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10+ Awesome Underwater Paintings
The sea is already beautiful when viewed above sea level, but when viewed from underneath it, the beauty just becomes magical. The underwater life is full of colorful creatures and plants, that it’s almost too hard to believe that it’s real. Which is why marine life should always be taken cared of.
If you are planning to paint what it’s like under the water, then check out our website for an entire gallery of underwater painting ideas. Feel free to look around our website to find the samples that you are looking for to guide you on your next painting.
Underwater Fish Painting
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Underwater Art Painting
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Simple Fish Painting Techniques
Here are the techniques that will make fish painting easy for kids and beginners:
Dry Brush Technique
When we need a pigmented stroke of colors on the paintings, we use the dry brush technique. All you have to do is use the acrylic color in its raw form. Do not use a wet brush or water.
Washing
The washing technique is useful when you want to experiment with some effects and make the acrylic color translucent. Take out the color on the palette, mix it with water, and use it to create semi-fluid patterns.
Detailing
When you need to add more definition to your painting, the detailing technique can help you. Here, you wet the fine brush to make it more pointy and use it as a pen or pencil to create intricate designs.
Supplies for Kids Fish Painting
To make a simple fish painting for beginners, you will need the following supplies-
- A high-quality set of acrylic paints
- An A4 size drawing sheet
- Paint Brushes – filbert, round, or angular brush, fan brush, and thin-pointed brush
- An HB pencil and eraser
- Painting palette
- Masking Tape
Step-By-Step Painting of a Fish
Tip: Cover the border of the A4 size drawing sheet with masking tape. It gives a neat and structured look to the painting.
Step 1: Sketching Your Tropical Fish Artwork
We will begin the acrylic painting of fish by making a pencil sketch of the drawing first. In our painting, we will include two fishes of different styles to bring variation. As we are taking baby steps, try to get the structure right with different parts of the fish.
The First Fish
The first fish is located at the bottom of the page in a right upward inclined position. To draw the body, make an almond-like structure with two arches starting at the same point. Do not join the lines and leave a small opening. You can find the resemblance of the body shape with that of a goldfish.
Now add the fins of Betta fish on either side of the body. At the top, draw a long fin. Then create two small fins on the belly of the fish at the bottom. The first fin will go over the body, while the second one, which is relatively smaller, will sit on the edge of the body.
To make the tail of the fish, connect the endings of the arches by extending them with curved lines. Join both of them with a half-circle opened on the outside. Add detailing on the tail by making two curved strokes.
Now we move to the upper half of the body of the goldfish artwork. Draw a curve there which will mark out the head. This is where fish have gills. Draw an eye above the mark and the mouth. In the middle and lower half of the body, above the tail, draw scales in the form of curved lines at some distance from each other.
The fish is ready. Just add some bubbles in front of the face of the fish.
The Second Fish
Let’s move on to the second fish which is at the top of the first fish. It is also in the right upward inclined position, located parallel to the first fish. Since we are aiming at goldfish acrylic painting, the structure of the body of the fish is the same as the first fish. However, bring some variation in the tail of the fish to not make them identically similar. To make a betta fish painting easy for kids, keep the design of the fins the same as the first fish. Draw the gill flap and the eyes and the mouth.
At the center of the body of the fish, draw a pectoral fin as shown in the image. You can add some detailing in the form of lines on the fins and tail. Draw curved scales on the body of the fish. Again, add bubbles in front of the face of the fish.
Other Details
Now to show water around the fish, you need to fill the remaining blank space with detailings that resemble water waves. Therefore, draw more bubbles along with wavy lines. It will also give the feel that fish are in motion in the water. You can now move to color the cute fish painting.
Step 2: Painting the Background With Blue Acrylic Paint
Begin painting by coloring the background first by using the washing technique. We will use a blue color to cover the space. Use a medium round paint brush and be careful to not color any other design except the background. Let the color dry for some time.
Once it’s dry, use light blue color to paint the waves and bubbles in the background. Since you need curved smooth strokes here, use a fine brush to make waves.
Step 3: Start Making a Colorful Fish Painting with Orange Paint
Move on to painting the first fish. We are going to use a color combination of different bright colors here to make a tropical fish painting. For the head and fins, use radiant orange color. You can color the tail with orange too, but cover just the middle part.
While you’re at it, color the scales of the second fish with orange too. Remember, we will mostly use the dry brush technique throughout the fish painting.
Step 4: Continue Your Painting of a Fish by Adding Purple Acrylic Paint
To paint the body of the first fish, take light purple. Color the remaining part of the tail with it. Also, cover some parts of the scales with this color.
Step 6: Add a Little Pink Acrylic Paint to the Lower Fish
For the remaining parts of the scales of the first fish, use pink color to make lines. It will highlight the scales of the fish. Take the white color and paint the eye with a fine brush.
Step 7: Add Definition with Purple and Pink Acrylic Paint
It’s now time to use the detailing technique to give the fish an intrinsic look. Take dark purple and create lines on the border of the pink color on the scales at both sides. Use a fine pointed brush to do this. Do the same on the tail of the fish around the part that is colored orange. Make detailed lines at the center of the tail. Do the same with the fins, except make the lines a little bold and wavy. Use the purple color to make the mouth and a dot in the eye too.
To add more definition to the fish, take pink color and add wavy lines to the tail on the light purple part. On the scales, make little dots with a pointed brush.
Step 8: Fill in Betta Fish Like Fins with Light Green Acrylic Paint
Let’s now start coloring the second fish. Since we are aiming at tropical fish artwork, begin with the light green color. Use it to paint the tail and fins.
Step 9: Blue Fish Painting With A Light Blue Acrylic Paint Color
Now use light blue color to paint the rest of the body. Be careful and do not mix the blue color with other colors.
Step 10: Add Definition to the Fish with Dark Blue Acrylic Paint
We will now add definition to different body parts of the fish by adding small details. Use dark blue color to make lines on the tail and fins, and underline the orange scales of the fish with it. Paint the eye and mouth with the same color.
Step 11: Add Orange Acrylic Paint Dots to Give The Painting More of a of a Tropical Fish Look
Take the orange color and create more wavy lines on the tail of the fish, alongside the blue ones. Make dots with a fine brush in orange on the light blue body of the fish.
Step 12: Add White Highlight to Bring Definition to Your Underwater Fish Painting
It’s now time to prepare the simple fish painting for its final look. To highlight the water waves, take a fine brush and add white lines to the curved waves. Outline the water bubbles the same way.
And we are done. Your easy fish canvas painting for kids and beginners is ready to be hung on your wall as tropical fish wall art.
Don’t forget to check out the companion YouTube video, for more information about every step.
2 lights
The next step is to create the light coming into the water.
This time I used an airbrush.
The pattern is placed in a constant direction from top left to bottom right.
We want to make the color a little more pale, so we’ll lower the opacity to make the light gentler.
In the same way, we will now add light to the character.
Create a new layer above the character layer and add the same airbrush.
This time I have selected Overlay in the Blending section to adjust the vividness.
Here’s the whole thing.
3 bubbles
Next, let’s draw the bubbles.
First, we’ll use white to create the bubble shape.
Click here to enlarge.
If you draw several round shapes overlapping each other, you can express a bubble-like effect.
Next, create a new layer on top of the layer where you created the bubble, and click on Clipping.
Next, we will draw the bubble pattern on the clipped layer.
(1) Color the lower half of the layer with a darker blue.
(2) Add another deeper color to the bottom half to give the bubbles a 3D effect.
(3) Adjust the intensity of the color to make it blend in with the overall look.
Click here to see the bubble you created.
Follow the same procedure to create bubbles all over the entire image.
It’s getting very close to completion.
4 character editing
The next step is to change the character so that it blends in with the blue color of the water.
Create a new layer and clipping to the character layer.
We will use the airbrush to apply color to the layer we created.
Use a bright light blue to give it a fluffy color.
Let’s make it spread from the top of the head to the hair and chest area.
Next, let’s change the blend to Soft Light and adjust the opacity down as well.
In this case, the opacity is set to 50%.
Adjust the blue on the layer and the opacity so that the character blends in with the blue in the water.
This is the end of the procedure.
And here is the finished illustration.
What did you think?
This is a subject that may seem difficult at first glance, but if you know how to do it, anyone can try it.
I hope you’ll give it a try!
(Text and pictures by Hiromi Arakane)
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