Draw the Olympic Rings
The Olympic Rings are an enduring symbol, originally designed by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. The Olympic Rings consist of five interlocking rings in blue, yellow, black, green and red, set against a white background. The colors are representative of the five different parts of the world and the rings interlacing format represent the world's athletes coming together. See step one below to get started!
Steps
- Decide whether to draw the circles freehand or using a guide. If you prefer a neater outcome, use something to trace or guide the circles so that they look as uniform as possible, like a bottle cap, upturned glass or a drawing compass.
- Begin by drawing two circles, one contained within the other. This will be the first ring. The extra circle is necessary (unless you're making an extremely thin symbol) because it adds depth and thickness to the ring, and once you color it in, it will look much better than if you simply outlined a circle.
- Draw two more rings, right next to the first circles you drew. They should be as close to identical as possible. If freehand drawing, it's likely that there will be some difference––just draw as neatly as you can.
- Add a second row, consisting of two more rings in the center of the drawing. That means that each second row ring is overlapping two rings of the first row. Make certain that each ring is evenly spaced, looking essentially like the illustration to the right.
- Color in the rings. The right section of the blue ring is over the yellow ring, while its lower section goes under the yellow ring. These form the first two circles on the left of the full symbol, so you probably want to color them in first.
- Continue coloring the rings in from left to right, using black, green, and red after blue and yellow. Follow the accompanying image very closely––it's important for certain parts to overlap in certain ways, or else the Olympic Rings won't look the way they should. Once you've finished coloring and checked for mistakes, your Olympic Rings are finished and ready to be displayed!
Tips
- Draw lightly in pencil so that you can easily rub out mistakes.
- Use something round (like the bottom of a water bottle or a plastic cup) to trace so your rings are round!
- Learn the real meaning of the Olympic rings at What do the Olympic rings represent?. Most people don't know. Do you?
Things You'll Need
- Pencil and eraser
- Quality drawing paper
- Coloring markers or pencils
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