How to draw Saturn, step by step

Updated October 19, 2026 · 6 min read

To draw Saturn, start with a circle for the globe, add a wide tilted ellipse for the rings, erase the part of the ring hidden behind the planet and the part of the globe hidden behind the front of the ring, then add cloud bands parallel to the rings and finish with shading and ring divisions such as the Cassini Division. The whole drawing takes about ten minutes with a pencil, an eraser and, optionally, colored pencils.

1. The globeDraw a neat circle in the middle of the page, with two light guide lines crossing it.
2. The ringDraw a wide tilted ellipse through the globe, then a smaller one inside it.
3. In front, behindErase the ring hidden behind the globe and the globe hidden behind the front of the ring.
4. The bandsAdd cloud bands parallel to the ring, curving the same way.
5. Colour and shadeFill with golden tones, mark the Cassini Division and shade the edge of the globe.

Step 1: draw the globe

Draw a circle in the middle of the page, about a third of the page wide, so that the rings will have room on both sides. Use a compass or trace around a cup if you want a clean shape. For more realism, make it very slightly wider than it is tall: Saturn is the most flattened planet in the solar system, about 10% shorter from pole to pole than across the equator (see Saturn's size). Draw lightly at this stage, because part of the circle will be erased.

Step 2: add the tilted ellipse of the rings

Draw a long, flat ellipse centered on the globe and crossing it, extending well beyond its sides. A good proportion is an ellipse about 2.3 times as wide as the circle and around a third to a half as tall as it is wide. Then draw a second, smaller ellipse inside the first, parallel to it, to mark the inner edge of the rings. Tilt both ellipses slightly, for example lower on the left and higher on the right: the tilt makes the drawing livelier. The lower half of the ellipse passes in front of the planet, the upper half goes behind it.

Step 3: erase what is hidden

This is the step that makes the drawing look three-dimensional. Erase the upper part of the ring ellipses where they cross the globe: that portion of the ring is behind the planet, so you see the globe instead. Then erase the part of the circle that lies between the two lower arcs of the ring: there, the front of the ring passes in front of the planet and hides it. If you skip this step, the ring looks like a hoop drawn on top of a ball.

Step 4: draw the cloud bands

Add three to six slightly curved lines across the globe, following the same tilt as the rings. Saturn's rings lie in the plane of its equator, so its cloud bands are parallel to them. Curve the bands gently, like the lines of latitude on a globe, bending more near the top and bottom. Vary their width: a broad pale zone near the equator, narrower bands towards the poles.

Step 5: shading and ring divisions

Choose where the light comes from, for example the upper left. Shade the opposite side of the globe, darkening gradually towards the edge. Then draw the shadow of the globe on the rings: on the side away from the light, the ring is dark where it passes behind the planet. The rings can also cast a thin curved shadow onto the globe just above or below the front of the ring.

Finally, divide the ring. Draw a thin dark ellipse about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way across the ring band, counting from its inner edge: this is the Cassini Division, the 4,800 km gap between the bright B ring inside and the A ring outside (see the Cassini Division and gaps). Make the B ring the brightest part, the A ring slightly greyer, and add a faint, almost transparent band inside the B ring for the C ring. A very fine line near the outer edge of the A ring can stand for the Encke Gap. Our page on ring names shows their real order and widths.

Tips for a realistic Saturn

Choosing the tilt

Saturn's axis is tilted by 26.7°, so over its 29-year orbit we see the rings from below, edge-on, from above, and edge-on again. Around the solstices the rings are open at nearly 27°, which gives the classic, wide ellipse; near an equinox, as in March 2025, they almost vanish into a line (see the ring-plane crossing and Saturn's seasons). For a striking drawing, choose a wide opening; for something unusual, try a nearly edge-on view with the ring as a thin line across the globe.

Colors for coloring

Real Saturn is not bright yellow. Use a pale butterscotch or cream for the globe, ochre and light brown for the bands, and a slightly darker, more greyish tone near the poles; the north pole has sometimes looked bluish in Cassini images (see Saturn's color). The rings are mostly water ice, so use off-white, beige and pale grey, never saturated orange. A dark navy or black background with a few small stars makes the rings stand out.

Common mistakes

• Drawing the ring as a full ellipse on top of the globe, without erasing the hidden parts.
• Making the ring too narrow: it should extend far beyond the planet on both sides.
• Tilting the cloud bands differently from the rings.
• Forgetting the gap between the planet and the inner edge of the rings.
• Coloring the rings the same color as the planet.
• Placing the Cassini Division in the middle of the ring instead of towards its outer part.

Saturn for kids: the simple version

For young children, reduce the steps to three: draw a circle (trace around a glass), draw a "smile" curve under it and a "hat" curve over it, joining them at the sides to make a ring, then erase the line of the ring that crosses the top of the planet. Color the planet in yellow and orange stripes and the ring in light brown. A fun extra is to add a few small circles around it for the moons: Saturn has 274 known moons, and the largest, Titan, could be drawn as an orange dot.

Sources

• NASA Science, Saturn
• ESA, Cassini-Huygens mission resources
• Carolyn Porco et al., Cassini Imaging Team, ring images and maps, NASA/JPL