How to Draw Snake Scales
Art and drawing are learned skills. Therefore, anyone can learn to draw. It just takes practice consistently over time.
It’s important to keep your creative time relaxing and enjoyable so you’ll look forward to it. It should never feel stressful or like there’s pressure to have good results.
Let’s grab some supplies and get ready to have some fun learning how to draw snake scales.
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Art Supplies
Snake Scale Sketch Practice
Doing some practice sketches is a great way to warm up your drawing muscles. And it only takes a few minutes to do.
There are other options to warm up as well, which we cover in our tutorial on How to Do Warm Up Exercises. But, I like the added benefits of quick sketching.
If done before working on your actual drawings, you can use it as a way to work through some ideas for your drawings. And it’s a great way to get familiar with your subject matter.
This is how to do a snake scale sketch exercise.
- Get some paper and something to sketch with
- Pull up some reference photos
- Set a timer for three or five minutes
Then do as many snake scale sketches as you can before you run out of time.
Another option is to simply sketch until your paper is filled and you’re out of room to sketch.
Just make sure you’re keeping your sketches quick and loose. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete.
How to Draw Snake Scales Step by Step
Learning how to draw a snake scale is really easy. Like with most of our drawings, the simplest way is by breaking things down into shapes and guidelines.
Start by drawing a couple of lines for the body of the snake. This will give us a defined area to work in.
Next we need to add in some contour lines to help with the placement of the individual snake scales. You want to draw these lines so they curve with the contour of the snake’s body.
Draw your contour lines parallel with each other.
Then draw more contour lines going in the opposite direction.
Continue doing this until the body of your snake is filled with guidelines.
Now we can start drawing the snake scales. Each one will be placed in the sections created by the contour lines.
Pick a section and draw a curved line in it.
Then repeat this process in the sections around that first scale. The extra space between the scales can be shaded in.
Continue working your way around the existing snake scales. You don’t have to make each scale exactly the same. It’s ok to have some variation in them.
Keep drawing your scales one by one until you’re done, and the snake’s body is filled.
Snake Scale Outline
Doing a snake scales outline is really easy. Just use a black pen or marker to trace over all of your pencil lines.
You can make your lines any thickness you want, depending on your style. You can use thin, thick, or a combination of line weights.
Another option is to use a color other than black for your snake scales outline. Maybe try using the same color as the scales are going to be.
Your creative time should include some discovery. And this is done by experimenting and trying new things. So don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone from time to time.
You can add in some shading with your outlining pen as well. Or you can add some shadows with your markers.
How to Draw Snake Scales with Markers
Learning how to draw snake scales with markers is really easy. And there’s only a few things you need to remember when adding color to your artwork.
First, if you want to be able to blend your colors together you need to use alcohol based markers. Bic, Sharpie, and Copic for example. As well as many others.
Second, you need to work while the colors are still wet or they won’t mix together. This isn’t a big deal. Just make sure you work on a section at a time.
Third, you need to use colors that are similar to each other if you want to create a smooth transition of color. If your markers are too different they will leave a harder edge.
So for these snake scales I decided on making a brown snake. Therefore I chose three different shades of brown.
The colors were chosen by testing them out on a piece of scrap paper first. This way you can see if their blending capabilities are satisfactory for your artwork.
Working on a few scales at a time, start with the lightest color.
Then add the darkest color where you want the shadows to be.
And then use the mid tone color to blend where those two colors meet. If you’re working small, this can sometimes be difficult to do. So take your time and don’t rush this.
Continue working on small sections at a time using the method described above. You want to make a pattern with your snake scales.
What I mean by this is to keep your darkest area the same on each individual scale so it looks balanced.
A white Gelly Roll pen can be used to add some highlights.
Final Thoughts and Next Steps
Now that you know how to draw snake scales, what is the next step? That’s easy, practice.
Art and drawing are skills that anyone can learn. But it does take time, practice, and consistency.
Try to make your creative time part of your daily routine. Literally schedule it into your day. It doesn’t have to be hours a day. Minutes each day, consistently over a period of time, will really add up.
Try doing a challenge to see how many snake scale drawing ideas you can come up with. Through practice and repetition you’ll not only improve your drawing skills, but your creativity will improve as well.
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