Let’s dive into the amazing deep sea of painting watercolor jellyfish. Perfect for both beginners and seasoned artists, this step-by-step guide will help you create beautiful, colorful jellyfish in just 7 easy steps. Grab your brushes and let’s bring these enchanting sea creatures to life on paper!
Let’s Talk About It!
Gather Your Materials
Having the right materials for this exciting adventure into the sea of jellyfish is the best place to start.
The Basics
I always choose cold-pressed watercolor paper. I love the raised texture and how it adds to the paintings themselves. There is a lot of wet-on-wet usage for this painting, and I like to think cold-pressed is best for that technique.
As far as your paints, my choice is pan paints or tube paints, but I usually steer towards the pan. Remember to activate your pan paints with a mist of water to “wake them up”!
For this tutorial, I used my #2 and #8 round paint brushes. They are my go-to for painting and that is all I pretty much use!
Don’t forget your rinse water cups. I keep two with me at all times. One for rinsing and one for clean water when I need it. With all of that paint and water, you will need paper towels or cloths. If you watch me paint, I sometimes have a paper towel in one hand and paint brush in the other.
Other Optional Supplies
You will want to have a #2 or smaller, micro pen that is waterproof. If you choose to add some extra elements to your tentacles, this will work perfectly.
Another optional supply is white gouache. This will give some added highlights to those tentacles as well. It is up to you how you want your finished composition to look, but these are great additions.
Choose Your Color Palette
With any composition you watercolor, choosing your palette beforehand saves time and often time, frustration.
Single Colors
If you want your watercolor jellyfish to have only one color, choose bright, fun hues. You can use a gradient with one color always starting from light to the darkest value.
Two Or More Colors
Choose analogous colors for each watercolor jellyfish. Try them on scrap watercolor paper first to make sure you like the combination.
For this tutorial, I used six colors:
Jellyfish #1: Pink and purple
Jellyfish #2: Orange and red
Jellyfish #3: Green and blue
Since we all have different color palettes in our pan or tube paints, this is where you will need to find the right hues that work well together. Experimenting is always best to know your options.
To learn more about analogous colors, you can read more on my post about color theory and the color wheel!
Outline Your Watercolor Jellyfish
Think of what a jellyfish hood looks like. It’s kind of like a mushroom top-like shape. If you need to lightly sketch it first, go right ahead!
After Outlining
Once you outlined your watercolor jellyfish hood, it is time to fill in the rest of it. One note of advice: for the bottom part that circles the back, you want to leave it open because your tentacles will be coming down. See the reference photo below.
With a clean wet, but not dripping wet, brush, pull the color from the outline and bring it in towards the center to give that first light color wash. You always want to start your first wash with the lightest value and that means more water to paint ratio.
Adding Darker Value
Once you lay your first wash of that light value, while the paint is still wet, grab more of that same color. This time you want more paint than water to drop in that wet wash.
Only add to one side of the hood, leaving some lighter value on the left side, but you will also want to go over the bottom of the front of the hood to darken that area to give depth. See the image below for more details.
Adding Your Analogous Colors
Now is when you add more interest to your watercolor jellyfish hood.
Working Quickly
While your first wash is still wet, grab your analogous color and dot it in the darker areas of the hood of the jellyfish. It should play nicely with the first color and create such an interesting effect to bring out the vibrancy of the jellyfish.
Don’t Overdo It
Be sparing with your second color to not overpower the first one. You want this to be a highlight to your jellyfish and not a muddied version of the two.
Use that second color to also outline the base of the front of the hood. Use a damp clean brush to smooth them both together.
Now it’s time to let that watercolor jellyfish dry and move on to your other two (if you are making three) and do the same thing for those as well. I like to work in odd numbers, as to why I painted three because one was not enough!
Paint A Wash For Your Tentacles
Now that the first top part of your jellyfish is dry, let’s get started on the background of the tentacles.
Basic Wash
A basic wash is simply a very watered-down version of your main color. You want the lightest value possible and you will squiggle your brush down to create background tentacles. Feel free to add that analogous color as well, but keep it light!
Why Drying Is Important
You want this wash to completely dry before moving on to the next step. If you paint your main tentacles on too early, they will bleed out and may not give you the desired effect you were after.
Don’t worry though, if you are painting three jellyfish, by the time you get to the last one, your first one should be all but dry.
Paint The Tentacles
Since you let your tentacle wash dry completely, you can start making those ribbon-like tendrils!
Length Of The Tentacles
Whenever you paint any sort of tendrils, trees, buildings, etc. you want them to be of different lengths and sizes. It is so easy to automatically draw or paint things in a straight row, like toy soldiers, but this should be a no-no in your mind.
Taking your first color, paint ribbon-like strokes downward. They can crisscross or go straight down. No matter what, I suggest they all end up in a downward position.
Layer Your Colors
If you used only one color, then make sure your tentacles have different values. Some light, some medium, and some dark.
If you used more than one color, layer them over top of each other, crisscrossing and intertwining. See the reference photo below.
Added Features To Your Watercolor Jellyfish
Adding more than one type of medium to your watercolors brings out more interest and more fun!
Micro Pen
With a fine waterproof black (or whatever color you want), draw some thin tendrils coming down. Please note: make sure your painting is completely dry before adding any other medium.
White Gouache
Adding some white gouache to your tentacles to add highlights will give you light value and even sparkle if you dot it here and there. If you don’t have white gouache, you can use Bleed-Proof White or a white gel pen.
Now that you have your watercolor jellyfish completed, you can add a blue water wash to the background or keep them as is. It’s your painting, and you do you!
Be sure to share your watercolor jellyfish on social media with your friends and family. You could also make greeting cards with your paintings or make some bookmarks for the avid reader in your life. Whatever you do, I would love to see your creations! Join me on Facebook!
