How to Draw a Dolphin

Super smart and one of the most loved animals of the ocean, today we are looking at how to draw a dolphin. Dolphins are beautiful creatures with a friendly and fun nature. You can’t help but fall in love with their energy and cheeky antics. In this tutorial, we will take you step-by-step on how to draw a dolphin and easily add color.

Before you start this tutorial, get all of your supplies together. You can use any medium you have on hand, like crayons, paint, Procreate, or Photoshop.

We are going to use Procreate. If you are too, you can use these Procreate chalk brushes for your outlines and coloring your dolphin.

We do have a great selection of Procreate texture brushes for you to choose from.

Step 1 - Sketch the Body of a Dolphin

In the first step of how to draw a dolphin, you are going to create rough sketches.

We are going to help you easily plan out how your dolphin will look. We recommend using a medium like a pencil to make your sketches. These can then be removed in the next step.

Start with making a rough sketch of your dolphin's body at an angle. A dolphin's body shape looks a little like a banana with rounded ends. One end will be wider than the other. You can decide how much of a curve you want in the body to determine its pose.

Next, sketch the mouth, also known as the rostrum, by the head of your dolphin. Then, sketch in the line of the mouth and eye too.

Sketch in the tail flukes and two pectoral fins at the bottom close to the head of your dolphin. Finally, sketch in a dorsal fin at the middle top of your dolphin.

Step 2 - Outline the Sketch of Your Dolphin

In this step, we are going to outline our dolphin sketch using a medium that is permanent like a marker or pen. Start anywhere on your sketch and begin to outline your dolphin. Once you are done you can remove the rough sketch.

Step 3 - Add Color to Your Dolphin Outline

For the final step in how to draw a dolphin, we are going to add color to our dolphin outline. Depending on the type of medium for the color, start with the lightest color first.

Fixing or going over a light color is a lot easier than with darker colors. Dolphins are gray in color with a white or light gray on their bellies. But feel free to use whichever color you have on hand.

You can also use our drawing below as a reference.

That’s it, now you know how to draw a dolphin. We hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Interested in doing another tutorial like this? Why not have a look at how to draw a cat or how to draw a giraffe?