How to Draw a Tomato
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Begin with the big shape.
It should fill most of the page with a margin all round.
Drawing on paper instead?
We straighten and clean up the photo for you. Paper counts exactly the same.
About this drawing
A tomato is a squashed sphere with shoulders: wider than tall, gently lobed around the top, wearing a green star-shaped calyx whose points curl UP off the surface. The lobes are stated by the outline's shallow bumps and by nothing else - shading them individually is how tomatoes turn into pumpkins.
Like every simple form on this site, it is one mass plus value: block it in, break the outline where the real thing does, then let light do the rest.
Step by step
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Step 1
Begin with the big shape.
One shape, one motion. A slightly lopsided mass drawn confidently beats a perfect one assembled from nervous strokes, because you can correct a shape and you cannot un-see hesitation.
Watch out Building the mass from many small safe strokes.
Check It should fill most of the page with a margin all round.
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Step 2
Make the silhouette uneven.
Nothing organic is a perfect oval. Push the outline in and out where the subject actually does - the asymmetry IS the likeness.
Watch out Leaving the construction oval as the finished outline.
Check The outline should differ visibly from the oval underneath.
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Step 3
Draw a cross through the middle.
Two light lines through the middle are the rulers for everything that follows. Without them the features drift off-centre a few millimetres at a time.
Watch out Skipping the axes because the shape looks simple.
Check The two lines should cross near the middle of the mass.
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Step 4
Draw the top feature.
Whatever sits on top attaches INTO the form, not onto its outline - it comes out of a dip or a mound, and drawing that junction is what attaches it.
Watch out Balancing the stalk on the outline like a hat.
Check The top feature should overlap the mass's outline.
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Step 5
Draw the top hollow.
The hollow around the top is what makes the form read as having a top rather than an edge. One curve, and note which way it bows - it tells the viewer where their eye is.
Watch out Omitting the dip so the top sits on a flat line.
Check The dip should curve, not sit flat.
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Step 6
Decide the light source now.
Pick a direction and commit. Every decision from here - shading, highlight, cast shadow - follows from this one, and changing your mind halfway is the classic way a drawing ends up lit from two directions.
Watch out Deferring the decision and shading by instinct.
Check You should be able to point at the light source.
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Step 7
Add tone on the shadow side.
Work in one direction and build darkness in passes. Scrubbing back and forth gives an even grey - precisely the thing that makes a drawing look flat.
Watch out Scrubbing, and stopping two steps short of dark enough.
Check The dark side should be clearly darker than the mid tone.
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Step 8
Add the bounced light.
Leave a thin lighter strip right at the shadow-side edge - bounced light from the surface below. It is the single cheapest thing that makes a form read as round.
Watch out Running the shading tight to the outline.
Check A lighter line should separate shading from edge.
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Step 9
Draw the highlight where the light hits.
One highlight, small, off-centre on the lit side. Two symmetrical highlights read as plastic; a big one reads as wet.
Watch out A large or doubled highlight.
Check The highlight should be smaller than your thumbnail.
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Step 10
Add the surface marks that say tomato.
Surface marks follow the form - they curve over the mass and fade near the highlight. Flat marks cancel the volume you just shaded into it.
Watch out Marks drawn flat across the curved surface.
Check Marks should bend with the surface.
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Step 11
Draw the shadow underneath.
Darkest at the contact point, softer as it stretches away from the light. It anchors the object; without it everything you shaded still floats.
Watch out An even grey puddle not touching the object.
Check The shadow should touch the object's base.
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Step 12
Go over the keepers and erase the guides.
Weight the silhouette, erase the axes and the oval, and leave the interior marks light. The weight difference is what makes it look deliberate.
Watch out Equal weight everywhere.
Check Outline darkest, marks lightest, guides gone.
What it looks like finished
The same drawing with every guide erased and only the lines you meant to keep, at the weight you meant them to be. If yours still has centre lines and blocking-in shapes in it, this is the step you have not done yet - and it takes about thirty seconds.
Yours will not look like this, and it is not supposed to. This is the construction with the scaffolding taken away, not a drawing somebody made to be admired - the point is to show you which of your lines were guides.
What this one actually teaches you
What transfers is the standard light kit - core shadow inside the edge, bounced light at it, one small highlight, a cast shadow that anchors. Every shaded form you ever draw uses all four.
The tomato draws the line between silhouette information and surface information: its lobes live entirely in the outline while the shading stays spherical. Knowing which channel a fact belongs in is the drawing decision this fruit exists to teach.
Practise these: Line confidence Proportion Value range
What you need
Anything that makes a mark. On paper, press lightly for the first few steps - most of what you draw early is scaffolding you will erase.
If it's going wrong
If it reads as an apple, it is too tall: a tomato is clearly wider than high, with its weight sitting low.
If it reads as a pumpkin, you shaded the lobes: state them only as shallow bumps in the top outline and shade the fruit as ONE sphere.
If the calyx lies flat, curl it: the green points lift off the fruit's surface, each casting a sliver of shadow beneath itself.
Print the steps
Take it away from the screen. The step sheet prints on one page.
Questions people ask
- How do I draw the top of a tomato?
- Shallow lobed bumps in the outline, a green star-shaped calyx with points curling up off the surface, and a short thick stem. The lobes live in the outline only - shade the fruit as one sphere.
- Why does my tomato look like a pumpkin?
- You shaded the lobes as segments. A tomato's lobes are outline information; its surface shades as a single smooth sphere.
- What proportions does a tomato have?
- Wider than tall - roughly five wide to four high - with the weight sitting low. A tall tomato reads as an apple wearing the wrong hat.
- Can I draw a tomato on paper instead of the canvas?
- Yes, and for a shading lesson paper is arguably better - a soft pencil gives you more range than a finger on glass. The printable sheet has every step, and a photographed result is measured the same way.
- How do I start drawing a tomato?
- One oval, drawn in a single motion, then correct the silhouette where the real thing differs. The oval is scaffolding, not the outline.
- How do I shade a tomato?
- Pick a light direction and commit, shade in one direction in passes, keep the darkest band just inside the edge, and leave one small off-centre highlight.
- Why does my tomato look flat?
- Almost certainly range - no true dark anywhere and no untouched light left on the page. Go two steps darker than feels safe and leave the highlight alone.
- Can a beginner draw a tomato?
- Yes - it is deliberately one of the simpler forms here, chosen so the shading can be the whole lesson.
- Does a tomato need a cast shadow?
- Yes, always. Without one the form floats on the page however carefully you shaded it. Darkest at the contact point, softer as it stretches away.