How to Draw Realistic Mushrooms

how to draw a mutant creature, mutant concept

Step 1.

Sketch the two curved vertical lines for the mushrooms. Lightly draw this with a No.2 or HB pencil. Make sure you draw it as seen in the picture.

Step 2.

Sketch lightly the two oblong red shapes for the mass of the mushroom caps.

Step 3.

Don't remind me... it looks like a misaligned basketball mimicking a football. *giggle* Go ahead and draw in those curved lines. They're not perfectly matching so watch closely where they "V" together.

Step 4.

You can draw in the two curved lines in the first oblong shape. Don't forget to add the half circle to the second oblong shape. The reason for these lines are for direction of pattern and easier placement.

Step 5.

Now draw in the first mushrooms cap and stem with shadow lines.

Step 6.

I made this step separate to enable you to focus on the scale pattern. Those guidelines should help you with the curved direction of this design. You don't need to be perfect with their shape.

Step 7.

Now draw in the second mushroom's cap and stem. Make sure you get that cute curvy umbrella-like overhang of the cap and the ring around the stem.

Step 8.

We are almost done. There is a reason why those curved lines didn't seem to center. The stem included allows the gills to show off like the Ringling Bros. Circus tent. Look at the direction of the guidelines to help with placement. NOTE: I didn't draw as many gills as the reference picture had. I downplayed them to lessen confusion and messiness.

Step 9.

I made this line drawing especially for you if you don't want to do the pencil shading and blending part. Otherwise, let us continue to the pencil drawing part.

Step 10.

Here is the outline done with a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. Look closely and see if your lines look something like this. You can erase if certain areas like the eyes or nose don't line up. Take you kneaded eraser and dab off the shadow outlines or dark lines with your kneaded eraser for a more realistic look as you shade. Shading transition from dark to light (or visa versa) should be smooth... no harsh lines. Be patient with this, it's not as complicated as you may think. As you do more pictures, this will come easier to you.

Step 11.

This time Acrylics has won! Sandpaper, the new kid on the block has to take a back seat to my wonderful Titanium White or Opaque White Watercolors for HIGHLIGHTS! Yaaaa! Try it, you'll like it!

Step 12.

The picture that goes with this step shows two different ways to hold your pencil to acquire certain effects. OVERHAND: Holding a sharpened pencil in normal writing form with fingers in the middle or near the lead gives you great control and thin/detailed strokes. UNDERHAND: Holding the pencil at a 45 degrees or near level to the table with end of pencil under your palm with pencil on the flat side, gives you large shading coverage. With the No.2 pencil, you have the exposed lead side to shade with. But for a wider swath, use that Cretacolor Monolith graphite pencil with no wood casing. The whole sharpened portion is all lead, like in the step's picture. Practice the toning values to help you with control.

Step 13.

Special Effects! How in the world do you create those scales and gills on the mushrooms? The secret is in how you hold the pencil and the type of pencil's edge, which is explained in the following step. Look at the different effects in this step. Practice these strokes and see the difference.

Step 14.

CUBE, BALL, CONE, & CYLINDER -- These are shapes everywhere in nature. It helps to know how to shade, add texture, etc. Recognizing these shapes, simplifies the landscape or subject you're looking at. TONE, SHADING, SHADOW, & TEXTURE -- Tone is the actual color, shading is the part of object away from light, shadow is cast by the object, & texture is the rough, smooth, hilly, sharp, bushy, etc., feel or appearance of an object.

Step 15.

You can use your rubber kneaded eraser for reflective lights on the sides of the mushroom caps and stems, within the scale areas of the first mushroom, within the gills of the second mushroom and on the stems. Remember that the reflective light area isn't pure white--it is at middle tone. Your blending tools add a smoother tone to your drawing...tissue or toilet paper adds even tones to large areas and lightens or picks up a lot of the pencil work. Blending stumps or tortillons blend smaller areas, which I used on the mushrooms and background. And if you have enough graphite on them, you can render textures, lines, or small shaded areas. Cool, right? Yeah! We're rockin' and rollin' now! Let's get it on with the next step.

Step 16.

The picture here is a great exercise for value shading. I've got a little secret tip for you to make things easier. You can download this to your desktop. First click on the picture to have access to full size. By right clicking on your mouse, you can select "Save Image As." It should save to your desktop.

Step 17.

After printing out a number of the above template, practice shading in the values like this picture. You become familiar with this shading technique that gives you more control and confidence.

Step 18.

*TIP: Before I forget, I want to say this. For more realism and smooth transitional between the shadowed planes and highlights, I lighten the outlines so they'll be hardly visible. Now On with this step. This is the first start with the pastel application. If you do the whole picture in a pencil sketch, this is where you would sketch in small circles or lines to shade the areas. It would take hours upon hours to cover all that area with a pencil. I chose to shade with pastels. In a few strokes I've got area coverage. Applied medium to dark gray to both mushrooms. I added black to the shadowed areas on the caps, gills and stems. Looks like a mess, but that's how a some beginning projects will appear. Keep patience with you and keep applying those layers of whites, grays & blacks. You'll have a great outcome.

Step 19.

Here I used my blending stump to "draw" in more scale shapes and gills. I also added more shading to the caps and stems. I worked in circular motions on the side of my blending stump (underhand). I followed the lined gills with my blending stump's tip, sweeping along with the curve of the line. I smoothed in the larger hilltop of the cap in small circles. Then followed the shadow lengthwise on the stem with the blending stump first then with a tissue. After that, I sprayed the picture with "Krylon Workable Fixatif" to adhere the pencil & pastel to the paper for a non-smudging and workable surface.

Step 20.

I sketched in more shading on the scales, gills and stems with my 9B graphite and 0.7mm mechanical pencils. I defined the shadowed chevron-like edges of the scales. The sketching was done in circular and diagonal lines, staying close to the reference picture.

Step 21.

I did this pencil blending separate so you can see the difference after the application. I used, of course, my blending stump. I was able to carry the graphite to smooth out lighter areas to appear darker. Graphite lines and smudges are not as recognizable. Again, observe the difference.

Step 22.

Whoa! I covered my background with my 9B Graphite Crayon, which is so smooth. Then I purposely added reflective lights on the back of their caps and stems to make the mushrooms pop! (***TIP: When applying those white highlights, sometimes they blend into the darker background not giving a stark white appearance, which is more realistic in this case!) To help out with specific areas of highlights, tone, texture, etc., the next two following steps will show you.

Step 23.

Without highlights, your picture would have a flat appearance. Click on this picture to learn how to make your own picture POP out!

Step 24.

Click on this picture to see how Tone, Shading, Texture, and Reflective Light affect these mushrooms. Check out Wikipedia for neat info on this fungi called Macrolepiota Excoriata. I am closing out now. But you all have been wonderful and it has been a great pleasure to do this tutorial with you. Please fav, comment, and show your love here. And I will definitely reply back soon or eventually. Love, peace, happiness, success, and more beautiful days to ya! *hug* *blowkiss*