By CraftingStepByStepPublished
Based on a video by Art for Kids Hub.
This easy cupcake drawing comes from Rob at Art for Kids Hub, who draws it side by side with his young daughter. You start with a cherry on top and work down: a dome of frosting, a bumpy edge, a pleated wrapper and a shower of sprinkles. The video runs about four minutes. Every shape is a circle, a curve or a straight line, so it suits kids as young as three or four.
All you need is a black marker and a sheet of paper. Crayons, markers or colored pencils are for afterward.
Most cupcake drawings start with the wrapper. This one starts at the top with the cherry. That small circle sets the size of everything else, and it keeps the cupcake centered on the page. The frosting hangs off the cherry like a hill, and the wrapper hangs off the frosting. Kids never have to guess where the next piece goes.
The bumpy cloud line is the shape that makes it read as frosting. A smooth line looks like a bowl. A scalloped one looks soft and piped.
Printer paper is fine for practice. For a picture you plan to keep, a heavier drawing pad stops marker ink from bleeding through. A fine point black permanent marker gives the bold outline in the video. Nervous about mistakes? Sketch in pencil and trace over it.
Rob leaves the cupcake as a line drawing and colors it after the camera stops. Try pink or mint frosting, a bright red cherry and a wrapper in a color that pops against it. Rainbow sprinkles look great with washable markers. Make the frosting chocolate brown and the cherry red for a black forest look.
Put the cherry about a third of the way down the paper, in the middle. That leaves room above for the stem and plenty below for the frosting and wrapper. If the wrapper runs off the bottom, start the next one smaller. A big cupcake is easier to decorate, so err on the large side.
For a cozy treat set, pair it with hot chocolate. For a birthday card, add a wrapped present beside it.
New to drawing? Start with how to draw for the basics. Want the real thing after? Any vanilla cupcake recipe makes a fun follow-up bake.
9 steps · about 4 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Find the middle of your paper, about a third of the way down. Draw a small circle there. This is the cherry that sits on top of the cupcake. It does not need to be big. The cherry decides how large the rest of the drawing will be, so a medium circle gives you a cupcake that fills the page without running off the bottom edge.
Tip
Draw the circle slowly in one smooth loop. A wobbly cherry is fine, but try to close it up so there is no gap.
Now give the cherry a stem. Start at the top of the circle and draw a line that goes up and leans a little to the right. Turn around and come back down beside it, so the stem has two sides. Keep it skinny. A little curve makes it look more like a real cherry stem than a stick. You will fill it in at the very end.
Tip
Lean the stem to one side. A stem that points straight up looks stiff.
Start at the side of the cherry and draw a long curve that sweeps out and down to the left. Make it bow outward, like the side of a hill. Then go back to the other side of the cherry and draw a matching curve down to the right. The two curves make the dome of frosting. Try to stop both at about the same height on the page.
Tip
Look at the first curve while you draw the second one. It is easier to match a line you can see.
Connect the bottoms of the two curves with a bumpy line. Rob calls it a cloud line. Go bump, bump, bump all the way across, like a row of little scallops. This is what turns the dome into soft frosting. Keep the bumps small and roughly the same size. If you run out of room, squeeze in a smaller bump at the end.
Tip
Make the bumps point down. Bumps that point up look like a cloud on top instead of frosting.
From each end of the frosting, draw a diagonal line going down and in toward the middle. The two lines should get closer together at the bottom. That slant is what makes the wrapper look like a real cupcake liner and not a bucket. Make the sides about as tall as the frosting is high, or a little taller.
Tip
Draw both lines the same length so the cupcake does not tip to one side.
Connect the bottoms of the two wrapper sides with a zigzag line. Go down, up, down, up, all the way across. Rob makes his a big zigzag, and that works well because the points become the bottom of the pleats. Small sharp points or wide gentle ones both look fine. Pick the style you like and keep it steady.
Tip
Count your zigzag points. Six to eight is a good number for the pleats in the next step.
Draw straight lines from the zigzag up to the cloud line. Each line starts at one of the zigzag points. Lines near the edges lean in a little, following the wrapper sides. Lines in the middle go straight up. These are the folds in a paper cupcake liner, and they make the wrapper look crinkled and real.
Tip
Leave a small gap at the top of each line instead of touching the frosting. It looks cleaner.
Time for sprinkles. Rob draws tiny hearts all over the frosting. His daughter mixes dots, circles and a little of everything. You can do any kind of sprinkles you want. Spread them out over the whole dome and keep them small, so the frosting still looks like frosting. This is the part most kids like best.
Tip
Turn the paper as you go. It is easier to draw small hearts when your hand is not twisted.
Go back to the top and color in the cherry stem with your marker. A solid dark stem makes the cherry stand out. Now your cupcake drawing is done. You can color it with markers, crayons or colored pencils. Try pink frosting, a red cherry and a bright wrapper. You could even add polka dots to the wrapper.
Tip
Color the frosting first and the sprinkles last, in darker colors, so they show on top.
Keep going
How to Draw a Christmas Stocking
How to Draw a Cupcake
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