Draw the Moon
The moon, the Earth's natural satellite, has fascinated humankind since the beginning of time. Its heavily cratered surface has been the source of legends, myths, and nursery rhymes and its beauty, influence, and presence continue to fascinate people today. Although usually a complex subject, you can learn to draw a very simple moon by following the steps of this tutorial.
Steps
- Sketch a circle. The moon you're drawing is going to be a full one, but you can always just draw part of it for a moon that's waning from its maximum size.
- Add in the moon's craters. You don't need to make the craters realistic, since this depiction is rather abstract. Just add faint circles all over the surface of your moon-circle. Put some of the craters in clusters and make some of them more spread out--the formations can be random, but don't have too few or too many of them.
- Outline your moon using a fine marker. Erase excess lines. At this point your moon should look somewhat like the Earth, but with the outlined regions in different spots than our continents.
- Outline and color in your moon. Finesse the drawing a little as you're coloring it in. Add shading to give more depth and volume to the moon. If using graphite or pencil, use reductive drawing (with an eraser) to make highlights.
Tips
- Find other approaches to drawing the moon by using your own techniques. To explore the art of illustrating the moon, borrow a book on it or check out photos online of the moon to study the fine detail of the moon's craters and other significant marks and colorings.
- Also try to improve on your crater drawing technique over time, until eventually someone familiar with the moon could even tell you which crater formations you've drawn!
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- Draw the Sun
- Draw the Solar System
- Draw the Earth
