How to Draw Koi Fish

I have always been such a fish lover. When I was about seven, my dad brought home this BIG, old white bathtub, and with little help from my mom and us kids (me and my older sis), we have our very own fish pond right by our house with filter system, pump, gravel and all! We didn't have Koi fish back then. Just lots and lots of colorful guppies. Since then, I have loved nothing more than spending time chatting away by the pond in the evening every day.

After married, I had a medium-sized aquarium in our living room. This time, I picked several different types of fish and it was a lovely addition to our day-to-day living (of course, except when we had to change the dirty water). 

Still, my favorite type of fish will always be Koi. Chances are, I wouldn't have this massive pond with big, beautiful creatures swimming peacefully in it, but I absolutely love them.

So today, I'll teach you how to draw a koi fish.

**You will need: A device with a drawing app (ibispaint, Procreate, etc.)

Step 1: Sketch it out. 
Draw an oval with a tail.

Step 2,3: Draw a body line & add details 
Draw a line connecting the oval shape to the end of the tail. Try to get that curve line flow naturally, then add tail, fins, etc.

Step 4: Add in a light color
Start adding a light orange color. Make sure the color is light at this point. You can use any brushes of your choice. I use watercolor brush in this tutorial.

Step 5, 6: Add more layers of color with more intensity
In this step, add several more layers to the orange patches. You can use the same color with higher intensity. After that, pick a little darker shade for the edge of the fish's body. Also, add black patches on one or both fish.

Step 7: Add water

Choose the lightest shade of the color of your choice for water. I chose blue for water, so pick light shade of blue and paint around and under the fish using water color brush.

Step 8: Add a darker shade of blue

Add a darker shade of blue (or the color of your choice for water) using the same watercolor brush. Use "tap" motion (rather than "drag") to create a natural effect.

Step 9: Add shadow

Create a shadow effect for our koi fish by adding an even darker shade of blue right underneath the fish. Again, use the same watercolor brush, as well as the "tap" motion instead of dragging for a natural feel.

Tips: Adding another layer of an even darker blue on top will create a more realistic 3d effect. Make sure you color this layer a thinner line than the former layer.

Step 10: Add other details - water lily

You can't draw koi fish without water lily. Well, you can... but you know what I mean. 

Draw up some water lilies and leaves to your heart's content. There's no right or wrong here. Just make sure to add some shadow under them using the same method as step 9.

Step 11, 12: The accents
In this step, we will create some small details in sharp contrast with their surroundings by adding "movement lines" "bubbles" and "dots" using white color.

Step 13: Highlight

This is additional, but if you want your artwork to pop even more, add in a very bright blue (aqua) using the same watercolor brush loosely tap in. This is to create more details and depth for our eyes to feed on. 

There you have it. Your very own koi fish art! I hope you find this tutorial useful. Feel free to drop in feedback, thoughts, or just say hello. I would love to hear from you.

Until next time.

Stay safe.