Mushroom Drawing: Cute, Easy Instructions

This request for a new installment of our cute drawing ideas took me by surprise — but upon reflection, it was an excellent suggestion: mushroom drawing! Here are easy cartoon instructions.

First, some background. My name is Lillie, and I am an artist and teacher who loves hand-drawing lessons for art such as frog drawing. Now, let’s examine two different methods for today’s quest.

Mushroom Drawing 1

My two different methods for how to draw a mushroom (cute and easy) are divided based on where we choose to put the adorable face. In this first method, we’re treating the fungus cap as a hat of sorts, meaning that the face is sketched onto the stem. This gives a similar effect as our spider drawing, where the eyes are front and center.

Fungi Cap Shapes

If you examine real-life fungi, you’ll see that there’s a wide variety of shapes for the mushroom cap. Some of them look like round umbrella tops, while others have more of a pointed top and flared bottom. I chose the latter here, since it looks more graceful to me.

Stem and “Underbelly” Lines

Two key aspects that make a mushroom drawing look recognizable are the stem shape, and the fungus’s “underbelly.” With the stem, make sure there is a soft, curved (almost bulbous) feel to it — kind of like the legs in our octopus drawing, but puffier in the middle.

Now, what do I mean by “underbelly?” The bottom of a mushroom’s cap is its defining feature: it almost always has soft lines of fungi flesh that radiate out from the stem (like the spines of our sea urchin drawing, but far fluffier). I indicated those here with light pen lines, then added in some shading.

Cap Decorations

Finally, how should our mushroom cap be decorated? Well, thanks to a certain old-time video game, most people usually immediately think of red with white spots, even though real fungi are usually tan or white. In my case, I decided to go wild with yellow and purple polka dots!

Do whatever you want for color — after all, we’re already personifying the fungus — I would just suggest adding SOME tan color to echo reality. As I explained in my snail drawing tutorial, though, taking artistic liberties is often what makes art exciting.

Cute Mushroom Drawings, Part 2

Ready for a second method to create cute mushroom drawings that make you say, “Aww, so cute?” Ok! In this alternate tactic, treat the fungus cap as the face, and the stem as the body. Think of our cloud drawing, where the eyes are shining happily at the top of the object.

Mushroom Drawing Shading and Highlights

When drawing mushrooms, the shading (adding black) and highlights (adding white hues) are absolutely key. Why? Because what makes a fungus look like itself is the soft, rounded nature of its body and cap. Playing with light and shadow helps achieve that — as we saw with the tummy of our bat drawing.

Art Color Choices

In general, I’m a fan of bright colors, so I tend to get a bit flummoxed when trying to draw something that, in real life, is… not so vibrant. Hence, when I decided to make this second mushroom drawing a tan-orange, there was a quandary for how to spice it up.

I ended up using the tactic I picked for our pumpkin drawing: add the cap shading by using a more saturated form of orange rather than browns (what orange and black make). As you can see above, the end result turned out delightfully!

MURSHroom Drawing?

It has come to my attention that some people have found this article by searching the term “murshroom drawing.” As an English teacher (in conjunction with being an artist), I feel compelled to teach that “murshroom” is a common misspelling of “mushroom” — the latter being the correct spelling. There’s no “R” in the word, as adorable as it may sound when you pronounce it with one.

VIDEO: How to Draw a Mushroom

https://youtu.be/g6PlW4BvslU

Mushroom Drawing, in Sum

I hope this easy mushroom drawing tutorial has been useful, as well as enjoyable. If you want more adorable art inspiration, check out my round-up of instructions for cute animal drawings!