How to Draw an Alligator Easy 🐊 Instructions for Kids

Here's how to draw an Alligator easy - you can start by outlining the narrow and low-laying body of the alligator followed by a long pointed tail. Then, draw a four short legs followed by a long rounded snout.

Out of all the aquatic reptiles, the alligator is one of the largest and most intimidating of all. And if you’re looking for an Alligator drawing – here’s a great one to start with.

Blending in with their environment, alligators lurk in rivers and lakes with their dark green coloration and hard scaly skin.

Drawing an alligator is a great way to teach children about alligator habitats, and behaviors.

Perhaps your children would love to learn how to draw an alligator for their next project. 

If so, here we’ve got an easy 6-step tutorial and process for drawing an alligator. Also use our printable below to give to your child, class, and friends.

How to Draw an Alligator Easy Video Tutorial

We’ve uploaded our Alligator Drawing video tutorial for you to see how to use the FREE printable yourself!

Also don’t forget to stay tuned and follow our Livinglifeasmoms YouTube Page and Pinterest for more cool coloring tutorials and videos! ✨

Fun Fact: There are two types of Alligators in the world, both of which are found on opposite sides of the globe too! The American alligator is typically found in the southeastern United States, with the largest alligator population being in Louisiana. While the Chinese alligator is found solely in the eastern republic of China known as Anhui, with a population of over 1 million. 

Alligator drawing should be a fun way to develop your children’s artistic skills and teach them something about these funny and scaly four-legged animals. The following animal drawing guide is also available as a printable, just sign up at the bottom of this page to download the alligator sketch printable. The following are also simple step-by-step instructions on drawing your alligator graphic. 

Six Steps to a Colorful Alligator Drawing

This printable will help train your young artist to draw an alligator from a basic shape to a complete design in no time. In just six simple steps, your child will be able to draw a really neat and cute alligator or an entire family of alligators. 

Step 1: Start With Basic Shapes

The first step when drawing an Alligator on paper is to start with basic shapes. In this case, we will use some half-circles as our base. You are going to draw two horizontal lines (half-circles) for the belly and chin of the alligator. Then connect the chin and belly with some quarter-circle lines and two little stubby legs. 

Fun Fact: The difference between alligators and crocodiles is the way their mouths are formed and the direction of their teeth. Crocodile smiles have a longer lower mandible and their teeth are curved outward and show while their mouths are closed. Alligators have broader snouts and shorter mandibles. 

Step 2: Give the shape its form

Just like in the previous steps, we are going to connect the chin, now over and around to give the shape its form, very similar to an alligator’s head. So there are going to be little “bulges” by the top of the head where the eye sockets of the alligator sit. 

Fun Fact: Baby Alligators are born on land from eggs, and don’t eat big species of prey right away. They eat small prey like insects, snails, shrimp, and worms. In their adult future alligators hunt bigger prey at any opportunity they get, and are known as “opportunistic feeders” – that is why you should be careful around swampy areas where there are Alligators. 

Step 3: Adding Simple details goes a long way

Here now you will draw some curved lines to make the mouth, the hind legs, and little stubby toes. Followed by a couple of lines for the teeth. Your cartoon alligator is almost complete at this point, there are just a few more physical features that will really make this a notable alligator. 

Step 4: Drawing the Alligators snout

Draw an angled line to make the alligators snout. The snout is the most notable feature of an adult alligator, as they have one of the most enormous snouts of any semi-aquatic reptile. Alligators use their long snouts to stick it out above the water for an occasional breathe of fresh air. 

Here’s another amazing FUN FACT: An alligator can hold its breath underwater for upto 8-24 hours under different circumstances. In cold water the alligator is able to hold its breath for upto 8 hours. 

Step 5: Drawing Eyes for your cartoon Alligator

Here you can get creative or leave it simple by just adding two dots or drawn-in circles as the eyes. Draw them snuggly underneath the eye bulges at the top of the head. 

Fun Fact: Baby Alligators have something called an “eye-tooth” when they are in their eggs, and they use it to break out of their shells when they are hatching. The “eye-tooth” falls off afterwards, and is located closer to their snout area than their actual eyes. 

Step 6: Finishing your beautiful alligator drawing, or frightening? 

The last detail of the alligator is the long scaly tail. In this drawing we are only draw the overall shape of the long tail, but after this step the alligator cartoon drawing will be complete. Now that you drawing is complete, go ahead and add more details with some typical animal coloring palettes, in this case greens, browns, yellows work nicely. 

Adding some extra fun details

Draw a horizontal line underneath the alligator to create the ground, and smudge some brown color to represent the muddy habitat of the alligator. Color in the Alligator with hues of green, brown, and grey – since believe it or not, most gators are grey in color. Or any green color scheme should work fine too. Finally, add a little Alligator glow to make the reptile stand out from its background and give the creature its ferocious look. Feel free to add more complex features to make the illustration more detailed and realistic – Its a fun exercise in creativity and memory. 

Now you know how to draw an Alligator!

Amazing! Now you can show your friends and family what new artistic skills you’ve acquired during this exercise and all the fun facts you know about alligators as well surely will surprise them even more!

Keep practicing and before you know it, you will be an expert alligator cartoonist! Upload your alligator drawing to Instagram and tag @livinglifeasmoms, so we can feature your drawing here on this blog post as well! 😀