How to Draw a Dolphin Step by Step
This tutorials shows how to draw a dolphin in a cartoon style. It consists of six easy to follow steps with illustrated examples and simple instructions.
Dolphins are very interesting mammals and can be fun to draw. The dolphin in this example is drawn in a simplified and stylized way to make the tutorial beginner friendly. The guide shows a good and easy to follow approach of building up a drawing starting from it’s largest parts and working down to the small details. You can see a preview of this in the image above but there are also additional examples provided throughout the tutorial.
Be sure to start the drawing in pencil and make light lines as you will need to erase a part of the body’s outline when adding one of the flippers. Light lines will also make it easier to correct any potential mistakes. You can darken them once you have all parts of the dolphin outlined (step five of the guide).
Step 1 – Draw the Body of the Dolphin
Start by drawing the outer shape of the dolphin’s body. Make it wider around the middle, slightly narrower towards the head and much narrower towards the tail. Leave the front of the body’s outline open.
Onto the opening add the dolphins “nose” called the rostrum. Draw this part slightly wider at the base and make it a little narrower as it goes out (ending with a rounded tip).
Step 2- Draw the Tail
At the back end of the body add the tail. Draw it starting with a pair of curved lines running down from a little bit above the body’s bottom tip.
Define the tail’s bottom with a pair of wavy lines starting from the split in the middle. Join these to the top part of it’s outline with the curves it’s bottom tips.
Step 3 – Draw the Fin & Flippers
At the top of the body add the fin curving backwards with a somewhat pointy (but rounded) tip and a much wider base. Next, draw the flippers. To show that the dolphin is in 3/4 view draw the foreground flipper (the one in the front) more to the left of the picture and the background flipper more to the right. Also draw them curving in the opposite directions. Make the flippers wider towards the dolphins body and narrower towards the tips (similar to the fin).
As mentioned at the start of the tutorial, you will need to erase part of the body’s outline when adding one of the flippers (the one in the front). You can either do before or after drawing it in. Either estimate where the flipper will go and erase that part of the body’s outline or outline the flippers and erase the part of the body that it overlaps.
Step 4 – Draw the Mouth & Split Between Top & Bottom
For this step first draw the dolphin’s mouth. Start with a curve that runs upwards from the tip of the “nose” (rostrum) to just a little bit below it’s upper end. Next, extend this line to curve just slightly downwards at the end. This will create a shape that is very characteristic of a dolphin’s mouth.
Further extend the “mouth line” to define the stomach area on the dolphin’s body (helpful later on when coloring).
Step 5 – Draw the Eye & Finish the Line Drawing
For the final step of the line first add the dolphin’s eye. As this is a stylized dolphin the eye is drawn much larger with a shape similar to those of many cartoon characters.
Make the bottom portion of the eye a very light curve. Align it with the top part of the nose and position it some distance away. Make the main shape of the eye an oval that is cut off at the bottom. Inside the main outline draw the pupil (with a similar shape) overlapped but yet again an oval shaped reflection (light reflecting from the eye). You can either draw the reflection before the pupil or add it in afterwards by erasing some of the pupil’s outline (similar to the body and the flipper).
To finish the line drawing go over it with either darker pencil lines, back pen or marker. Also, fill in the iris of the eye with black (or dark pencil shading) but leave reflection white.
Step 6 – Color the Dolphin
To color the dolphin use a darker blue for the upper part of its body and lighter blue for the bottom. You ca also leave a little white area inside each section of the body for the reflections (as shown in the example). This will help make the dolphin look wet and shiny.
You can use any medium you like for the coloring process (paints, markers, colored pencils, etc…). However, paints or pencils can be a better option if you want lighter colors as in the example.
Once done with this step you should be finished with the drawing.
Conclusion – Drawing a Dolphin Can be Easy & Fun
A dolphin is an interesting and fairly easy to draw animal, especially in a stylized/cartoon manner used in this tutorial. This guide shows a good approach to creating such a drawing where you start with it’s largest parts go down to the small details. Hopefully you’ve found it fun and easy to follow along.
If you like simple step by step tutorials like this one you should also try some of these other drawing guides:
