How to Draw a Mushroom in 8 Steps

by easydrawingtips

This tutorial shows how to draw a mushroom in eight steps. Its main focus is on line drawing, but there is also some basic coloring.

You can see the included steps in the preview image above. Overall, the tutorial is quite easy with just enough detail to create a nice-looking drawing.

It’s recommended that you start in pencil and make light lines that you can easily erase, as you will need to do so in some of the steps. You can darken them once you have everything outlined.

Supplies Needed for This Mushroom Drawing

Regular HB Graphite Pencil: For the initial line drawing.
White Paper: Drawing paper or standard printer paper.
Eraser: A regular eraser is fine, but a kneaded eraser can also be useful.
Fine-Point Black Marker (recommended): For getting black outlines similar to those shown in the examples.
Colored Pencils or Paints (recommended): Good, easy coloring options.
Drawing Tablet and Digital Software (alternative): Allows for easy black outlines and solid colors similar to the examples.

Step 1 – Outline the Mushroom Cap

Begin with an outline of the mushroom cap. Give it a rounded top and just a slightly rounded bottom.

As the mushroom in this example is fairly symmetrical (although not perfectly so), you can optionally draw a straight vertical line to help you see if both halves are close in width and shape.

Step 2 – Draw the Bottom of the Cap

In this case, the drawing is done as though the eye level is slightly underneath the cap so its bottom is visible. Viewed at this angle, the bottom will appear as a very narrow oval. Draw it as shown in the example.

For more on eye level, see the following tutorial:

Perspective Drawing Tutorial for Beginners

Mushroom cap horizontal guide line drawing

You can, once again, draw a guide line (this time a horizontal one) to help you add this part of the mushroom. If you choose to do so, erase it once done with this step.

Step 3 – Draw the Stem

Erase a section of the cap’s outline and add the mushroom stem. You can define its shape with just a pair of wavy lines. Make the stem wider towards its lower half and then narrower again at the very bottom.

Make the stem’s outline just a tiny bit wider on the right so that the drawing is not perfectly symmetrical. If you chose to draw the center line earlier, you can erase it once done with this step.

Step 4 – Draw the Foreground Grass

To make things a little more interesting, add some blades of grass around the mushroom. Start by placing some in front of it and to the sides.

Try to make each blade slightly different in shape so that the drawing looks more organic. Also, try to draw the grass in a way where it fans out as it goes up.

For drawing other types of plants, see:

Draw a Cactus in a Plant Pot Step by Step

Step 5 – Draw the Background Grass

Add some more blades of grass in between and behind the previous set.

For a nicer-looking drawing, try to distribute the grass fairly evenly on both sides of the mushroom, but at the same time, try not to make it look too symmetrical. Give each blade a slightly different shape and length.

Step 6 – Draw the Spores

Add a hint of spores to the inner bottom part of the mushroom cap. Draw the lines that define these to be pointing more downward near the center and more towards the sides as they move away from it. Also, generally, draw them farther apart near the middle and closer together near the sides. This will help show the curvature of the mushroom cap.

Step 7 – Add the Stem Details & Finish the Line Drawing

Give the stem some texture by drawing a few broken-up lines running along its shape. Similar to the spores, place these farther apart near the center and closer together near the sides. This will, once again, help show the curvature of the mushroom’s shape.

Step 8 – Color the Mushroom

For the last step, give the mushroom some very basic color and shading. However, before coloring, outline a little highlight along the side of its cap as shown in the example above. You can either do this in the same color that you will use for the cap or lightly in regular pencil.

In this case, the cap will be brown with a darker brown for its inner bottom. You can at first leave the highlight white, and then go over it with a lighter brown.

Make the stem a light yellow-brown with a little shadow on its upper part (cast by the mushroom cap). Use a lighter and a darker green for the grass. You can generally make the blades further in the background darker and the ones in the foreground lighter. This will create a slight sense of depth.

Conclusion

This simple tutorial shows how you can create a very nice-looking drawing (in this case, of a mushroom) without complex details or shading, and by using only a few colors. This type of a tutorial can be particularly good if you are a beginner, as it can help you make a drawing that is not overly stylized but also not too difficult to create.

Hopefully you’ve found the detailed step-by-step breakdown helpful.

For more similar tutorials, also see the following: