How to Draw a Whale

Do you want to learn how to draw ocean animals? Then today’s tutorial is for you, as we take you through the steps on how to draw a whale. With your whale illustration, you can create and decorate all kinds of things. Use it to make an ocean clipart set, or sublimated t-shirts, or add elements to make wall art.

To draw your whale art, you will need sketching, lining, and a color medium. These can be anything you have on hand, like crayons, paint, or digital drawing programs such as Procreate.

Want to create a digital illustration but don’t have Procreate? We recommend using DesignScape as an excellent alternative that you get for free with our Plus Membership.

If you are not a Plus member yet, then sign up today to get a FREE 30-day Gold Plus Membership trial and get access to DesignScape and all Plus products.

Step 1 - Sketch the Shape of your Whale

In the first step of our drawing guide, we will use a sketching medium to create the shape of our whale drawing. You can use a light-colored medium and cover it up when adding color if you do not have a pencil or erasable sketching medium.

Create the Shape of the Body

Let’s begin by creating the shape of our whale body. Following our image below, draw a long curved line (seen in red) that curls up on the right side. Then, above that, draw the second curved line (seen in blue), which curves upward on the left and toward the right.

The left side of our shape will be the whale’s head and main body, and the right side is the tail.

Add the Fins

Next, add the flukes and flippers to your whale sketch. Draw a mermaid tail shape for the flukes at the right end of your whale body. Then, draw the two flippers on the bottom of the whale's body. Our flippers are viewed at an angle, so the right flipper lines overlap the body.

Step 2 - Sketch Details on your Whale

With our whale’s body sketched, we can add final details such as the eyes, ventral grooves, and water coming out of its blowhole. First, we must draw a line to divide the top and bottom of our whale.

On the left, draw a rectangular shape, curving down towards the flipper, and continue to draw a single line on the other side of the flipper towards the right.

Next, draw the ventral grooves along the bottom of your whale’s body. Above the rectangular shape, close to the flipper, draw a circle with a smaller one inside for the eye.

Lastly, at the top of your whale sketch, close to the flukes, draw three upside-down teardrop shapes for the water coming out of the blowhole.

Step 3 - Outline your Whale Rough Sketches

Switch to a permanent outlining medium, such as a pen, marker, or black-colored art supply. Start drawing over your sketch lines to define your whale outlines. Make sure only to outline sketches that you want to make permanent.

We started our outline by tracing over the top half of our whale, including the right flipper, to create one solid shape.

Once you have outlined the top half, you can go ahead and line the rest of your sketches. After outlining, erase or remove any pencil sketches, you have left.

Step 4 - Apply Color to your Whale

In this step, you will begin adding color to your drawing. You can use shades of blue or gray for your ocean creature clipart. If you don’t have these on hand, you can easily use other colors and even create a rainbow whale.

Complete your drawing by adding texture. We have a huge selection of Procreate texture brushes that you could apply to your drawings for a unique touch.

Whale done on your drawing! Add your drawing to your ocean clipart collection to make and decorate your next project. We hope you had a great time following along and drawing with us. Create more ocean life illustrations by following our drawing tutorials and learn how to easily draw an octopus or draw a dolphin.