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Drawing a Pear

Practice drawing a pear in this quick drawing lesson. Follow the easy step-by-step tutorial drawing video to learn how to sketch and shade in a pear.

Equipment

  • 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 60lb paper)
  • Pencil  - use a soft pencil for the shading (a 7B, 8B, or 9N will be best, the higher the number the softer the pencil) and a hard pencil for the lines (H is good for this) or just use whatever pencil you have
  • Eraser - white vinyl or other
  • Brush - 2-inch chip brush for brushing away eraser dust, optional

Instructions

  • Using the hard pencil mark the top and bottom of the pear.
  • Draw a guide line down the center of the pear if you want.
  • Sketch in a sphere for the bottom of the pear.
  • Draw in the top of the pear. Look at the photo or a real pear to get the shape correct. It might not be perfectly symmetrical. This is ok, fruit often is asymmetrical. Your drawing will be more realistic if you include this and other imperfections.
  • Sketch in the stem.
  • Lightly draw in the shadow area.
  • Erase the guidelines that you don't need. Use the brush to sweep away any eraser dust.
  • Look at the shape of your pear and make any adjustments to the lines or form.
  • Using the soft drawing pencil shade in the pear. Turn the paper as needed to make it easier.
  • Shade the entire pear, starting with the darkest areas. Leave the lightest highlight areas white.
  • Follow the contour of the pear along the sides and bottom.
  • Leave a small light spot on the left side of the stem near the bottom. Then shade the rest of the stem very dark.
  • Shade in the oval-shaped depression at the base of the stem very dark. Immediately outside of the depression is a highlight, so leave that area white.
  • Go over all the shaded areas again making them darker and creating contrast in the drawing.
  • Shade in the shadow area under the pear with a very light tone.
  • Use your finger to blend the shaded areas. This will help make nice soft shading over your pear and smooth the transitions between the dark and light areas.
  • Fine-tune your drawing and shading as needed.
  • Erase any highlighted areas that need to be a brighter white.

Notes

Make your initial sketch very light so the lines are easy to erase if not needed.
The bottom of the pear is round so you can sketch it in like a sphere.
Work across the entire drawing all at once. Don’t just focus on one small area at a time.
Use the H pencil for the sketch and the softer 7, 8, or 9B pencil for shading.
If you want, use your finger to gently blend the shading.