How to Draw an Apple
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Draw a circle. Make it slightly wider than tall.
¿En cambio, dibujando en papel?
Enderezamos y limpiamos la foto para ti.
Sobre este dibujo
An apple is the classic first drawing for a reason, and it is not that it is easy. It is that an apple is the shortest possible route to understanding light, because it is round, it is a single colour, and it is sitting in your kitchen right now.
The drawing takes two minutes. The shading is the lesson.
Paso a paso
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Paso 1
Draw a circle. Make it slightly wider than tall.
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Paso 2
Dent the top in a little, and let the bottom sit slightly off-centre.
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Paso 3
Add a short stem from the dent, leaning to one side.
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Paso 4
Add a leaf off the stem - two curves meeting at a point.
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Paso 5
Mark where the light is coming from and outline the highlight. Do not shade inside it.
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Paso 6
Shade the far side dark, fading toward the light, and leave a lighter band at the very bottom edge. Done.
Lo que este te enseña realmente
This is the value lesson. Value - how light or dark a mark is - is what makes a drawing look three-dimensional, and it is the thing beginners skip because outlines feel like the real drawing.
The specific skill is the four-band ladder: highlight, mid tone, core shadow, reflected light. Once you can see those four bands on an apple you will see them on faces, cars and clouds.
Practicar: Line confidence Proportion Corners and joins
Lo que necesitas
A pencil is better than a pen here because the whole point is the range between light and dark. On the canvas, press harder for darker if your device supports it. And genuinely - go and get a real apple and put it under a lamp.
Si va mal
If your apple looks flat, you have shaded it evenly. Round things are never evenly lit: there is a bright spot, a mid tone, a dark band, and then a slightly lighter edge where light bounces back up off the table.
Leave the highlight white. Do not shade it and then try to erase it back out - erasing back to white almost never gets you back to clean paper, and the smudge is more obvious than the highlight would have been.
Shade in one direction rather than scrubbing back and forth. Scrubbing produces an even grey, which is exactly the thing making your apple look flat. Lay strokes in the same direction and build the darkness up in passes.
Do not outline the apple and then fill it in. A hard outline all the way round flattens anything - real edges disappear where the light hits them and get darker where the form turns away. Let the outline vary.
Imprimir los pasos
Llévenselo de la pantalla, la hoja de paso se imprime en una página.
Preguntas que la gente hace
- Why does my apple look flat?
- You shaded it evenly. Round objects need a clear light side and a dark side with a soft transition, plus a white highlight.
- Where should the highlight go?
- On the side facing your light source, slightly above the middle. Leave it completely untouched.
- What is the lighter band at the bottom edge?
- Reflected light bouncing off the table. It is what stops the apple looking stuck to the background.
- Do I need a real apple?
- It helps enormously. Any round fruit under a desk lamp will teach you more in five minutes than an hour of tutorials.
- Should the apple be symmetrical?
- No. Real apples lean and dent. A perfectly symmetrical one looks like a logo.
- How dark should the shadow be?
- Darker than you are comfortable with. Timid shading is the most common reason a drawing looks unfinished.
- Can I do this in pen?
- Yes, using hatching instead of smooth shading - more lines close together for the dark areas.
- What should I draw after this?
- The same apple again from a different angle, then a mug. Both drill the same skill.