How to Draw a Mushroom in Five Easy Steps

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A red toadstool with white spots is one of the easiest things in the woods to draw, and one of the most cheerful to finish. It is built from a dome, an oval and a post. What makes it read as a mushroom and not an umbrella is one idea: the cap is a dome sitting on a flat oval, and you see a little of its underside. Show that thin band of gills with the stem hanging in front of it, and your outline says mushroom before any colour goes down.

The finished mushroom tutorial drawing on a dark canvas: a red toadstool cap with seven cream spots, a darker red shadow down its right side and a pale highlight on the upper left, a tan underside with thin brown gill lines, a cream stem shaded on the right, and a soft shadow on the ground

What you need

Everything here happens in the Grovetracks editor on the default dark canvas. You will use the ellipse tool and the freehand brush for the shapes and outline, the brush for colour, and the eraser to clear your guides. If you like, put the colour on a layer under the line art. Colours: grey blue for pencil, warm cream and dark brown for the outlines, a bright and a deeper red, pale coral, creamy white, light tan, mid brown, and a greyish tan.

Step 1: Draw a dome and a post

Step 1 of the mushroom: two thin grey blue pencil shapes on a dark canvas, a wide half circle dome with a flat base across the upper middle, and a tall narrow oval standing below it for the stem

With a thin brush (width 2), draw a dome across the upper middle of the canvas: a half oval about three fifths of the canvas wide and a bit less than half as tall as it is wide, closed with a straight line along the bottom. Then, with the ellipse tool, draw a tall narrow oval under the middle of the dome for the stem, starting just below the flat base and reaching most of the way to the bottom of the canvas.

The common mistake here is making the stem too fat. A toadstool stem is only about a quarter as wide as its cap.

Step 2: Add the rim and a centreline

Step 2 of the mushroom: the same pencil dome and stem oval, now crossed by a vertical centreline, a flat oval drawn around the dome's base line, a tiny oval where the stem meets the cap, and a short ground line under the stem

Switch to width 1. Draw a vertical line straight down through the middle of both shapes. Now, with the ellipse tool, draw a flat oval centred on the dome's base line, exactly as wide as the dome and only about a quarter as tall as it is wide. This is the rim of the cap. Add a tiny flat oval where the top of the stem meets the rim, and a short straight line across the bottom of the stem for the ground.

The mistake people make here is drawing the rim oval too tall. Keep it thin, or the mushroom will look like it is tipping toward you.

Step 3: Find the outline

Step 3 of the mushroom: a confident warm cream outline over the pencil guides, showing the domed cap with seven round spots, the far edge of the rim as a curve across the cap, ten thin gill lines fanning out from the stem, and a stem that widens slightly toward its rounded foot

This is where it becomes a mushroom. With the brush in warm cream at width 6, trace over the dome and the bottom half of the rim oval in one long line, starting beside the stem and finishing on its other side. At width 4, trace the top half of the rim oval: that is the far edge of the cap. Draw the stem at width 5, a little narrower at the top and a little wider at the foot, with a rounded bottom. At width 2, draw about ten gill lines fanning out from the top of the stem to the rim, like the spokes of a wheel. Last, with the ellipse tool at width 3, add seven circles on the cap: big ones near the top, smaller ones toward the edges.

The one mistake to watch: stop the lower rim line and the gills where they meet the stem. The stem hangs in front of them.

Step 4: Add flat colour

Step 4 of the mushroom: the pencil guides are gone, the cap is filled with flat bright red and seven solid cream dots, the underside is light tan with thin brown gill lines, the stem is creamy white, and everything sits under a dark brown outline

Erase the pencil guides and the spot circles. There is no fill bucket, so colour goes on like a marker. Run bright red at width 25 once around the inside of the cap, then scribble back and forth across the middle with a wide brush (40 or more). For each spot, tap one dot of creamy white with the brush width set to the spot's size. Fill the underside with light tan, one stroke around the inside of the rim and one across the middle, and the stem with three long cream strokes. Finally, redraw the outline in dark brown on top, and the gills in mid brown.

The mistake here is scribbling right out to the edge of the dome. A wide brush will spill over the outline at the shoulders, so keep your rows short near the top and let the first ring cover the edge.

Step 5: Add one shadow and one highlight

Step 5 of the mushroom: the finished drawing, with a deeper red stroke curving down the right side of the cap, a short pale coral highlight on the upper left, a darker tan patch on the right of the underside, a greyish shadow across the top of the stem and down its right side, and a soft dark shadow on the ground

Pretend the light is coming from the upper left. With deeper red at width 22, draw one curved stroke just inside the right edge of the cap, following the dome from near the top down to the rim. Then take pale coral at width 12 and add one short curved stroke on the upper left of the cap. Draw your spots again on top of the shadow if it covered any. Put a short greyish tan band across the top of the stem, where the cap shades it, and a thin one down its right side. Last, under everything, draw one soft dark stroke beneath the stem so the mushroom stands on the ground.

The mistake is making the highlight too big. One small curve reads as shine; a big one reads as a second colour.

Draw it yourself

Now it is your turn. Open the editor on grovetracks.com and grow a toadstool of your own: a flatter cap, a taller stem, or a cluster of three. For a head start, open any step's gallery page above and branch it to pick up from exactly that stage. Every step shows its lineage back to the first dome, and the finished toadstool's Made from section walks the whole tutorial.

Here is where a mushroom can go next: a clump of honey fungus on a fallen log.

A clump of honey coloured mushrooms growing from a fallen log on Grovetracks

If you enjoyed this one, the same ring and scribble colouring works on How to Draw a Pumpkin, and How to Remix Digital Art Online explains how branching works.