How To Draw Grapes

Learning how to draw grapes is an easy subject to practice your artistic skills using curved lines. Creating realistic pencil drawings can be accomplished by adding shadows and highlights. In this how-to-draw grapes drawing tutorial, I will share my drawing techniques so your pencil drawings will pop off the drawing surface.

Grapes come in various shapes, sizes, and colors, making them a fun subject for artists to paint and draw.

Some grapes are more round, while others have more oval shapes, making drawing grapes a top choice for artists when creating still-life artwork.

Learning to draw grapes is similar to learning to draw an apple.

But it is different than learning how to draw a strawberry or how to draw an orange.

The skin of apples and grapes is smooth.

Strawberries and oranges have dimples.

Light reacts differently to a smooth surface versus a dimpled surface.

While this drawing tutorial will demonstrate how to add shadows and highlights for a realistic drawing, it can also be a fun exercise for kids.

Kids can learn how to draw the contour of the grapes and color it with crayons or colored pencils.

I encourage all children to have fun with their creative minds.

I recommend using a reference image of grapes for your grape drawing.

I use Pixabay for reference images for most of my tutorials.

Pixabay offers stunning free images and royalty-free stock, which you can use for practicing your art skills.

For my original drawings, I get most of my images at Wildlife Reference Photos or commissioned jobs.

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Reference for this drawing tutorial image courtesy of Pixabay

Drawing Supplies

Below is a list of all the materials I use for my drawings. I purchase all of my drawing supplies online at Blick Art Materials.

Drawing Paper

Strathmore Bristol Smooth Paper Review

Blending

Pencils

Value Finder

Gray Scale and Value Finder

Erasers

Extras

How To Draw Grapes Step By Step

Lightly draw the grapes outline using a Tombow Mono HB Pencil on a 5″ x 7″ piece of Strathmore Series Bristol Board Smooth.

You can create the drawing larger or smaller if you wish. But if you draw the grapes too small, you will find it difficult to add subtle value changes and details to the drawing.

Drawing Tip: The proportions of the subject you are drawing must be accurate if your goal is to draw a realistic drawing. The grid method to sketch the subject will help keep the proportions accurate.

Drawing grapes can be a challenge because there are multiple numbers of grapes overlapping one another, and the shapes will vary depending on how they are facing.

You can also use this to practice sketching grapes to enhance your sketching skills.

Note: The lines in the drawing below are darker than I usually sketch for my drawings.

I only outlined the darker grapes in this drawing tutorial so that you can see them better in this post.

Sketching the subject lightly will make it easier to erase the subject’s outline after you have added the shading.

Nothing in life has a line around it.

If you are trying to create realistic drawings, you want to create a form and separate planes with values, not outlines.

Values are the different shades you will be drawing with your graphite pencil.

Sketch The Grapes

Start by sketching the stem and grapes outline.

The shapes are going to vary depending on how they are facing. Some will have more of an oval shape, while others will have more of a round shape.

Drawing Tips – Sketch the grapes lightly to erase the guidelines later quickly.

Keep in mind that you will adjust the drawing as you go along. This is just a rough sketch at this point.

Draw two parallel lines for the stem and follow the curves of the stem from your reference image.

Continue drawing the grapes and refer back to your reference image for the shapes of the grapes.

To draw a realistic drawing, you must add value to the grapes.

To learn more, visit Drawing Tips For Realistic Drawings – The Elements Of Shading.

At this point, you could give your child the contour drawing of the grapes to color.

Shade The Grapes

Shading the grapes will create a three-dimensional illusion and make the grapes pop off the drawing surface.

Before you add value to your drawing, stand back to think about what you will be drawing.

Identify the direction from which the light is coming and where the darkest values are on the grapes.

Is there a cast shadow?

A cast shadow is a shadow that is cast from an object or figure. The cast shadow varies in value and is not a solid shape. The closer the cast shadow is to 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 your 2H pencil to the darkest area of the grapes.

Drawing Tip: Using a 2H pencil, 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. Start applying graphite with your HB pencil when you can not get any more value from your 2H pencil. If the area is still not dark enough, continue with your 2B pencil.

Work from dark to light and follow the contour of the grapes.

Begin each line from the darkest area and draw towards the lighter areas reducing the pressure as you go, and lightly lift the pencil off the paper to feather the line to white.

Start by adding graphite to the darkest areas. Keep looking at your reference photo to identify where the darkest darks are.

Don’t worry about adding too much detail at this point. The objective is only to add value to the darkest areas.

Build up tone gradually on the other dark areas of the grapes.

Always work from dark to light and keep the lines going in the same direction as the grapes.

You can see that the grapes in the image above start taking form by adding some value to the dark areas.

Drawing Tip: lightly remove some graphite from the outline of the grapes with your kneaded eraser. This will help you blend in the lines so you will not see a dark contour outline. Remember, nothing in life has a line around it. Erase any lines you do not want with your Tombow Mono Zero Refillable Eraser.

Next start working on one grape at a time. Draw each grape as if you were drawing an apple.

How to draw vines:

Start adding graphite to the lower section of the grapevine.

Gradually lighten up the value as you go towards the top of the vine.

Connect some grapes with the vine. Add a highlight where the vine connects to the grape.

Tap off some graphite to lighten up some areas the light is hitting.

Use the kneaded eraser to create the highlights.

Look at your reference image to see how the light creates highlights on each grape.

Drawing Tip:

A bunch of grapes drawing will look more realistic if the grapes on top of the bunch are lighter than the ones underneath them.

The grapes will get darker the further they are from the top.

Use a blending stump to blend the values.

Finish the drawing by balancing the lines that separate the different grapes.

Drawing grapes is an excellent practice if you plan on drawing portraits. The smooth value changes on the green grapes drawing are similar to an infant portrait.

How To Draw Grapes

Drawing Supplies

How To Draw Grapes Step By Step

Sketch The Grapes

Shade The Grapes

More Drawing Tutorials

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Where To Start

Drawing Supplies

How To Draw Grapes Step By Step

Sketch The Grapes

Shade The Grapes

More Drawing Tutorials

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