Learning how to draw a banana is an easy subject to practice your artistic skills using simple curved lines. Creating realistic banana pencil drawings can be accomplished by adding shadows and highlights to the banana.
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How to Draw a Realistic Banana Tutorial
Bananas come in various sizes, and colors make them a fun subject for artists to paint and draw.
The skin of bananas is smooth while strawberries and oranges have dimples. This is important to know because light reacts differently to a smooth surface versus a dimpled surface.
While this banana drawing tutorial will demonstrate how to add shadows and highlights for a realistic drawing, it can also be a simple exercise for kids.
Kids can learn how to draw the banana’s contour and color it with crayons or colored pencils.
Reference image courtesy of Pixabay.
Drawing Supplies For This Banana Drawing
- Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Board Pads 9″ x 12″ Velum
- Loew-Cornell Blending Stumps
- Tombow Mono Professional Drawing Pencil
- General’s Factis Magic Black Eraser
- Tombow Mono Zero Refillable Eraser
- Prismacolor Kneaded Rubber Erasers
Step 1 Draw A Banana Outline
Lightly draw the banana outline using a Tombow Mono HB Pencil on a 5″ x 7″ piece of Strathmore Series Bristol Board.
Drawing Tip: The proportions of the banana have to be accurate if your goal is to draw a realistic banana. Using the grid method to sketch out the banana will help you to keep the proportions accurate or you can also use this as a practice for sketching bananas to enhance your sketching skills.
Note: The lines in the drawing below are darker than what I normally sketch so you can see them better on this post.
Sketching the subject lightly will make it easier to erase the outline of the banana after you have added the shading.
Start by drawing a curve for the bottom of the banana.
Draw a curve for the top of the banana.
Sketch the cut stalk of the banana.
Sketch in the sections of the banana skin.
The last step is to sketch the shadow.
Step 2 Shade The Banana
Shading the banana will create a three-dimensional illusion and make the banana pop off the drawing surface.
How do you shade a banana?
Identify which direction the light is coming from and where the darkest values are on the banana.
Is there a cast shadow?
A cast shadow is a shadow that casts from an object or figure. The cast shadow varies in value and is not a solid shape. The closer the cast shadow is from an object, the darker it will be. The farther the cast shadow is from an object, the lighter and less defined it will be.
Drawing Tip: The darkest part of an object is where the light does not hit.
Start by adding value with a 2H lead to the darkest area of the banana and follow the contour.
Drawing Tip: Using a 2H pencil first will condition the paper and add graphite to the bottom of the tooth on your drawing paper. This will prevent the little white dots you will get if you start with a softer lead. When you can not get any more value, start applying graphite with your HB pencil. If the area is still not dark enough, continue with your 2B.
Begin each line from the darkest area and draw towards the lighter areas reducing the pressure as you go. Lightly lift the pencil off the paper to feather the line to white.
Keep looking at your reference photo to identify where the darkest darks are.
Don’t worry about adding to much detail at this point. The objective is to only add value to the darkest areas.
Step 3 Draw The Dark Areas Of The Cut Stalk
Drawing Tip: Do not draw the dark areas of the cut stalk too dark at this point. If you draw it too dark everything else will have to adjust accordingly. You can always darken the darker areas as you go along.
Step 4 Add Graphite To The Darkest Areas Of The banana skin.
Drawing Tip: Make sure that there are no spaces between the lines you are drawing. Fill in any spaces you miss as you go along.
Step 5 Blend
Drawing Tip: Work from dark to light and do not press too hard with the blending stump. You could damage the tooth of the drawing surface if you press too hard making it impossible to add more graphite to the drawing surface.
Continue to add more value to the skin of the banana. Keep referring back to the reference image to see where the darker values are.
Step 6 Draw The Shadow
Next, you will want to draw in the shadow to give the drawing a three-dimensional illusion.
Drawing Tips: The darkest area of the shadow will be against the banana. The value will lighten up slightly the farther the shadow is from the banana.
Final Thoughts On Banana Drawing
Learning how to draw a banana or any fruit is easy if you know where to start. Drawing tutorials like this one will show you how to draw the shape of the fruit and how to add value to create a realistic banana on a two-dimensional surface.
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