What could be more delicious for our winter drawing ideas than cute, easy candy cane drawing? Get ready for peppermint-flavored adorableness!
My name is Ms. Marshall, and I’m an artist and teacher who delights in teaching and sharing my hand-drawn cute, easy drawing ideas for kids, teens, adults — all ages! Ready for the lesson? Let’s go…
Candy Cane Drawing
As I explained in my mushroom drawing tutorial, please feel free to alter or modify any of these instructions. Creative expression is all about making your own unique choices!
1. Start with a pencil sketch of the candy cane’s “J.”
As with our present drawing, it is particularly important to start our candy cane with an erasable pencil sketch, because it may take a few tries (er, in my case, ten) to get the curve right. I want to emphasize that you don’t have to make perfectly straight lines for your sweet to look good — slightly curved or wiggly sides will make it look more natural and endearing.
2. Curve the stripe lines of our candy cane drawing.
The essential feature of our drawing that will make it look three-dimensional (like our snowman drawing) is to curve the lines of each candy stripe. Again, sketching this first with erasable pencil will help immensely in getting the shape you want.
3. Add complementary colors.
Candy canes are usually red and white (unlike our standard candy drawing, which can be any color), so as you start inking in the background, consider using a color that really contrasts and makes the foreground “pop.” Since the opposite of red is green in the traditional RYB color wheel, that’s a perfect shade to use. As bonus, those two together form classic, merry holiday colors!
4. Fill in shading and highlights.
As with our cloud drawing, adding shading around the sides of the shape and highlights in the middle will make it appear to burst off the page towards the viewer! For our shading color today, I’d suggest pink, since that’s the answer to, “What does red and white make?” and those are the colors of our stripes. Also consider adding a red swirl to the bottom of the stem.
5. Make the background sparkle!
To create a festive atmosphere like our Christmas tree drawing, add yellow and white sparkles around the edges of your background, with some lines whizzing outward to indicate shine. The theory is that candy canes have a history stretching all the way back to 1670, so let’s honor that longevity by making them the center of attention in our art today!
VIDEO: How to Draw a Candy Cane:
Candy Cane Drawing, in Sum
I hope you’ve enjoyed this cute, easy candy cane drawing tutorial! What Christmas drawings — or any art — would you like me to illustrate and teach next? Do share!
Want more? Check out my umbrella drawing tutorial — which features a shape very much like our candy friend here.
The author and artist, Lillie Marshall, is a National Board Certified Teacher of English who has been a public school educator since 2003, and an experienced Reiki practitioner since 2018. All art on this site is original and hand-drawn by Lillie. She launched DrawingsOf.com Educational Cartoons in 2020, building upon the success of her other sites, AroundTheWorldL.com (established 2009), TeachingTraveling.com (founded 2010), and ReikiColors.com. Subscribe to Lillie’s monthly newsletter, and follow @WorldLillie on social media to stay connected!
