How to Draw a Dolphin

Dolphins are intelligent mammals that delight crowds with fantastic jumps and tricks. Draw your own dolphin and imagine it gracefully swimming in the water or bounding above it.

Learn how to draw this dolphin.
Learn how to draw this dolphin.

In this section, we’ll show you how to draw the above dolphin. Either draw it freehand while looking at your computer monitor or print out this page to get a closer look at each step.

Follow the red lines in each illustration to learn exactly what to draw in that step. The lines drawn in previous steps are shown in gray. We’ll show you an illustration of each step and then give you a description of how to draw it.

First, draw a teardrop and an oval for the dolphin's body and snout.

Step 1: Draw a curved teardrop for the body and an oval for the snout.

Next, add five triangles for the dolphin's fins.

Step 2: Add five triangular shapes for the fins: one on top, two on the sides, and two at the end for the tail.

Sketch the dolphin's eyes, mouth, and blowhole.

Step 3: Draw circles for the eye and an oval at the top of the head for the blowhole. Add curved lines for the mouth.

Trace the lines you want to keep in the dolphin drawing.

Step 4: Use a felt-tip pen to trace the lines you want to keep, and erase the extra pencil lines.

Your dolphin drawing is done and ready to color! Dolphins and other animals come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. In the next section, we'll teach you which shapes to use to draw a tiny mouse.

Want to expand your drawing skills? See: