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Watercolor sky whale tutorial

Whale hello there! Sorry about the pun, I love puns. I also love to paint with watercolors.

Do you ever get the urge to paint, yet, you don’t know what paint?

I often find myself in that situation. Sometimes I want the paints already sketched out for me so all I have to worry about is the coloring part.

Then, sometimes I get a flood of inspiration and can’t choose which idea to paint.

I know others find them in similar situations. So, I decided to create easy to follow watercolor paints with free downloads to the drawing. All you have to do is transfer the image to your watercolor paper.

You can get the free traceable template by simply signing up for my e-mail. You’ll be sent the password for the resource library once you confirm your e-mail, so be sure to check your junk mail. You can find the resource library in the top menu bar.

And, you can even use the same image as a coloring page! I like making things that can be multi-functional.

Sky Whale Painting

I’m a whimsical person. I adore fairy tales and fantasy. This Sky Whale makes me think of magical lands. A place where whales can fly.

I hope you like as much as I do.

It’s a fairly easy to follow watercolor tutorial. You are free to change the colors however you want. If you share it on social media please tag me (pibnksparkstudio) so I can see!

How to transfer your drawing to watercolor paper

There are several methods for transferring images.

One, is to cover the back of the image with charcoal and the trace it onto your watercolor paper.

Two, use a light drawing box of you have one.

Three, hold up your drawing behind your watercolor paper against a window when it’s light outside. This acts like a makeshift light box. This is the methods I use.

Watercolor Supplies

Paints

Watercolor Sky Whale Example 1

I found this painting of a watercolor Sky Whale to be really fun. I started making them in smaller sizes and playing with the color.

Happy sky whales is such a whimsical idea, to me. The world needs more innocent happy things.

In this tutorial I used

Step 1.)

This is the smaller version of the watercolor sky whale. The next example will of the full size version. You can find both of the printable in my resource library. Simply sign up for my e-mail list and the password will be sent to you. Make sure you check your junk e-mail folder.

I used masking tape to create a nice white border. I painted one with and without the white border. Both look good. I did use the masking tape on both to ensure clean lines.

Step 2.)

I used a mop brush because it holds so much water. I laid down paint in a sort of blotchy way to create texture.

Next, I used a paper towel to blot the paint to give more texture and interest. This creates a cloudy sky effect.

Step 3.)

I added yellow at the bottom. I pictures the sun low shining up on our happy little sky whale. You can add the yellow wherever in the sky will make you happy. I blend it to get a greenish look. I also continues to blot.

Step 4.)

Let your background sky dry completely before beginning this step to prevent bleeding.

Now, it’s time to paint the whale. The first thing I did was wet the whale. I used the wet-wet watercolor technique. You can read more about these techniques here.

Then, using my mop brush loaded with rose madder paint, I applies it to the whale. I went a bit heavy on the paint because of the next step.

Step 5.)

Time to create some fun texture. While your whale is still wet add some salt to areas you want some texture. I added kosher table salt to the entire whale. Bigger salt like kosher salt will create bigger spots and smaller salt such as table salt will create smaller spots.

Let your salt sit on the whale until the whale is completely dry.

Once your paint is dry simply brush the salt off and you’ll see the effects.

Now, you can leave it as is, or add more paint. I choose to add more paint, especially on the tail.

Step 6.)

Time to paint the clouds. I kept it simple because I’m going for a more illustrated/cartoonish look. I used a light blue to paint around the borders and that’s it. Pretty simple!

Step 7.)

Now, it’s time to have fun with some inking. I used Jane Davenport’s Finishing line pens. These pens are phenomenal, they come in four different tip variations and each variation has several size tips. They go like a dream and they are waterproof. I may start using these more than my micron pens.

Step 8.)

I added some shimmer paint from my Kuretake Gansai Tambi set. It’s hard to capture the effect with a photo, bur let me tell you, they add some really fun glittery shimmer effect.

If you found this tutorial helpful please buy me a coffee and help support this blog.

Watercolor Sky Whale Tutorial example 2

This is another fun color variation of the sky whale watercolor painting. I wanted to do two variations to show you the possibilities you have with this and any painting.