Cute Puffer Fish Drawing Tutorial

So cute, yet so deadly. Learn to draw this puffy little killer.

Friends! Who doesn’t love a good puffer fish! They’re cute to draw and deadly to eat… Yes, they get eaten in Japan despite their deadly toxins and are seen as a delicacy. Chefs have to train for 3 years to become licensed to serve up the big puff and even then, many people still die of puffer fish consumption each year.

Shocking I know!

But let me ask you this….

Would YOU try eating puffer fish? Let me know in the comments below.

Nicola xx

Ps: Don't forget all artwork on this site is original art created by me. I'd love you to recreate it and share your stuff on social, just remember to tag me @milansmischief (and no commercial resale allowed. Thanks!)

Puffer Fish Drawing Summary

A super easy summary of how to draw our cute puffer fish.

The Puffer Fish of Cuteness Slow Drawing Tute

Get the step by step how-to for drawing our cute puffer fish.

Step One: The Deadliest Blob Known to Man

Whether you see the Puffer Fish as a cute little dude… or as a tasty death taunting snack, it all starts off with a blob. Blob out the puffer my friend. Blob it out.

Sweet Tip: Don’t eat puffer fish….

Step Two: A Deadly Blob With Guidelines

Step two involves our beloved guidelines. This is where you can decide on the facial expressions of your puffer fish, fin size, whether it’s smiling or not etc… 

Just draw the guidelines faint enough to erase if you’re using pen and paper, or pop them on a seperate layer if you’re using a tablet.

Step Three: The Blob Can See

We’re really just following our guidelines here and making the eyes and the mouth stand out. 

I liked drawing the eyes bigger than the head for this puffer, but I think they would also look cool inside the head because that would emphasise the puffy-ness of our puffer friend here.

Step Four: The Blob Can Swim!

As you can see from our ever growing friend here, I erased the lines inside the eyes, added a couple of ‘stress flicks’ underneath them for character and stuck on a few scrappy fins.

The cool thing about drawing this cute puffer fish is that most people look at the spikes and so you can be really scrappy with the fins.

Step Five: The Blob Looks Startled…

All I did for this step was draw in the pupils inside the eyes and eyebrows. The pupils make SUCH a big difference. Don’t forget to add the white shiny bits in the middle.

Step Six: Beware the Blob Has Spikes!

All that was left was to draw the cool spikes. I also added a bit of ‘after-5-shadow’ aka bumpy bits around the mouth area and a few bubbles for fun.

Ooh… fab idea… why not draw the spikes super long! That would look epic, especially if you made the puffer black and evil looking. In fact… there is a species of puffer fish called the ‘Red Eyed Puffer’ which not only eats other fish, but also eats other puffers…. (gulp) 

Step Seven: The Puff is Complete

Huzzah! Our little puffy-d da fish is finito! (If you could read that sentence then you’re amazing btw)…

I colored my dude without any black outlines and used my tablet to fill him in with solid colors and add a few well placed shadows and highlights.

I hope you enjoyed this cute puffer fish drawing tutorial! Check out this fun tute on how to draw an owl addicted to coffee next!

As always, don’t forget to tage me on Insta @milansmischief so I can see your epic creations and let me know if you had fun in the comments below.

Nicola xx