To learn how to draw a seal, start by looking at the space beneath it. A harbor seal resting on a beach can raise its head while the weight of its body settles into the sand. That contrast between a lifted head and a heavy, low body is what makes the pose recognizable.
I’ll use a side-view harbor seal for this drawing. The method is observational: I follow the visible contours, keep lines that help me find the form and use the shadows beneath the animal to establish its weight. There is no need to assemble the seal from circles or other construction shapes.
Choose a pose you can actually read
A seal photograph may look simple until you begin drawing it. The underside can disappear into shadow, one foreflipper may be hidden and the rear flippers can overlap so closely that they resemble a single shape.
For a first sketch, choose a photograph showing the seal from the side or a slight three-quarter angle. Ideally, you should be able to identify the nose, the curve of the back, at least one front flipper and the end of the body.
Make sure the animal is a true seal rather than a sea lion. Harbor seals have small foreflippers and no visible external ear flaps. Sea lions have larger front flippers and visible ear flaps, which give them a different outline. You can compare the animals in this NOAA guide to seals and sea lions.
A harbor seal sometimes rests with its head and hind flippers lifted off the ground, producing a bent posture often described as a banana shape. You do not have to choose that exact pose, but it is useful because the raised ends and lowered middle make the body’s flexibility easy to see.
If you’re deciding between several photographs, choose the one with the clearest silhouette rather than the most dramatic lighting. My guide to animal drawing references explains what I look for before starting a sketch.
Draw what the sand is supporting
Before outlining the seal, find the places where it touches the ground.
Look beneath the chest and stomach. You may see a dark contact shadow, a flattened section of the underside or a short edge where the body meets the sand. Draw those marks first. They give you a baseline for the animal without forcing you to guess its entire shape.
Keep the ground line broken. Where the seal presses firmly against the surface, the edge can be dark and definite. Where the body curves away, the line may weaken or disappear. A continuous line beneath the whole animal tends to make it look as though it has been placed on top of the beach rather than settling into it.
Now compare the height of the nose with the lowest part of the body. If the head is raised, preserve that distance. The open space beneath the chin is part of the pose, even though there is nothing to draw inside it.
From the nose, move along the forehead and over the skull. Continue into the back, stopping whenever its direction changes. A resting seal does not necessarily form one smooth arch. Its neck can bend, its back may rise and the middle of the body can sink toward the ground.
Follow the contour toward the rear of the animal, then return to the jaw and work along the underside. Let the lower line disappear behind the front flipper or into the contact shadow wherever it does so in your reference.
You should have a believable resting body before drawing the eyes, whiskers or spots. If the seal already looks too round, inspect the underside. Often the problem is not the back at all. It is that the belly has been curved upward when it should be compressed against the ground.
The flippers are smaller than you expect
Once the body is established, look for the nearest foreflipper. On a harbor seal, it can appear as a short, tapered form emerging from the lower chest. Depending on the pose, the flipper may lie against the body, touch the ground or be partly concealed.
Start with the line that separates the flipper from the torso. Then draw only the outer edge you can see. If the flipper overlaps the underside, allow that edge to interrupt the body contour.
Resist the temptation to enlarge the flipper so viewers will recognize it. The small foreflippers are part of what distinguishes a true seal from a sea lion. Their placement matters more than their size on the page.
The rear flippers require a different kind of observation. They extend behind the body and can form a divided, tapering end. Look for the point where the two flippers separate and determine which one overlaps the other.
Draw the visible outer edges first. A small dark wedge between the flippers may describe their separation more effectively than outlining both completely.
Check the overall length of the animal after adding them. A seal with its rear flippers extended can look considerably longer than it did when you were concentrating on the torso.
Give the seal’s face its character
The face is where a few misplaced marks can change the species or make an otherwise realistic seal look like a cartoon.
Begin with the muzzle rather than the eye. Notice how far the snout projects from the skull and how the lower jaw turns back toward the neck. The nose sits at the front of this form, but its shape changes with the viewing angle. Compare its actual width and tilt with the photograph instead of automatically drawing a small triangle.
Below the nose, look for the short division leading toward the mouth. The mouth itself is often indicated by subtle changes in direction rather than a broad smiling curve. Keep these marks restrained.
Place the eye in relation to the nose and the top of the head. A seal’s dark eye attracts attention immediately, which makes it easy to draw too large. A compact dark shape, carefully positioned, can be more expressive than an eye surrounded by a heavy outline.
Whisker spots and facial markings
Look closely at the sides of the muzzle. The small dark marks around the whisker pads are important because they show where the whiskers emerge. They should not be scattered randomly across the face.
Observe the arrangement and spacing of these marks in your reference. Some may be clearly defined, while others merge into the surrounding coat. The seal may also have larger patches or spots across its cheeks, forehead and neck. Those coat markings are separate from the tiny whisker openings.
Add the whiskers after the muzzle and its markings feel convincing. Follow their different directions: some reach forward, some sweep outward and others curve down toward the chest. Draw the most noticeable whiskers with long, deliberate movements rather than building each one from short strokes.
There is no need to include every whisker visible in the photograph. A few accurately directed lines will give the face more life than a dense collection of equally spaced marks.
Describe the coat with shadow, not fur lines
A harbor seal’s short coat can look sleek, mottled or reflective depending on whether it is wet, dry or catching direct light. It rarely needs hundreds of individual hair marks to be recognizable.
Look at the large tonal divisions first. The underside may be dark where it meets the beach. The neck may fall into shadow beneath the raised head. A broad area along the back might be noticeably lighter than the side of the body.
Establish those areas before drawing spots. In graphite, you can shade the broad forms and allow the paper to remain visible in the lightest areas. With a pen, I would concentrate groups of marks in the shadow and leave the highlights relatively open.
Then consider the seal’s markings. Harbor seals can have varied spotted or mottled patterns. Look for the largest visible patches first, particularly around the head, shoulder and back. Add smaller marks only where they help explain the coat.
Do not distribute the spots evenly like a repeating pattern. They vary in size, shape and contrast. A mark on the far edge of the curved body may appear narrower than one facing you directly. Some spots are distinct; others nearly disappear into the surrounding tone.
Leave selected contours unfinished. Where a pale back meets a bright sky, you may need very little line. Beneath the body, the outline can disappear into the contact shadow. These lost edges help the seal feel like a rounded, soft-bodied animal instead of a flat cutout.
Check the weight before adding more detail
Set the drawing aside for a moment and look at it from a distance. Does the belly appear to rest on the surface? Can you tell whether the head is lifted? Do the small front flippers and extended rear flippers belong naturally to the body?
If something feels wrong, return to the large relationships rather than adding more whiskers or coat markings. A change to the angle of the neck or the shadow beneath the chest can do more for the drawing than another hour of surface detail.
I often leave exploratory contours visible when they contribute to the direction of an animal’s body. A second line along the raised neck, for example, can preserve the feeling of a seal shifting its weight. The same approach is useful when drawing movement in other subjects.
The defining feature of this seal drawing is not an especially detailed face or perfectly rendered coat. It is the contrast between the body’s weight and the ease with which the head and flippers lift away from the ground. When that relationship works, even a fairly spare sketch can feel convincing.
For more subjects with unusual silhouettes and overlapping fins or flippers, explore my sea animal drawing tutorials.