Hi I’m Kris! Today we’re drawing a little whale in Procreate and I’ll walk you through it step by step as always. So it feels easy and beginner-friendly the whole way through. We’ll start with shapes and build a sweet little ocean scene together with a sun, some clouds and a few gentle waves.

If you’d like to use the brushes and canvas I’m using you can grab them for free inside the Goodie Bag. Access the Goodie Bag HERE.

Lets draw together!

What You’ll Need

Canvas: the Cute Artist Studio canvas (included in the Goodie Bag)

Brushes: the Illustrator Starter Kit, plus a few stamps and patterns from the full Cute Artist Studio package (optional. You can complete the whole tutorial with just the Starter Kit)

Step 1: Sketch Your Whale

Grab a sketching brush (I’m using the Sketching Pencil – Hard) in a dark neutral color like brown or black at around size 30. This is your sketch layer so don’t worry about getting it perfect.

• Start with a circle for the body
• Add a line of action with a slight tail-like curve roughly in line with the top of the head
• Round out the body curving it into a whale shape. Nice and chunky with a bit of a belly
• Add a split leaf-shaped tail at the back
• Add a soft curved fin
• Let the face blend right into the body: draw a line about halfway down for the mouth (it should read as a smile) and place the eye low and close to the mouth. It feels odd higher up, but low and close is what gives him that cute low-and-fun proportion

Once the basic shape is there use the Magic Wand → Liquify → Push tool to fine-tune the proportions. Make him a little bigger and fatter wherever he needs it then use the Arrow tool to re-center him on the canvas.

Step 2: Build the Scene

Now lets give him a world to swim in:

• Add a water spout coming off his head angled slightly rather than straight up (straight up reads a little boring). Think of the shape almost like a palm tree
• Add a wonky little sun with simple rays fanned out around it
• Give the sun a tiny face and have your whales eyes glancing over at it. It’s a small touch but it adds a lot of charm
• Add a couple of soft fluffy clouds
• Sketch in a few gentle waves along the bottom using simple “C” shapes tucking some behind the whale and letting a few curl up out of the water

Don’t overthink the sea. A few curved lines and a couple of stamped accents underneath is plenty.

Step 3: Ink Your Line Art

Once you’re happy with the sketch lower the opacity of your layer create a new layer underneath it and grab a navy blue.

Still using your sketching pencil, ink over your lines with a sketchy hand rather than a perfectly clean line. That’s the look we’re going for here. Work through the body the mouth ( a touch of a lip underneath) the tail, the fin, the eye and the belly stripes:

For the belly stripes curve them gently rather than drawing straight lines. This helps emphasize the roundness of his shape

• Keep the curve direction consistent on each stripe so they read as a cohesive pattern, not scattered lines
• Use the same navy for the water spout the seas wave outlines and a lighter blue for the clouds. Add the suns outline in orange.

A helpful trick for that hand-drawn look: once your outlines are down switch to a “rough sketcher”-style brush in a slightly darker shade of your outline color and gently scrub back over your lines. This softens everything into a grungy textured outline instead of a hard clean line. And you can press a little harder anywhere you want extra shading.

Step 4 (Optional): Add a Pattern to the Whale

If you have the Cute Artist Studio this is a fun optional touch: pick a cute line pattern adjust its scale down under Grain (try around 12–15) and paint it onto a new layer as a clipping mask over the whales body. Use Liquify to curve the pattern so it follows the whales shape rather than sitting flat. It’s a detail but it adds a lot of texture and personality.

Step 5: Color In Your Whale

Time for color. Create a layer below your line art and start blocking in your base colors:

• A mid-tone blue for the main body
• A lighter grayish blue for the belly and the underside of the water spout
• The same light blue for the clouds and any water droplets

Don’t worry about being perfectly neat here. If you go outside the lines just erase and touch it up.

Step 6: Add Face Details

This is a step but it makes a big difference:

• On a layer above everything add a white highlight dot to the eye. It brings the whole face to life
• Add a soft gently curved eyebrow in a darker blue just above the eye

Step 7: Shade & Add Texture

 Now for the part that makes him feel soft and dimensional rather than flat:

• Create a new layer set it as a clipping mask on the whales body and use a soft bubbly-textured brush (something like a “paint drop bloom” brush) to add gentle shading. Lighter pressure for subtle areas more pressure where you want it darker. You can also lower the brush opacity for control.
• Add a rounds of soft stamped splatters and spots in slightly different shades of blue each on its own clipping-mask layer so you can nudge them into place individually. Try changing one or two to Multiply blend mode for variation.
• Add a shadow underneath the whale and behind the fin using a watercolor-style brush softening any hard edges with the Smudge tool.
• Switch to a painting brush (a variegated-edge brush works to add a few darker linework strokes along the body for extra depth and use the Smudge tool to blend anything that looks too harsh.

Step 8: Finish the Background

• Fill in the sun with yellow on its layer then add an orange clipping-mask layer on top for gentle shading around the edges
• Add a warm peachy background color behind the water using a couple of soft stamps layering two or three shades so it doesn’t look flat
• Merge and blend the water/background layers together with a solid brush smoothing any seams with the Smudge tool
• Add a little extra dimension to the water with a soft paint-blob brush and a few darker shadow lines with the variegated-edge brush where the whale meets the water

 Step 9: Final Highlights

Almost there! On your layer:

• Add a few small white highlights wherever you want extra sparkle. The top of the water the spout the clouds
• Add a soft touch of pink for rosy cheeks. It’s a tiny detail but its what really makes him feel cut

And that’s it. Your cute little whale is finished!

 You Did It!

I hope this was a little project and that it showed you how a few simple shapes can turn into something really sweet with just a bit of extra detail and shading. If you drew along with me I’d love to see how yours turned out. Share it or tag me so I can see!

 If you enjoyed this tutorial don’t forget to grab the brushes and canvas in the Goodie Bag and check out a couple of my other beginner-friendly animal tutorials while you’re here:

• How to Draw a Butterfly, in Procreate
• How to Draw Tropical Fish in Procreate

Happy drawing. I’ll see you in the next one!