artlooklearn.com

menu icon
go to homepage
  • All Lessons
  • About
  • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • All Lessons
    • About
    • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • ×
    Home » Beginning Drawing Lessons Online » How to Draw a Coffee Mug (Cup Sketch Beginning Drawings

    How to Draw a Coffee Mug (Cup Sketch) Beginning Drawings

    Learn how to draw a coffee mug (cup sketch) beginning drawings in this simple step-by-step art tutorial. In this art lesson, sketch an easy coffee mug and shade it in with a pencil. 

    In this online art school, draw a coffee mug or coffee cup quickly from start to finish along with the video tutorial. College art classes often spend many hours studying and drawing coffee mugs and other still lives.

    Pencil sketch of a coffee mug on a spiral-bound sketchbook with drawing pencils and an eraser.
    Jump to:
    • Materials
    • Art Lesson
    • Perspective in drawing a coffee cup
    • Variations
    • Tips and tricks
    • Video Tutorial of How to Draw a Coffee Mug
    • Transcript
    • Directions
    • Lesson Downloads
    • For More Practice
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • You also might like

    Learning how to draw a coffee mug is great practice in using your drawing skills and art techniques. Learning the basics of how to draw a cup can also be transferred over to creating more advanced drawings and artwork.

    I encourage you to take the time to really learn the skills to see and draw a coffee mug correctly. 

    Don’t be surprised if your drawing is not perfect at first. Mine certainly wasn’t (I practiced drawing a mug about 20 times for this video!) Just keep practicing.

    Materials

    The materials that you need for this lesson include:

    • Paper (Drawing paper is best but you can use whatever you have available. I am using a 5.5 x 8.5-inch spiral-bound sketchbook with 60 lb paper) 
    • Pencil  - use a soft pencil for the shading (I am using a 7B) or just use whatever pencil you have
    • Eraser - white vinyl or kneaded (a new eraser with sharp corners will work the best, or a kneaded eraser that you can mold into a sharp edge to just erase the areas that you want)
    • Brush - 2-inch chip brush for brushing away eraser dust, optional

    Art Lesson

    Beginning sketch of a coffee mug in pencil with two ovals one above the other.
    Draw an oval for the top and bottom of mug
    Beginning sketch of a coffee mug in pencil with the handle added in.
    Sketch in the handle
    Adding in the shadows and shading to a drawing of a coffee mug in pencil.
    Sketch and shade shadows
    Beginning sketch of a coffee mug in pencil with two ovals with connecting lines for the sides of the mug.
    Connect the sides
    Shading in a sketch of a coffee mug in pencil with the drawing turned on the side for easier pencil movement.
    Shade the mug
    Erasing some highlighted areas on a pencil drawing of a coffee mug.
    Erase highlights
    • Draw an oval for the top and the bottom of the mug. The bottom oval will be slightly smaller (unless your mug has straight sides then the ovals will be the same size).
    • Connect the edges of the ovals with a slightly curved line. If you are drawing your own mug or cup that has straight or differently shaped sides then draw what you see.
    • Mark where the handle will go. Draw in the inside and outside curves of the handle of the mug.
    • Erase the top part of the bottom oval. It is on the other side of the mug so we actually don’t see it. When learning how to draw it is important to draw it in any way to align the drawing correctly.
    • Shade the mug in. starting with lighter shading and making it darker as you go along. The darkest areas are the middle front, the inside (it gets darker as it goes down into the mug), and the left side.
    • Lightly draw in the shadows that the mug is casting and lightly shade them in. There is one in front of the mug and one to the right.
    • While shading, try to make the transitions from light to dark very even and gradual. 
    • Leave the lightest areas white with no shading at all.
    • Blend the shading together with your finger to soften the value.
    • Go over the dark areas again to add more contrast to your drawing.
    • Finally, go back in with your eraser and erase any highlighted areas to make them white. Clean up the drawing and ears any lines that you don’t need.

    Perspective in drawing a coffee cup

    Sketch of different perspective viewpoints of drawing a coffee mug.

    When looking at a coffee mug from the top down, it looks like a complete circle. 

    If you move your viewpoint down so you are looking down into the cup from the front, notice that the circle gets flattened out into an oval. 

    If you move your viewpoint down even more so you're looking up at the mug, your ovals are still there you just don't see them because they're behind the mug you will only see the top and bottom curves. 

    Whatever perspective you are drawing, the top and bottom ovals are the same shape.

    In this lesson, we're going to concentrate on this point of view from the front looking down into the mug.

    Variations

    Drawings of orange and green coffee mugs in pencil and colored pencil.

    Add color to your mug sketch by coloring it in with soft pastels or watercolor paint. 

    Try drawing a coffee mug with colored pencils or charcoal.

    Add some background behind your mug. You could add walls, a tablecloth, windows, etc. Or try drawing in the folds of the red and white checkered napkin. 

    Tips and tricks

    • Make your first lines very light in case you need to erase or adjust them. 
    • Really look at the mug (or photo of it) to see where the lights and darks really lie.
    • Leave the lightest areas white with no shading at all.
    • Use your eraser to make highlights.

    Video Tutorial of How to Draw a Coffee Mug

    Transcript

    Read Transcript

    Hi there. In this art lesson, we're going to learn how to draw a coffee mug.

    If you look at a coffee mug from the top down looks like a complete circle but if you move your viewpoint down from the front that circle gets flattened out into an oval. Notice the top and bottom ovals are the same shape.

    If you move your viewpoint down even more so you're looking up at the mug your ovals are still there you just don't see them because they're behind the mug you'll only see the top and bottom curves.

    In this lesson, we're going to concentrate on this point of view from the front looking down into the mug.

    Start by drawing the top and bottom ovals. They're going to be different sizes but the same shape and draw the sides of my mug in and obviously if you're drawing your own mug and the sides are straight or the sides have a different kind of shape, go ahead and draw what you see.

    I like to use my chip [brush] eraser to brush away any eraser dust.

    Add in the handle and again use light lines as you go so you can erase them easily if you need to.

    Then erase this back line of the bottom oval because you actually don't see it since it sits behind the mug.

    Now I'm going to shade in, starting with lighter shading and moving towards darker shading.

    The right side of the mug is a little bit darker. I'll just kind of highlight on the, on the left side where the light is hitting it. And also turn your paper, that makes it a lot easier to follow the contour of the mug as you're working on some of the shading [Music]

    So basically you're looking for the areas of lights and darks and shading in the darker areas. I'm going to try to get a nice smooth transition between my light and dark areas as I'm working through this.

    Up into that corner and this side's a little bit lighter and the bottom is a little bit lighter as well. So keep that shading a little lighter and adding the shadow to the bottom part of the handle and shadow to the bottom part of the top of the handle.

    We see that the mug is actually casting two shadows which means that there are two sources of light one is coming in from the side and one is coming in from the back.

    I'm going to shade in these shadows nice and light and then just add a line where the mug is actually meeting the table to really define the bottom of it. Now I'm going to use my finger and blend my shading together so I end up with nice soft value.

    Because I'm using a soft 7B pencil, the graphite blends really nicely and easily together. I'm going to go over it again just a little bit and make some of my areas just a little bit darker to get some really nice contrast.

    A little bit more darkness up in the top part of the mug that really makes the volume start to pop out. Lastly, I'm going to erase, use my eraser, the edges of my eraser to make a few highlights where the, the light is really hitting the mug.

    So the top and bottom of the handle where it's the brightest and right along the edge of the lip. And by doing this I'm also going to add a little bit of volume to the lip of the mug and make it just feel more three-dimensional.

    Thanks for watching, hope to see you next time.

    Directions

    Drawing of a coffee mug in pencil with colored pencil drawings in the background.

    How to Draw a Coffee Mug (Cup Sketch) Beginning Drawings

    Learn how to draw a coffee mug (cup sketch) beginning drawings in this simple step-by-step art tutorial. In this art lesson, sketch an easy coffee mug and shade it in with a pencil. 
    Facebook Pinterest Email Print

    Materials

    • Paper (Drawing paper is best but you can use whatever you have available. I am using a 5.5 x 8.5-inch spiral-bound sketchbook with 60 lb paper)
    •  Pencil  - use a soft pencil for the shading (I am using a 7B) or just use whatever pencil you haveEraser - white vinyl or kneaded (a new eraser with sharp corners will work the best, or a kneaded eraser that you can mold into a sharp edge to just erase the areas that you want)
    • Brush - 2-inch chip brush for brushing away eraser dust, optional

    Instructions

    • Draw an oval for the top and the bottom of the mug. The bottom oval will be slightly smaller (unless your mug has straight sides then the ovals will be the same size).
    • Connect the edges of the ovals with a slightly curved line. If you are drawing your own mug or cup that has straight or differently shaped sides then draw what you see.
    • Mark where the handle will go. Draw in the inside and outside curves of the handle of the mug.
    • Erase the top part of the bottom oval. It is on the other side of the mug so we actually don’t see it. When learning how to draw it is important to draw it in any way to align the drawing correctly.
    • Shade the mug in. starting with lighter shading and making it darker as you go along. The darkest areas are the middle front, the inside (it gets darker as it goes down into the mug), and the left side.
    • Lightly draw in the shadows that the mug is casting and lightly shade them in. There is one in front of the mug and one to the right.
    • While shading, try to make the transitions from light to dark very even and gradual.
    • Leave the lightest areas white with no shading at all.
    • Blend the shading together with your finger to soften the value.
    • Go over the dark areas again to add more contrast to your drawing.
    • Finally, go back in with your eraser and erase any highlighted areas to make them white. Clean up the drawing and ears any lines that you don’t need.

    Notes

    Make your first lines very light in case you need to erase or adjust them. 
    Really look at the mug (or photo of it) to see where the lights and darks really lie.
    Leave the lightest areas white with no shading at all.
    Use your eraser to make highlights.

    Lesson Downloads

    Coffee mug photo for drawing Download

    For More Practice

    Set up and practice sketching your own still life with several coffee mugs of different shapes and sizes.

    Practice drawing a blind contour drawing of a coffee cup. To do this, look at your mug but do not look at your drawing or your paper while you slowly draw the outside line of the mug. 

    Lightly sketch in a mug. Instead of shading it in with a pencil use different watercolor paints to shade it.

    Sketch of a light blue coffee cup in pencil and colored pencil with a red and white checkered napkin.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How do you draw a coffee mug step by step?

    Draw an oval for the top and the bottom of the mug. Connect the edges of the ovals with a slightly curved line. 

    Mark where the handle will go. Draw in the inside and outside curves of the handle. Erase the top part of the bottom oval. It is on the other side of the mug so we actually don’t see it.

    How do you draw or sketch a 3d cup?

    Sketch an oval for the top and the bottom of the mug. Connect the edges of the ovals. Mark where the handle will go. Draw in the inside and outside curves of the handle.

    Shade it in with light and dark values, this will help create the illusion of 3 dimensions. It helps to look at a real coffee cup or a picture of one while you sketch it in.

    How do you shade in a coffee cup?

    Look at a picture or a real mug while you shade your mug in so you can see where the light and dark areas are. Starting with lighter shading and making it darker as you go along.

    Blend the shading together with your finger to soften the value. Go over the dark areas again to add more contrast to your drawing.

    Drawing of a coffee mug in pencil with colored pencil drawings in the background.

    You also might like

    • Learn How to Draw a Cylinder 
    • How to Draw a Pear Still Life
    • How to Draw an Oak Tree with Pencil
    • Using Different Types of Artist Drawing Pencils

    Please leave your questions, comments, and ratings below!

    More Beginning Drawing Lessons Online

    • Drawing of a skull in pencil next to drawing pencils and an eraser.
      How to Draw a Skull Step by Step
    • A pencil drawing of an eye on a sketchbook with drawing pencils next to colored pencil drawing of eyes.
      How to Sketch a Simple Eye Step-by-step Drawing Tutorial
    • Pencil drawing of a realistic turkey with several watercolor paintings of turkeys with drawing pencils, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener.
      How to Draw a Real Thanksgiving Turkey Easy Step-by-step
    • Pencil drawing of fall leaves on a sketch pad next to watercolored paintings of fall leaves with drawing pencils and eraser.
      Draw Easy Fall Leaves Step-by-step (Realistic Autumn Leaf Sketch)

    Comments

    1. Paulo says

      October 26, 2023 at 10:15 pm

      Great beginning drawing lesson!

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Mail
    • YouTube
    • Pinterest

    Most Popular Online Art Classes

    • Drawing paper, sketchpads, drawing pencils and eraser
      Best Types of Paper for Drawing, Sketching and Other Art
    • Pencil drawing of fall leaves on a sketch pad next to watercolored paintings of fall leaves with drawing pencils and eraser.
      Draw Easy Fall Leaves Step-by-step (Realistic Autumn Leaf Sketch)
    • spheres created in pencil, watercolor paint and soft pastels with paints, paint brushes and drawing pencils
      How to Draw a Sphere in 3d
    • Drawing of a coffee mug in pencil with colored pencil drawings in the background.
      How to Draw a Coffee Mug (Cup Sketch) Beginning Drawings

    Best Spring Art Projects

    • Painting of a watercolor lake scene with trees, a hill and reflections on the water next to paint brushes and a watercolor palette.
      Paint an Easy Watercolor Lake Scene Step-by-step
    • A pencil drawing of an eye on a sketchbook with drawing pencils next to colored pencil drawing of eyes.
      How to Sketch a Simple Eye Step-by-step Drawing Tutorial
    • Drawing and watercolor painting of oak trees with drawing pencils and paint set.
      Sketch an Easy Oak Tree Pencil Drawing
    • Watercolor painting of pansies that show examples of watercolor painting techniques for beginners next to a palette and paintbrush.
      Easy Watercolor Techniques for Beginners 
    Sam - Art Instructor

    Hi, I'm Sam! Creating is a journey. While learning basic skills is important, the process of making is much more important than the finished project. Experiencing hands on drawing, painting and other art activities is fulfilling and enlightening.

    More about me →

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    Copyright © 2025 ARTLOOKLEARN.COM