How to Draw Metal Objects

Capture the reflections in a shiny metal spoon.

Metal objects have a certain sheen, especially if they have a glossy, chrome finish. To complete the illusion of the sheen in a drawing, you need to understand the concepts of rendering metal/reflection/lighting in your work. With a little bit of practice, you can draw any type of glossy or shiny object and make it look like it's jumping off the page.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Shiny metal spoon
• 3 drawing pencils, grades 2H, HB and 2B
• Drawing paper

1. Place a shiny metal spoon next to your drawing paper. Draw the basic outline of the spoon. A glossy spoon is a simple object everyone is familiar with, so it is a good object for learning to draw metal.

2. Outline the shapes of the highlights, shadows and reflections/refractions that you see in the spoon. To create the illusion of metal, focus all your attention on drawing the shapes of the reflections exactly as you see them. It helps to have an understanding of how light behaves on shiny objects. For instance, notice how the spoon's reflections contour to the shape of the spoon. With most drawings, you use shading to create volume in an object, but with something as shiny as a spoon, there is no shading, because all the light bounces off the surface. Therefore, you need to perfectly re-create the reflections in the spoon to give it shape and volume.

3. Fill in the shapes of the reflections. What makes metal look so shiny is the contrast between the lighter and darker areas. Use the hardest pencil, 2H, for the lighter areas, and the 2B pencil for the darker areas. Fill in the reflections using the smoothest, cleanest lines that you can to complete the illusion.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't forget to use the cleanest lines you can.

References

• The Almighty Guru: Pencil Grades
• Daniel Smith: Creating Shiny Metal with Colored Pencils