How To Draw A Fish for Kids

If your child is attracted to the enigmatic charm of a fish gliding gracefully in the serene blue water of an aquarium, it’s time to build their relationship with nature and capture the exciting features of a fish in art…

Simple Fish Drawing for Kids in Easy Steps

Originating in the Cambrian period, fishes are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Having evolved through the Palaeozoic and Silurian periods, fishes have diversified into a wide variety of forms. From just the prey of arthropods, they became formidable marine predators that can be found in nearly all aquatic environments. From high mountain streams, lakes, rivers, coral reefs, the abyssal, and even the oceans’ deepest depths. Most fish are cold-blooded, which allows their body temperatures to change as ambient temperatures vary. They have fear and pain responses as well! With over 34,300 described species, fish exhibit greater diversity in sizes, shapes, and colors than any other group of vertebrates. Whether your kid likes to admire fishes in the local aquarium or keep them as pets, fishes can be a good theme for an underwater world art project. They also teach kids about the importance of marine conservation and how they contribute towards maintaining the earth’s ecological balance. From developing fine motor skills to visual analysis, problem-solving, hand-eye-co-ordination to boosting self-confidence, art offers a host of developmental benefits for toddlers. One of the first things to keep in mind while sketching a fish is to pay attention to general body proportions, size of the head, mouth position, and placement of the fin. The mouth, location, and several paired and medial fins vary in morphology and number from one species to another; these features play a huge role in identifying species.

Learning how to draw a cartoon fish is important for kids as it is fairly easy, fun, and makes a perfect choice for beginners. Start with the basic structure and then upgrade to learning to draw different types of fish with details like scales, fins, and tails. From spending the summer vacation in a productive way to engaging kids indoors, these simple stepwise instructions can help one master the art of drawing a generic or any specific fish variety that they can display with pride. Artwork is only limited by imagination! Get started with some simple fish drawings, and move on to more complex fishes for further exploration and creative discovery. Each step in this guide contains illustrations and explanatory texts that you can follow to make any of the fish that catches your child’s fancy.

What You Will Need

• Drawing Paper
• Marker
• Pencil
• Eraser

Steps

1. Start by drawing an ellipse for the body.

2. Draw a curved line across the front part of the fish to represent its head that often has different patterns of scales.

3. Draw a triangular-shaped tail on one end of the fish’s body.

4. Draw the dorsal fin of the fish as a curve upward on the fish’s body.

5. Draw the bottom fin as the dorsal fin underneath. The side fin as a “D”-shaped curve can be made at the body’s center.

6. Draw the eye for the fish as a big circle with a marker while leaving it as a white dot (un-shaded) in the top right corner. Draw a curved line as the mouth on the front of the fish’s face.

7. Colour it as per your choice.

How to Draw a Koi Fish for Kids

Native to East Asia, Koi fishes are mainly kept in water gardens and koi ponds for decoration. Comprising of complex and beautiful features, it makes your artwork look truly amazing. Found all over the world, their interesting colors and lineage make them special and visually soothing. People in Japan believe the Koi fish symbolizes wealth, prosperity, love, a successful career, and good fortune.

What You Will Need

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Drawing paper
• Colored pencils/ crayons

Steps

1. The head of the Koi fish is curvy on three sides. It’s one side longer than the other, like a triangle. The smaller side is flatter and half the size of the neck or long side. Draw the eye of the fish.

2. Draw the long, slender body of the Koi. Making the fish curvy creates an image to show that the fish is in motion. The tail-end is narrower than the front end, which is wider.

3. Add the tail fin or caudal fin, which is slightly rough around the edges or a little sharp.

4. Add two fins on each side. The pectoral fin (one close to the head), the pelvic fin, and the anal fin. The dorsal fin (one on top) has two parts. Add the barbells that are sensory organs used by the Koi for detecting taste and smell.

5. Draw lines inside the fins for details and draw the scales on the body.

6. Color it.

How to Draw Nemo for Kids

If your child has been fascinated by little Nemo from the Disney-Pixar movie, they can learn to bring this cute orange clownfish to life with straightforward materials. Nemo is actually Ocellaris clownfish that belongs to the family Pomacanthidae. With a little practice and perseverance, even a beginner will produce amazing artwork.

What You Will Need

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Drawing paper
• Color pencils/Crayons

Steps

1. Draw the body of the fish. Make a circle and draw another curvy sphere intersecting it.

2. Now erase the intersecting line and join the circles to form a single oval shape like a mango.

3. Do a freehand drawing for adding the dorsal fin, caudal fin, pectoral fin, anal fin, and pelvic fin. Make the edges of the fins look rough with a few tiny bumps. Add the eyes and a curvy mouth to make it look happy and smiling.

4. Draw curvy lines across the fish’s body to brighten up the face and indicate the beautiful design of the clownfish.

5. Draw more lines inside the fins to give it a distinct look.

6. Color the fish orange and white.

How to Draw a Bass for Kids

This large-mouthed and spotted fish is usually caught for food or sport in North America and hunted in South Africa. The term comes from Middle English bars, meaning “perch” encompassing both freshwater and marine species belonging to the Perciforms or perch-like fishes. The black bass, temperate bass, and Asian bass are most popular.

What You Will Need

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Drawing paper
• Color pencils/Crayons

Steps

1. The black bass has a full mouth, which should look prominent. Begin by outlining the fish with gentle curves. The body of the bass has a wide oval shape while it has a fan-shaped tail. Draw a groove at one end of the body for the fish’s mouth, which is usually seen open, measuring almost one inch wide on paper.

2. Add detail to create a realistic impression of the fish’s head. Draw a slant from the groove you drew before for the mouth. Draw thin lines in and around the mouth to show the folds of the flesh and skin inside the mouth. The lines below the head indicate the gills and pectoral fin.

3. Draw a small circle with a smaller black dot in the center of the head for the eye.

4. Then add the pelvic fin, dorsal fins, and the spiny rays to the sides. Add little details by drawing lines near the neck. Draw a C-shaped line to outline the gills of the fish.

5. Draw small, closely spaced slanting lines on all fins. Draw fish scales with small, bumpy lines on the body to show the scales and body marks.

6. Color the fish.

How to Draw a Clown Fish

A clown fish belongs to the subfamily Amphiprioninae. Depending on the species, anemonefish are yellow, orange, reddish, or blackish in color with white bars or patches. The largest clownfish measure up to 17 cm, while the smallest can be 7–8 cm.  Anemonefish live at the bottom of shallow seas in sheltered reefs or lagoons. A comically distorted drawing is mainly done to satirize or ridicule its subject. Characteristics like facial features of the subject are seized upon and exaggerated for amusement. A cartoon drawing is chosen for its simplicity and aimed at the beginner artist by adding an animated eye, plump lips; we distort the fish features to insert human expressions on them.

What You Will Need

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Drawing paper
• Color pencils/Crayons

Steps

1. Draw two small circles of the same size joined at the sides.

2. Draw a smaller circle inside each circle with thicker edges.

3. Draw an egg-shaped extension starting from each eye. Do not join the pointed end of the oval.

4. Draw the caudal fin sideways or the fish’s tail shaped like the ears of a bunny.

5. Make a curved line from the center upwards, and extend it a tiny bit to the right to complete the mouth.

6. Color it.

How to Draw a Shark for Kids

Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven-gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. The earliest species of sharks lived over 420 million years ago and were different from modern sharks. Tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks, thresher sharks, blue sharks, and great white sharks are well-known apex predators. With an average of 15 feet in length and weighing more than 2,000 pounds, sharks are the most efficient macro predators. As they have different features, your child should pay attention to the details to draw a shark more realistically.

What You Will Need

• Pencil
• Paper
• Crayons/Color Pencils
• Eraser

Steps

1. Draw a pointy snout for the head in front with the letter “V.”

2. Add a tiny eye in the middle of the snout and mouth inside the head to give it dimension and prevent it from looking flat.

3. Draw a long back attached to two lines on the bottom. Leave space for the front fin. The body of almost all sharks is like a spindle or a teardrop laid on its side.

4. Draw some lines next to the head for gills. Next, draw the gill lines that should go up and down. About five to seven pairs of gill slits are located on each side of the shark’s head. These vertical splits on the neck are an important characteristic that should not be omitted.

5. Add a tall fin on the top of their body, one in the space left on the bottom, and three smaller fins towards the direction of the tail. Draw the thin lower pointy fin below the top fin.

6. Finally, draw a tail with an upper and lower fin on the back, which allows the shark to change directions while swimming. The upper lobe of the tail fan is usually longer than the lower lobe.

7. Color it greyish blue to add more depth and richness to your drawing. Consider advanced techniques like stippling or hatching to add further texture and dimension to the shark.

While trying to make perfect artwork, it is important to know your pencils well. Position your child’s hand closer to the end of the pencil so that they have more control and precision. Subtle shifts in the width and darkness of your lines will create a dynamic, visually interesting drawing. Avoiding smudging makes a clean-looking drawing — the art of drawing a good picture involves practice. There’s no better way to connect with your kid and help them understand more about the world than working on an art project together. It helps to strengthen the bond of the family and create fond memories of childhood to be cherished forever. Instead of indulging in electronic gadgets like smartphones, video games, and monotonous television shows, it is better to cultivate hobbies like drawing or keeping a pet fish that not only lets you bring a piece of the natural world into your home, but reduces stress, anxiety, increases concentration levels, teaches important life skills like love, compassion, responsibility, tolerance, and patience that will shape them into caring adults.

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