How to Draw a Crab
Young artists will have a wonderful time learning how to draw a crab in 6 easy illustrative steps.
Expect 6 easy steps to follow, kids will enjoy making their own crab on paper. Also included is a printable version of this crab drawing lesson.
Perfect for art teachers and homeschoolers looking to teach kids how to draw a crab.
Art making is much more fun when you have a easy-to-understand lesson to reference. Enjoy!
Materials
- Pencil
- Drawing Paper
- Crayon or Colored Pencils
- Black Marker
- How to Draw a Crab Printable PDF (see bottom of lesson)
We will complete a drawing of a crab by creating one section at a time. The drawing will take 6 steps in total as we continue to make each part moving closer to the finished artwork. The final work of art will be detailed with color making it a drawing you will want to share with friends!
Time Needed: 20 minutes
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Draw The Body
Start off in the middle of the page with a rounded rectangle shape.
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Draw The Claws
Draw the two large claws in front of the body and erase the parts of the body shape that overlap.
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Draw Some Legs
Draw two legs on both sides of the body. The legs of a crab are segmented, so you can draw them in three parts.
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Add More Legs
Draw the remaining legs on both sides behind the previous ones.
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Add The Eyes
Draw two eyes on top of the body.
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Color It In
Crabs are typically shown as bright red, but they can be other colors as well, like orange, brown, white, and even blue.
How to Draw a Crab PDF Download
Click the link below to view or download this drawing lesson. The PDF is a printable drawing lesson for How to Draw a Crab. The last page of the downloadable PDF includes a coloring book page with just the outlines and an extension exercise for prompting kids to get creative!
Crabs of Our Waters
Sea crabs of the ocean are a diverse group of crustaceans. They have no backbone and are covered with a hard shell, this is common to all crustaceans! Crabs occupy a wide range of habitats in marine and some freshwater environments. They are found in all the world’s oceans, in shallow coastal waters, on coral reefs, and even in freshwater.
There are more than 3000 species of sea crabs so far identified. The vast majority are found only in marine environments; some inhabit both marine and freshwater habitats such as the fiddler crab which lives at the edge of mangrove swamps where fresh water meets salt water, and other species that may spend most of their lives on land but return to the sea to lay eggs.
Can you imagine? Sea crabs have even more legs than spiders! Spiders have 8 likes and crabs have 10 legs! 8 crab legs are for walking while their two frontmost legs are their claws – used for grabbing food and defending themselves from other animals.
Pea crabs are the world’s smallest crab. They are the size of a green pea…the kind you would eat for dinner! These itty-bitty creatures can be found inside the shells of other sea creatures, like clams and mussels where they can avoid other predators that would want to eat them.
What are Crabs?
They are one of the oldest living species on the earth. A prime example of this are horseshoe crabs, found to have been around for 300 million years. They are some of the most unique looking animals found on the sea having different appearances and having a number of legs.
Crabs are decapods.They have 10 feet, 8 for crawling and 2 of their feet act as claws which they use to communicate and fend for themselves against predators. They generally have an oval shaped shell that differentiates in appearance for every species.
Crabs are one of the most abundant animals in the sea! There are around 6,700 different types of crab. There are crabs that live only in the ocean, some live by the shoreline and some even live exclusively on land, but near bodies of water.
Notable Species of Crabs
Hermit Crabs
Hermit crabs are a type of crab that is incapable of growing its own shell. When this little creature fails to fit in its shell, it will look for a new one to occupy. In this situation, several other hermit crabs form a line and take turns fitting into their shells.
Horseshoe Crabs
The horseshoe crab is the oldest living animal to date. Its species has been around even before the dinosaurs. These alien-looking species of crab are essential in the medical field as their blue blood helps in the production of certain medications.
Japanese Spider Crabs
Japanese Spider Crabs are the largest species of crab on Earth. They’re 12.5 feet long, from one tip of their claw to the other. These crabs are commonly found in the southern part of Japan and are known to live up to a hundred years.
Fun Facts about Crabs
Crabs are known to regenerate limbs! When crab molts and is missing an appendage. It takes about a year to fully grow back a missing limb!
Crabs, like lobsters, have their teeth located in their stomachs. This helps with their digestion of food. A species of crab called a ghost crab, uses the teeth in its stomach to growl and scare off predators. This is one instance of an animal using growling noises from its stomach as a form of communication.
