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.