How to draw a starfish — easy step by step drawing ideas

Starfish drawing ideas are where I start with children who have never finished a drawing before, because a starfish is a star with a face, and every child already knows how to draw a star. Learning how to draw a starfish takes about ten minutes, and it comes out charming every time. It is the perfect little confidence builder before moving on to the sharks and whales and octopuses further down the ocean.

I also love how much room it leaves for play. Once children can draw a starfish, they scatter them everywhere: along the bottom of an ocean scene, on a sandy beach, stuck to the side of a rock pool, riding on a turtle's back. A starfish is the perfect finishing touch for any underwater picture, and this one takes almost no time to learn.

In this tutorial we will build a cheerful coral-orange starfish in six easy steps, following the practice sheet below. I will share the pro tips I use when teaching it, the mistakes that trip up nearly every beginner, and quick fixes for when your star comes out lopsided. Grab a pencil and an orange crayon, and let us draw.

The 6 steps to easy starfish drawing ideas

Step 1 — Draw the center

Start with a small circle right in the middle of your paper. This is not part of the finished starfish — it is a guide that will be erased later — but it does two important jobs: it marks where the face will go, and it gives all five arms the same starting point so they come out the same length. Draw it lightly.

If it helps, lightly mark five little dots around the circle, spaced out like the numbers on a clock at 12, 2, 5, 7 and 10 o'clock. Each arm will reach out toward one of those dots. This is the secret to an even star, and it takes ten seconds.

Step 2 — Add the five arms

Now draw the star. Starting at the top, draw one arm reaching straight up from the circle: two lines that start wide apart at the circle, curve gently inward, and meet in a soft rounded tip. Then draw the next arm out toward the 2 o'clock dot, then 5, then 7, then 10, so you go around the clock. Each pair of neighbouring arms should meet in a soft curved dip, not a sharp corner.

Make the arms plump and the tips rounded, like a gingerbread star or a starfish-shaped cookie. This is a cuddly cartoon starfish, not a geometry star, so there should be no sharp points anywhere. When you have gone all the way round, you should have one continuous outline with five rounded arms.

Step 3 — Add the face

Now the starfish gets its personality. In the center of the star, where the guide circle was, draw two big round eyes side by side, with a small white shine dot in the upper corner of each. Big, round, widely spaced eyes are what make the starfish look sweet and surprised rather than sleepy.

Just below the eyes, draw a small curved smile, and add a soft round blush circle on each side, just outside the eyes and a little lower. That is the whole face — a starfish does not need a nose, and adding one makes it look strange. Three shapes, and suddenly the star is a character.

Step 4 — Add the dots

Along the middle of each arm, from just outside the face to near the tip, draw a row of small dots — four or five per arm, getting slightly smaller toward the tip. These are the little bumps on a starfish's skin, and they are the detail that turns a star with a face into a proper sea creature.

Keep the dots small and evenly spaced, and keep them in a single line down the center of each arm. If you like, add one or two tiny dots on either side of the row on the widest part of each arm. Keep it light; the dots will be a lighter color than the body at the end.

Step 5 — Add the bubbles

Beside the starfish, up near one of the top arms, draw three small circles of different sizes rising upward — a bigger one at the bottom, a medium one above it, and a tiny one at the top. These are bubbles, and they instantly put the starfish underwater and give the whole picture a little sense of movement.

Keep the bubbles small and few, and give each one a tiny curved line inside near the top edge for a shine. That is all the scenery this drawing needs for now; you can add sand and seaweed at the end if you like.

Step 6 — Finish and color

Darken the outline, the face and the dots, and erase the guide circle in the middle and any clock dots you made. Then color: fill the whole starfish a warm coral orange, and go over each dot with a lighter orange, cream or yellow so the dots stand out. Color the bubbles light blue with a white shine.

Add pink to the blush cheeks and leave the shine dots in the eyes uncolored so they sparkle. Then give your starfish somewhere to be — a strip of yellow sand, a few strands of green seaweed, a shell, a little crab friend, a wavy blue water line above. Sign your name in the corner; every finished drawing deserves a signature.

Common mistakes to avoid

Sharp, pointy arms

This is the mistake that turns a cuddly starfish into a geometry lesson. A star with sharp points looks like a badge or a rating, not a sea creature, and the face looks wrong in the middle of it.

Round every tip and every dip between the arms, so the outline is soft all the way around. If yours came out pointy, simply draw a little curve around each tip and erase the point inside.

Uneven arms

Arms of different lengths make the starfish look like it has been stepped on. It usually happens when the arms are drawn without a starting guide.

Use the small center circle and five clock-position dots from Step 1, and draw each arm out to its dot. Even if one arm goes a little wrong, the others will keep it in check.

A face that is too small

Tiny eyes lost in the middle of a big star make the starfish look nervous and far away. The face is the whole personality of the drawing.

Make the eyes big — each one about as wide as an arm is at its base — and set them side by side right in the center, with the smile just below.

Troubleshooting

“My star is lopsided”

One or two arms are probably longer or thicker than the others. Find the best-looking arm, and redraw the others to match its length and width, using the center circle as the starting point for each.

“It looks flat and plain”

Add the rows of dots down each arm, the blush cheeks and the shine dots in the eyes, and give the bubbles a little shine. Coloring the dots a lighter shade than the body makes a big difference too.

“It looks like a badge, not an animal”

The arms are too pointy and the face is missing or tiny. Round all the tips, enlarge the eyes, add the smile and blush, and put the dots down each arm. A starfish is a soft, smiling star.

Key takeaways

FAQ

What age is this starfish drawing tutorial for? This is one of the very easiest tutorials on the site, perfect from about age 3 with a grown-up nearby. It is a star with a face, and most kids around 5 and up can follow the sheet completely on their own.

How do I make the five arms even? Draw a small circle first, then mark five dots around it like the numbers on a clock at 12, 2, 5, 7 and 10. Draw each arm out toward a dot. The circle keeps the arms the same length and the dots keep them evenly spaced.

What materials do we need? A pencil, an eraser, paper, and crayons or markers in coral orange for the starfish and light blue for the bubbles. A lighter orange or cream for the dots is a nice extra, and pink for the cheeks.

Should the arms be pointy or rounded? Rounded. A cute cartoon starfish has plump arms with soft rounded tips, like a gingerbread star. Sharp pointed tips make it look like a shape from a math worksheet rather than a friendly sea creature.

That is your starfish! Whether the arms came out perfectly even or a little bit wobbly, you turned a simple star into a smiling sea creature — and that belongs on the fridge. Keep the sheet handy, scatter a whole family of starfish across a sandy seabed, and come back tomorrow for a new tutorial.

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