how to draw the biggest whale possible!

Learn how to draw the biggest whale possible using long curved lines and fun saturated colors. These huge mammals are quite impressive to see in real life. It's also one of the few cartoon animals that I really enjoy to illustrate. Not quite shaped like a fish, a whale is made from many fun parts (like the fins, the body and the mouth) that are challenging and amusing to sketch.

Before working on the cartoon character found on this page, let's take a few minutes to learn a little bit more about this creature so that you can be prepared to draw this one accurately.

1. A single oval shape is used to create the blowhole.
2. The body is large, thick and long.
3. Made from triangles, the tail is strong and huge.
4. Two pectoral fins are drawn from pointed lines.
5. The eye and the pupil are made from small circles.
6. Small and sharp lines are drawn on the bottom of the character.
7. The mouth is done from small curved lines.

Cool! Now that we are more familiar with our little cartoon whale, let's proceed with the step-by-step lesson! :)

step 1 - a few shapes to start slowly ...

Unlike other characters from the same series, you only need to draw three simple shapes to create a satisfying guideline. First, add a large rectangle to create the body. 

The tail is made from a large circle. Finally, complete this step by drawing a small triangle to illustrate the fin.

step 2 - time to draw our biggest whale!

Using mostly long (very long) curved lines, you can draw the body, the tail, the fins, the blowhole and the eye of the character. Make sure the area around the head is large and impressive. Once you are finished, you can erase all grey shapes drawn previously.

step 3 - adding plain colors

Of course, cartoon whales are often filled with blue colors. In this case, the top part of the body is slightly darker and more saturated than the bottom part. You can also use a light grey color if you prefer. The pupil and the blowhole are black while the eye remains white. All lines are filled with a dark blue color.

step 4 - gradient colors to give more depth

Do you have access to a vector application? If so, you can add gradient colors inside the animal. This technique can add more volume inside the illustration and help us create the biggest whale possible (which is our goal:).

step 5 - adding a little bit of texture

Below the mouth (inside the area that is filled with a lighter color) you can add texture using simple pointed lines. These lines are shown below in pink (but they must be filled with a dark blue color).

step 6 - more shadows to create more volume

To make our biggest whale even more impressive, you can draw more shadows inside the character using new (and darker) shapes. Adding transparency inside these new elements to create a more subtle effect is highly recommended!

step 7 - the result so far ...

Once transparency is applied (and pink lines that were added to help you locate all shadows are removed), you can see how the character should look like so far. 

step 8 - reflection to add another layer of depth

Our biggest whale illustration so far is quite impressive, but can we make it even more enjoyable? Of course! In this step, we need to draw large white shapes that will be used to represent reflection. A large shape is drawn on the entire top part of the body, another one is sketched on the tail and a last one is added inside the pupil.

step 9 - the final result! Impressive, don't you think?

Just like we did inside all shadows, you also need to add transparency inside all white shapes drawn in the previous step (otherwise the character looks really strange). See how the subtle white shape near the blowhole or the other one found inside the pupil are adding more volume to the picture?

Had fun drawing this hUGE character?

Below you can see all steps needed to draw this fun cartoon whale. Don't hesitate to draw more versions of this character using various shapes, lines and colors. You are also invited to try more animals from the same series here. Enjoy and don't forget to practice as often as needed! :)

Go back to How to Draw Vector Illustrations of Animals
Go back from How to Draw the Biggest Whale Possible to home page