How To Draw (& Customise) Pretty Shells (Patreon)

Hello my lovely flowers!

Although it’s currently winter in Tasmania I know that a lot of you are in the middle of Summer so I thought it would be fun to look at how to draw some simple sea shells that you might find at the beach.

I also thought it would go nicely with this month’s illustration club prompt ‘under the sea’!

Shells are really varied and I like that you can easily customise them with different colours and patterns to make cute designs. I love drawing patterns on natural things that you wouldn’t necessarily find in real life but would be super cute if you did, like putting love hearts, stars or rainbows on them (how cute would it be to find a real shell with love hearts on it).

So let’s take a look at how to draw a few simple shell shapes and then we can customise them with fun patterns! By the way I think it would be super cute to add little sea crabs and critters to these shells 🥰

Let’s start with a fan shaped shell which is a really common one on the beaches that I’m used to.

To begin with, it helps to draw some guidelines. Start with a large semi-circle facing down, and then draw a vertical line down the centre of it. Toward the bottom of the vertical line, add a little notch in it to mark where the bottom of our shell will be.

As an extra guide, draw a small horizontal rectangle starting sitting on top of the notch we just drew.

Now we can start with our proper lines. Trace over the semi circle, and then from each end of the semi circle draw two lines down to meet in the middle at the base of our rectangle guideline.

Next, trace over the bottom two corners of the rectangle guideline, meeting up with the shell shape but not going over it.

Then we can add some details, so starting roughly at the bottom point of our shell, draw straight(ish) lines fanning out to the top edge of the shell.

Now we can remove the guidelines we drew in steps 1 and 2 and we’re finished!

Next, let’s learn to draw a twirly, spiral shell which is a bit of a tricky shape.

To create our guidelines, start with a straight vertical line. On the left, add a curved ‘c’ shaped line joining the top and bottom of the vertical line. On the right we’ll do the same but inverted and only going down about ⅔ of the length of the vertical line this time.

On top of that, draw in three sloped lines as I have, with the left side lower and beginning a little way below the top of the shell.

Now we’re ready to start drawing our proper lines. Loosely trace over the outer edge of the guideline we drew in step 1, but pinch in the line a little at each intersection with a sloped line from step 2. You should end up with a bumpy shape like mine.

Next, draw three sloped lines roughly following the lines we drew in step 2 (I like to give mine a little curve to them). Also, add a little curved vertical line down the bottom to show the inside of the shell off just a little bit.

Then we can simple add some line details, so draw in some little vertical lines in each section, and try adding a little curve to them to help show the shape of the shell.

And now we can simply remove the guidelines we drew in steps 1 and 2 and it’s done!

Now let’s do a skinny, pointy shell!

As a guide, draw a very tall cone shape that’s nice and skinny.

Add to that some horizontal lines that get closer together as they go up to the point.

Now we’re ready for some proper lines. Starting from the bottom right, draw a curved line diagonally up to the left to meet the next line. From the right hand side of that second line, do the same thing, drawing a curved line diagonally up to meet the left of the third line. Continue for all the lines until you reach the top.

Join the outside of each line with a curve to make a bumpy cone shape. For the bottom one extend a curve a little further down and add a small oval to act as the entry to the shell.

Now we can remove the guidelines we drew in steps 1 and 2 and that’s it!

And lastly, let’s draw a really simple spiral shell.

To start with, simply draw a spiral!

Close off the end of the spiral with a line that connects back to the next line of the spiral. Now add some line details that aren’t too neat and point inwards. This helps show off the shape of the shell.

And that’s it - easiest shell ever!

So now we know how to draw a few simple shell shapes, let’s customise them with cute colours and patterns!

To draw a colour version of any of these shells without the outline, we can simply use the outline we’ve drawn as a reference. If you’re drawing digitally, make sure the outline you’ve drawn is on its own layer.

Reduce that layer to about 20% opacity and make it ‘multiply’ blend mode. Now on new layers below you can draw the coloured version of your shell and you’ll still be able to see through the outline you drew. When you’re finished referencing the outline layer, you can simply turn off the visibility of that layer (or delete it!).

If you're a Beautiful Bluebell you can watch a video of a similar process here. 

To add cute patterns, have a think about the shape of the shell and how you can fit the form of that with a pattern. I like to experiment with different coloured stripes that form to the curves of the shells, and also other floating elements like stars, hearts or sparkles.

Here’s a little list of the things I like to decorate with:

Stripes

Scalloped lines

Zig zags

Hearts

Spots

Stars

Rainbows

Sparkles

It’s also fun to play with different colour combinations! Experiment with using really similar colours together, or complementary colours (ones that are opposite on the colour wheel).

So here are some examples of how I decorated my shells:

And that’s how we can draw cute shells and customise them! Hope this helps you to draw some adorable shells of your own, they’re pretty on their own or are the perfect addition to a beach or coral reef illustration.

❤️