How To Draw A Tropical Fish

These tropical fish will take you into a colorful and vibrant underwater world just waiting to be explored. Unleash your inner artist with these stunning watercolor tropical fish drawings! Our step-by-step guide will show you how to create gradient vibrant fish using watercolor paints. No experience necessary! Just grab your supplies and get started.

List of Supplies:   

• Premium Watercolor 12 Half Pan Deluxe Travel Set

Step 1: Sketch The Body Shape

To draw a tropical fish, begin by sketching a narrow ellipse shape for the body. Then, add details such as wide fins, a scalloped tail, eyes, and a mouth in a style similar to the example image. To enhance the realism of your tropical fish drawing, try delicately tracing fine lines that follow the curves and flow of their fins. This technique can create the illusion of movement, making it seem as though your fish is swimming freely in the water.

Step 2: Add A Splash of Color

Now it's time to bring your tropical fish to life! Here we use our Premium Watercolor 12 Half Pan Deluxe Travel Set. Dip the Rose Color and mix it with plenty of water, and apply it to the fins where they connect to the body. Then, we'll layer on some Lemon Yellow around the edges of the pink to create a beautiful gradient effect. Don't forget to give your fish a wash of Lemon Yellow on its body too! In real life, every fin could be a different color, so let's add some Cerulean Blue to the top fin by blending it in and layering colors just like before. Choose your favorite hues and create your own tropical fish!

Step 3: Deepen The Colors

In this step, we'll use a little bit of water to dilute some Cerulean Blue and deepen the color on the tail and fins. As we know, when you layer yellow over blue, it creates the in-between shade of green. Now that beautiful gradient of green is appearing in our tropical fish watercolors! Then, we'll blend some Rose Color onto the lower half of the body and deepen the red parts of the fins. Finally, let's add some Ultramarine Color accents to the upper part of the fins.

Step 4: Add Some Finishing Touches

Erase any remaining draft lines from Step 1. After this, we'll dilute Royal Purple with water and apply it to the body of our tropical fish. In addition, using undiluted paint, we'll carefully paint on the fish's eyes and mouth, following our original sketch. To give our fish some more texture, let's add small scales all over its body - the devil is in the details! Finally, we'll intensify the contrast between light and dark by blending in some Cadmium Red and Ultramarine Color to the fins and tail.

And there you have it -- A delicate and elegant tropical fish! It's vibrant colors and slender body makes it look like it's swimming effortlessly on the seabed. Whether you're a seasoned aquarium pro or just love admiring the wonders of nature, this beautiful creature is sure to capture your heart and leave you in awe. Go ahead and let your creativity swim free through this simple tropical fishing drawing!