Easy Dolphin Drawing Tutorial
Learning how to draw a dolphin is easy and fun. We’ll show you step by step how to draw, outline, and color your dolphin drawings with markers.
Anyone can learn to draw and create art. It just takes consistent practice over time. Keeping things relaxing and enjoyable will help motivate you to practice more often.
So don’t stress out and feel like you’re not good enough. If you enjoy it, keep doing it. Regardless of the results.
Let’s grab our supplies and get ready to have some fun learning how to draw a dolphin.
* Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. This means I receive small commissions for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.
Art Supplies
- Thin black marker
- Paper or cardstock
- Markers
- Pencil
- Click Eraser, Pink Pearl Eraser
- White Gelly Roll pen
Dolphin Sketch Practice
Doing a dolphin sketch session is a great way to warm up and get more familiar with what a dolphin actually looks like. And it only takes a few minutes to complete.
Here’s how to do a dolphin sketch practice exercise…
- Get some paper and something to sketch with (pencil, pen, marker, etc)
- Pull up some reference photos of dolphins
- Set a timer for three or five minutes
Then just do as many dolphin sketches as you can before the timer goes off. You can do them in any kind of style. Try making some realistic, and others cartoon style. Have fun with this exercise.
Another option is to do as many sketches as you can before you run out of room on your paper. Either way is fine. Just be sure to keep your lines quick and loose.
And don’t spend more than a few minutes on your sketches.
How to Draw a Dolphin Step by Step
Learning how to draw a dolphin is really easy if you break things down into simple steps and shapes. And it helps get past the dreaded blank page.
Let’s begin by laying out some basic shapes for our dolphin drawing. Draw an oval for the top of the dolphin where the head is. And then add a tear shape for the bottom half of the body where the tail is.
This is the step where you’re going to get the basic shape and size of your dolphin. The way you draw your tear shape will determine the bend of the tail.
You can make the tail more, or less, curved.
Then add some triangles for the fins, end of the tail, and the nose.
Next draw the outside shape of the eye. There’s many different ways you can draw the eye.
Then draw the details for the eye, including the pupil and iris. You can also add a highlight to the eye.
Now we’ll start drawing the details for the body. Draw the top shape of the head, and down the back of your dolphin.
Next, draw the top fin. I ended up moving mine up further from where I had it roughed in. Don’t feel like you’re limited to how your rough drawing was laid out.
Then draw the left fin and draw the rest of the head by connecting it to the fin.
Now draw the right fin. Keep in mind that it will be partially covered by the body. And then draw the lower part of the body.
Add the belly area to the lower body section.
Next, draw the nose and mouth. You can draw the mouth open or closed.
Finish up your dolphin drawing by adding the tail fin.
Make any changes to your drawing before you move onto the next step. I decided to change the line between his mouth and nose to make it look more natural and connect with the line for his belly.
Dolphin Outline
Making a dolphin outline is really easy. Just trace over the pencil lines you want to keep with a black pen or marker.
You can make your lines however you want. They can be thin, thick, or a combination of line weights. You can also try a color other than black.
Maybe try blue, purple, or brown. Experiment and try different things to see what you like. Do whatever fits your artistic style.
After you’ve completed your dolphin outline, use an eraser to clean up your drawing and remove any pencil lines.
Add some shading with your pen if you want.
How to Draw Dolphin with Markers
Learning how to draw a dolphin with markers is much easier than you might think. And there’s really only a few things to consider when using markers.
First, if you want to be able to blend your colors together you need to use alcohol based markers. Bic, Sharpie, and Copic for example. As well as many others.
Second, you need to work while the colors are still wet or they won’t mix together. This isn’t a big deal. Just make sure you work on a section at a time.
Third, you need to use colors that are similar to each other if you want to create a smooth transition of color. If your markers are too different they will leave a harder edge.
Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Markers for more information.
When adding color to your dolphin drawings you’ll probably want to avoid hard edges. To do this use markers that are similar in color.
For the dolphin drawing in this example three different blue markers and a gray marker were used.
Three markers were used for the background. And a white Gelly Roll pen was used for highlights.
Final Thoughts and Next Steps
Now that you know how to draw a dolphin step by step, what’s next? If you want to get good at drawing and art you need to practice.
The more consistently you practice, the more beneficial it will be. Try making it part of your daily routine. Even if it’s only for a few minutes a day.
If you want to get really good at drawing dolphins and increase your creativity, try doing a series of drawings. See how many different dolphin drawings you can do in a week. You’ll be amazed by the benefits.
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