How to Draw a Goldfish
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Block in the body as one long oval.
The body should be symmetrical about its long axis.
Drawing on paper instead?
We straighten and clean up the photo for you. Paper counts exactly the same.
About this drawing
A goldfish is mostly tail. The body is a chubby oval, but the fins and tail are veils - bigger than the body, translucent, and drawn with loose wavy edges rather than the crisp triangles of every other fish. It is the one subject where a wobbly line is an advantage.
Like every fish here, it is one oval with a tail, and everything else - fins, gill, eye - attaches to that oval by overlapping it.
Step by step
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Step 1
Block in the body as one long oval.
One long oval, drawn fast. Fish bodies are smooth in a way hands are bad at producing slowly, so go round the shape in one continuous motion and keep the best pass.
Watch out A lumpy body built from careful short strokes.
Check The body should be symmetrical about its long axis.
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Step 2
Draw the tail shape.
The tail is bigger than you think - often a third of the body's length. An undersized tail is the single thing that makes a drawn fish read as a leaf.
Watch out A small tail tucked against the body.
Check The tail should be about a third of the body length.
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Step 3
Add the gill line.
One curve, following the round of the head, roughly a fifth of the way along. It separates head from body and does more work than any other single line on the fish.
Watch out A straight gill line, which flattens the head.
Check The gill curve should bow the same way as the nose.
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Step 4
Place the eye, high and forward.
High and forward - roughly where the gill curve meets the top third. Round, dark centre, one highlight. Too low or too far back and the fish stops looking alert.
Watch out Centring the eye in the head.
Check The eye should sit above the body's midline.
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Step 5
Mark the mouth.
The mouth sits at the very front, lower than the eye, and it is smaller than instinct says. A short curve is enough - an open grin turns the fish into a cartoon.
Watch out A large smiling mouth.
Check The mouth should be below and forward of the eye.
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Step 6
Put the top fin on so it overlaps the body.
Start the fin lines INSIDE the body so they cross the outline. That overlap is what attaches the fin - drawn outside the line it floats like a flag.
Watch out A fin sitting on the outline without crossing it.
Check Fin lines should visibly cross the body outline.
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Step 7
Put the underside fin on.
Compare it to the top fin, not to your idea of a fin: position, rake and size all read against the one you already drew.
Watch out A bottom fin that mirrors the top exactly - they rarely match in nature.
Check The two fins should differ, deliberately.
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Step 8
Draw the side fin, smallest of them all.
The pectoral fin is the smallest and it sits just behind the gill curve, angled back. It is the one nearest the viewer, so it draws over the body.
Watch out Making the side fin as big as the others.
Check It should be clearly the smallest fin.
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Step 9
Add a hint of the pattern.
Suggest, never itemise. A handful of marks near the head lets the eye tile the rest of the body; drawing every scale turns the fish into a texture swatch.
Watch out Covering the whole body in scales.
Check Most of the body should still be empty.
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Step 10
Add the identifying detail.
Species markings follow the body's curve and fade toward the belly. Put them on deliberately - they are the difference between a fish and this fish.
Watch out Markings drawn flat across a curved body.
Check Stripes or patches should bend with the form.
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Step 11
Shade the underside so it reads as round.
The underside is darker - light comes from above, even underwater in a drawing. One soft band of tone along the belly makes the whole fish read as round.
Watch out Even tone everywhere, which flattens the body.
Check The belly should be clearly darker than the back.
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Step 12
Go over the keepers and lose the guides.
Darken the silhouette and the tail, keep pattern marks light, erase the construction oval. Weight contrast finishes the drawing.
Watch out Every line at the same weight.
Check The outline should dominate when you squint.
What it looks like finished
The same drawing with every guide erased and only the lines you meant to keep, at the weight you meant them to be. If yours still has centre lines and blocking-in shapes in it, this is the step you have not done yet - and it takes about thirty seconds.
Yours will not look like this, and it is not supposed to. This is the construction with the scaffolding taken away, not a drawing somebody made to be admired - the point is to show you which of your lines were guides.
What this one actually teaches you
What transfers is suggestion over itemisation - a few scale marks that let the eye tile the rest. The same restraint draws leaves, hair and crowds.
The goldfish inverts the site's usual advice: here the loose, flowing, imperfect line is the accurate one. Knowing when control matters and when flow does is a judgement, and this is the cheapest place to practise it.
Practise these: Line confidence Proportion Value range
What you need
Anything that makes a mark. On paper, press lightly for the first few steps - most of what you draw early is scaffolding you will erase.
If it's going wrong
If it looks like a regular fish, the tail is too small and too neat. A fancy goldfish's tail is larger than its body and falls in waves - draw it twice the size you first tried.
If the fins look solid, the line is too heavy. Veil fins are drawn with the lightest stroke on the drawing, and a few interior flow lines instead of a filled shape.
If the body is not reading, it is too slim. Fancy goldfish are nearly spherical - an oval that looks overfed is correct.
Print the steps
Take it away from the screen. The step sheet prints on one page.
Questions people ask
- How do I draw a goldfish's tail?
- Bigger than the body, falling in loose waves, drawn with your lightest line. Neat triangular tails belong to other fish - a goldfish's is a veil.
- Why does my goldfish look like a regular fish?
- The body is too slim and the fins too neat. Fatten the oval to nearly a sphere and let every fin edge wave.
- How do I draw the bubbles?
- Two or three circles of different sizes rising off the mouth, and no more. A column of bubbles reads as boiling.
- How do I start drawing a goldfish?
- One body oval, drawn fast in one motion, then the tail before any detail. Everything else - fins, gill, eye - attaches to that oval by overlapping it, which is what keeps the parts reading as one animal.
- How big should the tail be on a goldfish?
- Bigger than feels right - about a third of the body length. An undersized tail is what makes a drawn fish read as a leaf.
- Do I have to draw all the scales on a goldfish?
- No, and you should not. A few marks near the head let the eye tile the rest of the body on its own; drawing every scale turns the animal into a texture swatch and loses the big shape you built first.
- Can a beginner draw a goldfish?
- Yes - it is one oval, a triangle and some overlapping fins, with a finish-early step marked partway through.
- Why do the fins on my goldfish look stuck on?
- They are not crossing the body outline. Start each fin line inside the body so it visibly overlaps the oval - that overlap is the attachment, and it is the single trick this whole family of lessons keeps reusing.