How to draw snails

This article is from the topic – mollusks drawing.

Let`s learn how to draw a snail.

In appearance snail has a very simple structure. May be it is one of the easiest animals to draw.

We tend to think of animals that they all have some protruding limbs, even the fish has fins. But the snail has no visible limbs, exept “horns”, which it draws in and out, somewhat muscular, but without the bones – as the tongue, for example. What about the bones, really? The snail`s body is shapeless, because it has no internal skeleton. But it has an exoskeleton – shell. Actually this hard shell is an asylum of the snail with its meek and vulnerable body, its defense from the enemies – the snail can completely hide in its shell. While our snail grows, its shell grows too, gradually building itself larger. Some of the shells are conical, some rounded, some are covered with strange exotic growths. The snail is not a motionless creature; while it moves, its bottom part is flat. They call it foot.

Foot allows the snail to crawl not step by step, but continually, by almost invisible rhythmic muscle movements. In order to protect their vulnerable legs when travelling, the snail releases more or less sticky mucus. On their head most of the snails have two pairs of horn-like retracting tentacles, the upper pair longer than the lower pair. These tentacles serve for palpation, smelling, one pair is even photosensitive. Snails can be herbi-, omni- and even carnivorous, they live in the water and on the land, but on the land they prefer places which are wet.

While we were discussing the appearance and life of snails,we have already managed to draw one of them, namely – edible snail(Helix pomatia):

This snail can be light or dark colored:

Hard to imagine,but in some countries these snails are cooked as food and considered a delicacy.

And let’s learn how to draw another snail which is also considered edible – Achatina.

Achatina snail step by step drawing

This snail can grow to a length of more than 20 centimeters ( very big, isn’t it?) – and it is sometimes kept in the house as a pet.
The shell is conical, often twisted counterclockwise.
Old Achatina shell has from 7 to 9 turns.
The shell is elegantly painted in brown and yellow stripes: As for me, I like only the pictures of such mucous giants. And I have prepared for you a small lesson – how to draw a snail with a spirally-twisted shell.