How to Draw an Apple

The shape of an apple is fairly easy to draw but shading an apple with color variations can get tricky. If you are a beginner artist and want to draw an apple for practice consider using an apple that is of a solid color and with a fairly smooth shape before experimenting further.

Though an apple is generally not that complicated to draw there is still quite a bit to it if you want to have a properly shaded refined drawing. This tutorial explains how to draw an apple step by step.

Step 1 – Apple Basic Shape

Start drawing the apple by drawing an outline of its overall shape. In this case it’s basically a circle.

Step 2 – Apple Sketch

Inside the circle sketch out the basic shape of the apple.



Step 3 – Apple Shape Details

Inside the shape of the apple you can lightly indicate any smaller variations such as bumps and curves.

At this point you can also add some light shading to indicate where the shaded areas are.

In this case the light source is located towards the top left of the picture and slightly behind the apple.

You can also add a drop shadow to make it appear that the apple is actually sitting on a surface.

Shadows are cast directly opposite the light source so in this case the shadow will be the bottom right of the picture facing towards the viewer.


The drop shadow for this particular example will be darker towards the object and will sort of dissolve as it goes farther out.


Step 4 – Apple Shading

Refine your shading by creating gradients from the darker areas that are away from the light towards the lit ones.

Keep in mind that if the apple has color variations in it then there may be lighter areas within the shaded ones that are simple cause by the color variations and not just the light and shadows.

This makes drawing the apple a little tricky. You have to compare the light color areas that are lit to the light color areas that are shaded. The same goes for darker areas.


So for example if you have an apple that is red and green the green in the shadows may still be lighter then the red in the light. Shade accordingly.


Another idea

Real picture

Sketch