How to Draw a Milk Carton Step by Step

by easydrawingtips

This tutorial shows how to draw a carton of milk in 6 steps. It provides easy-to-follow, illustrated examples and quick drawing instructions.

In this example, the milk carton is drawn in a 3/4 view and in two-point perspective. The tutorial is beginner-friendly and can be done by following the provided illustrations. However, if you are not familiar with perspective drawing, you may also want to look at:

Perspective Drawing Tutorial for Beginners

Because the artwork consists of a lot of straight lines, you can optionally use a ruler to help create them. However, if you want to improve as an artist, it’s better to try and draw without one.

Be sure to start the drawing in pencil and to make light lines that you can erase without them leaving marks (for easy corrections). Darken them once you’ve added all parts of the carton and feel that everything looks right.

Supplies Needed for This Milk Carton Drawing

Regular HB Graphite Pencil: For the initial line drawing and shading.
White Paper: Drawing paper or standard printer paper.
Eraser: A regular vinyl or rubber eraser.
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, straight lines, and solid colors similar to the examples.

Step 1 – Draw the Side of the Milk Carton

Milk carton front drawing — Milk carton side drawing

Begin by drawing the side of the carton. Its bottom is shaped like a rectangle and the top like a triangle. As the carton is being viewed on an angle, draw the lines that define the top and bottom of the rectangle and the bottom of the triangle on an angle as well.

When drawing the top and bottom lines, also make sure that they are NOT parallel but instead are angled slightly towards one another as they go into the background so that if you were to extend them, they would eventually come together at the vanishing point.

Milk carton front perspective drawing — Milk carton side perspective drawing

Above is an illustration with the perspective lines for the carton’s side (shown in blue).

Please note that you do not need to actually draw these, and you probably won’t have enough room on your page to do so anyway. The example is simply meant to help you gain a better understanding of what the artwork is based on.

Step 2 – Draw the Front

Milk carton side drawing — Milk carton front drawing

Draw the front of the carton, again starting with a rectangle similar to the one drawn for the front.

Milk carton side perspective drawing — Milk carton front perspective drawing

The rectangle should again have angled lines for its top and bottom that will join if you extend them far back enough. The vanishing point that they join at should be on the same level (the eye level/horizon line) as the one for the other rectangle.

Next, add the little roof-like section on top of the rectangle. The line that defines it’s top should go towards the second vanishing point.

Again, you do not need to draw the perspective lines; the examples are just meant to show you what to aim for.

Step 3 – Draw the Top

For this short step, add the seal at the top of the carton.

Again, this should be drawn in perspective so that its top line points towards the second vanishing point.

You can first draw the seal with just straight lines and then round off its corners.

Step 4 – Draw the Fold

Add a line that helps show that the side of the carton is folded inward at the top. Once done, you should have a finished outline of the milk carton’s main shape.

Step 5 – Finish the Line Drawing

With the main shape of the carton defined, add a label area along its front and side as shown in the above example.

You can estimate the angle of the lines that define the label by yet again aiming them towards their respective vanishing points.

Once you are done drawing the label, trace over your drawing with darker lines, as was mentioned at the start of the tutorial. To create these, either press harder on the pencil or use a fine-point black marker.

Step 6 – Color the Milk Carton

Finally, you can shade and color the carton. You can also optionally add the word “Milk” to it, as shown in the example.

To add the text, first project a couple more lines to help you space the letters from the edges of the label. Make these very light (barely visible). The example lines have been made darker just so that it’s easier for you to see them. Also, try and draw the lines so that they again obey the perspective rules and are aimed at the second vanishing point.

Once done, write “Milk” in between them (again in very light pencil lines). These lines will then act as guides that you can color around to create the white text. Be sure to try and keep the thickness of the letters fairly even throughout when doing so.

Please note that the above only applies if you are drawing on paper. If drawing digitally, you can simply add the letters over the label color.

For the actual colors, you can make the carton a light yellow/brown and the label blue.

To make the carton look a little more three-dimensional, add some basic shading. This example is done as though the light is coming from the upper right. Therefore, a shadow falls along the carton’s side. To show this, make it slightly darker than the front. Also shade the upper area of the part that is folded in to be even darker, as less light tends to reach areas that are more closed off.

The shading can be added by going over the color with a regular pencil. If using paints, you can add some brown or black into the yellow.

Conclusion

This tutorial shows how to draw a milk carton in two-point perspective with beginner-friendly, easy-to-follow, step-by-step examples and instructions.

As milk cartons have fairly simple shapes, they can be great for practicing the basics of perspective drawing. At the same time, they are still real-world objects and can be more interesting than even simpler shapes like rectangles or cubes.

For more similar tutorials, also see: