with some color
At the seventh and final step, you have learned how to draw a snake! You should already be proud of the awesome drawing in front of you, but there’s also still some fun to be had with this drawing.
Now you get to stretch your creative muscles a bit by adding in some beautiful colors for your snake drawing.
We used green and yellow as the main colors in our example drawing. This is just one way you could color in this drawing, however!
You could go with a similar color scheme or use some of your favorite colors to finish it off.
You could also have some fun by drawing in a background for your snake. What kind of environmental background would you pick for the snake?
Once you have chosen some colors for your picture, you can have some fun with different art mediums!
Everyone has a favorite, and they can range from crayons to paints, watercolors, colored pens and pencils.
If you have one medium that you usually use to color, maybe you could try out one you’re not as familiar with to color in your snake! We can’t wait to see the colors and art tools you choose for your snake drawing.
3 More tips to make your snake drawing easy!
Drawing a snake can be hard, but here are three ways that it can be fun and easy!
Snakes have no limbs, so you would assume that it would be easier to draw them than some other animals.
This is not always the case, however, as it can be quite tricky drawing these slithery creatures.
Even though we created a cartoony one for this snake sketch, you can still use photos of real snakes to help make it easier.
Using a reference can help make drawing details such as the tail, body shape and scales much easier, and it can make it so that you have more accurate proportions. You can find pictures of snakes on
We showed you how you can use basic shapes and lines to create this snake drawing, but you can take it even further.
Using your pencil, you can use basic shapes to work with when you draw the pen lines later.
No one will see these lines and shapes, so use as many as you need! If there are any other ways that you can prepare with your pencil, then you should definitely feel free to use whatever methods you need. Drawing is supposed to be fun, so if you can make it easier then it can be more enjoyable!
This guide showed you a really cute design to use for this drawing of a snake, and if you follow the steps you will be able to draw it yourself.
Even if you follow the steps, you may find yourself struggling with certain elements.
There is no shame in this, as different people will struggle with different things! For example, if the eyes are hard for you to get right, you can make them much simpler.
You could even use two dots for the eyes instead of drawing them as they appear here. This is just one example, but you should definitely just go ahead and adjust the design in any way that makes it easier for you.
You’ll still end up with an amazing picture!
Your Snake Drawing is Complete!
Look at that, you set out to learn how to draw a snake and that’s exactly what you did!
We really hope that this guide was helpful for you, and showed you that learning to draw something can be easier than you might have expected.
Our goal with this guide was to make it easy to learn to draw a cute snake, but we also aimed to make it fun for you to use!
This guide can also serve as a jumping-off point for you to show off your own creativity! There are many ways you can do this.
We suggested drawing in a background and trying out a new art medium to color in, but what other ways can you think of to finish off your drawing?
We’re sure to see lots of creative interpretations, so be sure to let your creativity run wild!
This step-by-step drawing guide is just one of many more that we have for you, so checking our website often is the best way to never miss out on any of the drawing fun!
We would also love to see what you decided to use to finish off your drawings, so we hope that you will share your completed snake drawings on our Facebook and Pinterest pages for us to admire!
We can’t wait to see some amazing and colorful snakes.
Here Is A Snake Drawing For Kids To Inspire You!
Snakes can be quite scary in real life, as they can be hard to see while packing a venomous bite. This snake drawing for kids by our artist Freddy is not one to be scared of though!
In fact, this is a very cute snake for you to draw, and it actually looks rather friendly. Now that you have this drawing to work with, it’s up to you on how to finish it.
You could keep the design as it is now if you like the way that Freddy has drawn it. Or, you may like to use this as a base and add some details.
Drawing a background would be an amazing way for you to show the environment of this snake. What sort of environment do you think this snake would like to live in?
