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Fish Drawing Guide: 6 Easy Steps For Beginners [Video + Images]

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Ready to learn how to draw a fish?​

Did you know that there are more than 33,000 fish species described around the world?

Fish come in all colors and sizes, but many beginners struggle to draw their recognizable shape.

We created this guide to show you the tricks to simple fish drawing and help you sketch a lifelike fish in six easy steps!

How To DRAW A FISH [Easy-To-Follow Guide]How To DRAW A FISH [Easy-To-Follow Guide]

If illustrations work better for you, keep reading to discover images for every step of the fish drawing. Feel free to explore them at your own pace!

Sketching Tools For Simple Fish Drawing

Tools you might want to use for your fish drawing include:

  • An H pencil: These pencils have a hard lead that leaves a light trace on the paper. That makes H pencils ideal for sketching because you can easily enhance the appearance of lines or erase mistakes in the later stages of fish drawing.
  • An HB pencil: We recommend using a medium-hard lead for adding details and softly shading your sketch.
  • A 4B pencil: A 4B lead is particularly soft and dark. You can use it to add dark shadows to your drawing and enhance the lines.
  • A kneaded eraser: Kneaded erasers are highly malleable and you can tweak them into whatever shape you want, depending on what you need to erase. That’s why we recommend you add them to your arsenal of art supplies.
  • Lightly textured sketch paper: This paper’s soft surface is perfect for beginners because your pencil can easily glide over it. Plus, it’s also easier to erase unneeded lines.

Of course, you don’t *have* to use these tools. Feel free to try them out, but use whatever tools you’re comfortable with!

Even the BIOWARS lead comic book artist doesn’t use all of these tools in the video. It’s perfectly fine to stick with just one pencil and whatever paper and eraser you have. All that matters is that you’re comfortable and willing to learn how to draw a fish!

Uncover the battle raging within. Read the BIOWARS comic book for free!

How To Draw A Fish In 6 Steps

To show you how to easily draw a fish, we’ll sketch the base of its body using geometrical shapes.

1. Draw The Base

Recommended tools: H pencil

If you’re a beginner, we recommend starting your fish drawing by sketching a large circle on the paper.

The size, i.e. the width of the fish, depends on how big you draw the circle. This part of the fish’s body is right behind its head, and that’s where its body is the widest.

Don’t place the circle too close to the edges of the paper, because you need to leave room for details later on.

A circle used as the base for the fish body. ​
Using geometrical shapes will help you create a base for the fish’s body.​

Then, let’s add a small circle to the right. We’ll attach the tail to it in a few steps.

Avoid placing it too far away from the first circle because you don’t want your fish to look disproportional.

The second circle to the right marks where the tail will be.​
Make sure the second circle is way smaller than the first. ​

Next, let’s add the head and the caudal fin, i.e. the tail.

For the tail, sketch a heart shape and glue it to the small circle you drew in the previous step.

To add the head, sketch a triangle-like shape at the front. Follow the shape of the circle and then extend the lines forward, to form a peak, like so:

The completed base for the fish’s body.​
The basic elements needed to draw a fish are ready.

All that’s left to do at this stage is to connect the elements to create the recognizable shape of the fish’s body:

The completed base for the fish’s body.
The base for the fish’s body is finished. ​

2. Draw The Fins

Recommended tool: H pencil

Now’s the time to add the fins — pectoral and pelvic.

The pectoral fin is at the front.

The fish species we’re drawing has two oval-shaped pectoral fins — the larger one is attached to the lower end of the circle at the front and the other is placed slightly above.

As for the pelvic fin, let’s draw a medium-sized oval shape and place it right between the two circles, like this:

The fins are added to the fish drawing.​
The pectoral and pelvic fins are in place. ​

3. Draw The Head

Recommended tools: H pencil

Now’s the time to draw an eye.

Place it slightly above the nostril, i.e. the triangle’s peak.

Then, let’s draw a half-circle for the head.

Draw a line that touches the upper pectoral fin, then curve it upward, like so:

The fish’s head and the eye are finished. 
The fish is slowly taking shape! ​

4. Draw The Spiny Dorsal Fin

Recommended tool: H pencil

The fish we’re drawing has a spiny dorsal fin.

To draw it, imagine for a second that there’s a vertical line passing through the large circle.

Start drawing the spikes at the point where this imaginary line touches the fish’s back.

The first spike should be the largest and the remaining three should gradually become smaller, with the last in line barely peaking from the back:

The spiny dorsal fin is attached to the fish’s back. ​
Look at those fearsome spikes on the fish’s back! ​

To finish drawing the spiny dorsal fin, connect the spikes with curved lines so that your fish drawing looks like this:

The spiny dorsal fin is finished. ​
Look at those fearsome spikes on the fish’s back!

5. Add The Details

Recommended tool: H pencil, kneaded eraser

Since all the basic elements are in place, let’s add the details to bring the fish to life.

For starters, grab your eraser and remove the lines that separate the fins from the rest of the body. Delete the guidelines as well:

The lines that separate the fins and the rest of the fish’s body are erased. ​
Attach the fins to the rest of the fish’s body by erasing the extra lines.

Then, add the tiny, outward-curved lines inside the pectoral and pelvic fins.

Next, let’s add some details to the head.

Draw the mouth by sketching a super small horizontal line below the triangle’s peak at the front. Then, add another J-shaped line right below the mouth.

Let’s add a pupil and two curved lines around the eye; make sure that the lines don’t touch.

Sketch one more line at the back of the head, like this:

The pupil is drawn inside the eye and more details are added to the head. ​
Keep drawing details to add more structure to your fish drawing. ​

To add texture to the dorsal and caudal fins, draw short lines that follow the fins’ shape, like so:

The lines are added inside the dorsal and caudal fins to enhance their texture. ​
Draw short lines inside the fins to add structure.

Add the same lines inside the other fins and then start sketching the scales.

The gills are quite simple to draw; all you have to do is sketch vertical wavy lines across the fish’s body. Just make sure that the lines follow the body’s shape, like this:

The scales are added to the fish drawing. ​
To quickly draw the scales, use vertical wavy lines. ​

6. Shade Your Fish Drawing

Recommended tools: HB and 4B pencils, kneaded eraser

To finalize your fish drawing, let’s shade it!

Start with your HB pencil (or apply different levels of pressure to your pencil of choice to create various shades of grey).

Go over the entire fish’s body to softly shade it.

Then, shade the belly in a darker hue with a 4B pencil.

We imagine that the source of light is on the left, so we added a darker shadow on the pectoral and pelvic fins, and some on the head and the spiny dorsal fin:

The fish drawing is shaded in different grey hues. 
Shading helps bring the fish to life. ​

After you shade your drawing, you can use your eraser to make the scales behind the head lighter than the rest, like so:

The fish drawing is finished. ​
That’s a wrap on your fish drawing! ​

Finished Your Fish Drawing? Try These Next!

Did you enjoy learning how to draw fish? Keep your creative juices flowing and turn to the next page in your sketchbook!

We have a bunch of other tutorials ready for you, so you can continue to practice and perfect your drawing skills!

Discover how to draw some of the most popular animals, including:

We have a lot more how-to’s in store, and you’ll find them all on our blog and YouTube channel!

Follow our YouTube channel for more art tutorials!

Meet The Artist

This step-by-step tutorial was created by Goncalo Lopes — a professional artist who’s participated in many large-scale projects, including Transformers, GI-Joe, TMNT, Adventure Time, Godzilla and many others.

Goncalo is also the lead BIOWARS artist and he created the look and feel of all the BIOWARRIORS and the menacing viruses and bacteria!

Check out how we drew the Biowars comic book characters!

A Recap On How To Draw A Fish

To draw a fish, you need:

  • A pencil
  • A piece of textured paper
  • An eraser
  • Some patience
  • And a good guide

The last step is particularly important when you’re a beginner!

The important thing is that you don’t rush into outlining the fish.

Instead, work on your fish drawing in steps and:

  1. Use circles to form the base of the fish’s body
  2. Add the fins
  3. Draw the head
  4. Add more fins if you wish (like the spiny dorsal fin!)
  5. Add details to the drawing
  6. Shade the fish

Follow us on Instagram for more drawing tips and the latest Biowars updates!

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