How to Draw a Realistic Egg With Pencil

While you may not find an egg to be the most exciting image to draw, it is a very good subject to teach you important drawing skills. While learning to draw a realistic egg, you will learn about shadow, shading and highlighting. These lessons can be applied to drawing more complicated items in the future. To learn how to draw a realistic egg with a pencil, follow this tutorial.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Paper
• Egg
• Spotlight

Instructions

1. Set up your subject for drawing. Place an egg on a flat surface, dim the lights and put a spotlight on your egg. This will accentuate shadows of the egg and create a highlight.

2. Draw the shape of the egg on your paper. While looking at your real egg, draw the outline shape of the egg. Also lightly outline where the light source is coming from and the highlights and shadows created by the egg and the light. It will also help to draw several rings on the egg image where the shadows get darker as well as the shadow on the surface of the table.

3. Start with the darkest shadow and fill it in with a soft lead pencil. Color in each consecutive area lighter and lighter, lessening your pressure on the pencil.

4. Continue shading in the areas of the egg, making the levels of color smoothly transition from one to the next. Use your fingers or a shading stump to help smear one shade into the next.

5. Add highlights on the egg. Using your eraser, clean up areas that should be bright white. Also add the highlight that reflects at the base of the egg where light reflects off the table back onto the egg. This reflection line does not happen in all cases, but does when you have a light-colored table.

Tips & Warnings

• Take your time and practice.

• When you get experienced at drawing an egg with one light source, add a second spotlight pointed from a different direction