The grasshopper is a brilliant insect to draw — its oversized back legs built for jumping, segmented body, large compound eyes, and angled head make it one of the most visually interesting bugs in the natural world. Parikshet's guide breaks the grasshopper into clear sections so you can build the whole insect confidently, piece by piece.

🖍️ What You Need

  • Pencil and eraser
  • Two shades of green marker (light and dark)
  • Brown for the leg joints and wing details
  • Black fine-tip pen for outlines and eye detail

How to Draw a Grasshopper Step by Step

  1. Draw the head — a rounded square or slightly angular shape. Grasshoppers have a distinctly angular, almost wedge-shaped head viewed from the side.
  2. Add the compound eye — a large oval eye on the side of the head, with a smaller circle inside for the pupil. Grasshoppers have huge eyes giving them nearly 360-degree vision.
  3. Draw the mouthparts — below the eye, add a small angular jaw line. Grasshoppers have strong mandibles for chewing plant material.
  4. Sketch the thorax — the middle body section, slightly larger than the head, connected by a short thick neck. The thorax carries all the legs.
  5. Add the abdomen — the long rear section, torpedo-shaped. Draw 6-7 horizontal curved lines across it to suggest the body segments. The abdomen tapers slightly toward the tail.
  6. Draw the powerful back legs — this is the grasshopper's most distinctive feature. The upper leg (femur) is very thick and muscular — nearly as wide as the thorax. The lower leg (tibia) is long, thin, and angled sharply backward, with tiny spine bumps along the edge.
  7. Add the front and middle legs — two pairs of shorter, thinner legs extending from the thorax. These are for walking and gripping plants.
  8. Draw the wings — two sets folded along the abdomen. The outer wings (tegmina) are leathery with visible veins. The inner wings are hidden underneath.
💡 Parikshet's Tip: The back legs are what make a grasshopper unmistakable. Make the upper leg (femur) very thick and muscular — almost as wide as the body itself — and the lower leg thin and sharply angled. This compressed 'coiled spring' shape tells the viewer immediately: this creature is built to jump.

🌟 Did You Know?

A grasshopper can jump 20 times its own body length in a single leap. For a human, that would be jumping over 30 metres from a standing start. Grasshoppers achieve this by storing energy in a special spring-like structure in their back legs, then releasing it all at once — similar to releasing a compressed spring.

Grasshopper vs Cricket: How to Tell Them Apart in a Drawing

Grasshoppers and crickets are often confused. Here is how to draw them differently:

  • Antennae — grasshoppers have short antennae (shorter than the body); crickets have very long antennae (longer than the body).
  • Body shape — grasshoppers are more elongated and streamlined; crickets are rounder and more compact.
  • Wings — crickets hold their wings flat over the back like a tent; grasshoppers hold theirs along the sides of the abdomen.

🎯 Try This: Draw the Grasshopper Life Cycle

  1. Draw a tiny egg cluster (small oval shapes in soil).
  2. Draw a small nymph (like a grasshopper but with tiny wing buds instead of full wings).
  3. Draw the full adult grasshopper from this tutorial.
  4. Arrange all three in a row with arrows between them — you have drawn a complete metamorphosis diagram!