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Based on a video by Art for Kids Hub
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This bell drawing looks hard when you see the finished piece. It turns out to be a string of simple shapes. Art for Kids Hub walks you through a big gold jingle bell with a red ribbon, drawn in black marker and finished with four colored pencils. The outline takes a few minutes. The coloring is what makes it look real, and it is the part kids are proudest of.
You need a black marker, paper, and colored pencils in yellow orange, brown, black and red. Gray works in place of yellow orange if you want a silver bell.
A jingle bell is a sphere, so it is a great first lesson in shading. Three things do the work.
The ribbon gets no highlight on purpose. Shiny metal next to dull cloth is what makes the two materials read as different things. Our how to shade guide goes deeper on light and shadow.
Any colored pencils will work, but soft wax pencils blend the brown into the orange far more smoothly than cheap hard ones. A smooth, heavier drawing pad helps too. Thin copy paper tears when you layer color. Keep the marker outline bold so the shading has an edge to stop against.
For a silver bell, swap the yellow orange for a light gray and the brown for a dark gray. Keep the highlight and crescent white either way.
Once the round bell clicks, try a classic Christmas bell drawing: the tall, flared church bell shape with a clapper peeking out the bottom. Draw two bells tied together with a bow and holly leaves. Line up a row of small sleigh bells on a strap. Put a bell at the end of a candy cane drawing, or hang a few gold bells on a Christmas tree drawing in place of ornaments.
A shiny gold bell looks great on the front of a folded Christmas card. Cut it out and tape it to a window, or add a loop of string and hang it on the tree next to the Christmas ornaments you made. Small bells make good gift tags too.
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Draw a gold jingle bell with a red ribbon in 9 easy steps. An easy project: about 30 minutes. You need 4 things, including black fine point permanent marker and pencil sharpener. The 9 steps start with draw a Big Oval for the Jingle Bell Body, draw the C-Shaped Seam Lip on the Jingle Bell, draw the Round Sound Hole and Curved Slot on the Bell and draw the Knot and S-Curve Ribbon Straps on the Bell.
9 steps, about 12 minutes. Tap a picture to jump to that step. Your progress saves automatically.
Tick each step off as you go.
Start in the middle of your paper and draw a big circle. It can lean toward an oval, a little wider than it is tall. Make it large so it fills most of the page. You could trace a lid or a bowl for a perfect circle, but drawing it freehand is good practice, and a wobble here will not show once the bell is colored.
Draw lightly in pencil first if the marker makes you nervous, then trace over it.
A real jingle bell is two halves pressed together, with a little lip where they meet. Start at the top of the circle, a bit left of center. Draw a C shape that curves down and connects to the bottom. Draw a second C right next to it. The curve is what tells your eye the bell is round, not flat.
Keep the two curves close together. A wide gap makes the lip look like a belt.
Near the middle, draw a circle for the sound hole, but leave one side open. From it, draw a curve that wraps around the bell to the right edge and flicks up at the end. Add a matching curve below it to make the slot. Then draw an inner C inside the hole for its depth and color the hole in solid black.
Curve the slot the opposite way from the seam lip. The two curves together make the bell look three-dimensional.
On the left end of the bell, draw a small oval for the knot and connect it back to the bell with a short tab. Now draw an S curve coming down from the knot. Draw a second S beside it, close at the top and further away at the bottom, then join the ends. Add a second strap behind the first so they overlap.
Let the back strap disappear behind the front one. Overlap is a quick way to show depth.
Pick up the yellow orange colored pencil. Draw a big circle in the top left of the bell and leave it white. That is the shine. Then draw a thin crescent along the bottom edge, thicker at the bottom and narrow at the top, and leave that white too. Color the rest of the bell, including the seam lip.
Outline the highlight shapes before you fill in color, so you do not color over them by accident.
Switch to brown. Start at the bottom, right along the crescent, and press hard for a dark line. As you move up, press lighter and lighter until the brown fades into the orange. Turning the paper sideways makes the strokes easier. Shade the lip, the top of the slot, and the tab by the knot too.
Slow fades look smoother than fast ones. Take small circles rather than long strokes.
Switch to black for extra contrast. Add a small dark band at the very bottom of the bell and let it fade out quickly. Use less than you did with the brown. This little bit of black makes the gold look even shinier. Finish by lightly tinting the highlight with orange, fading to white at the bottom.
Press very softly inside the highlight. You want a warm tint, not a filled circle.
Switch to red and color the knot and both straps in solid. Leave out any highlight here. The bell is shiny metal and the ribbon is cloth, so the ribbon should look dull. That contrast between shiny and matte is one of the secrets that makes the whole drawing look real.
Press evenly so the red has no white specks showing through.
Back to black. Shade the bottom of the knot dark and fade up. Then draw a line down the edge of each strap to give it thickness, getting lighter as it turns the corner. Add dark shadows where the straps tuck behind each other and fade them out. Go back over it with red to smooth the texture.
Keep the darkest black closest to the knot and the folds. That is where the least light reaches.
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How to Draw a Bell
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Question 1 of 5
What basic shape is a jingle bell built on?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.What basic shape is a jingle bell built on?
Answer: A circle
A jingle bell is a sphere, so the drawing starts as a big circle or oval.
2.Where does the white highlight go on the gold bell?
Answer: Near the top left
The highlight sits where the light hits, near the top left.
3.Why leave a thin white crescent along the bottom edge?
Answer: It shows reflected light
Light bounces off the table, so the very edge stays lighter than the shadow.
4.How do you shade the brown up from the bottom of the bell?
Answer: Press hard, then ease off going up
A dark edge that fades upward makes the round form turn away from the light.
5.Why does the red ribbon get no highlight?
Answer: Cloth is dull next to shiny metal
Shiny metal beside matte cloth is what makes the two materials read differently.
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