How to Draw a Mandarin Orange

Finished mandarin orange drawing with leaves and light hatched shadows.

In fine art, there are many different genres, and one of the oldest and most famous is still life, the depiction of inanimate objects. We believe that any artist should be proficient in this genre of fine art, and we are trying hard to help you with this. And continuing this subject, we will show you how to draw a mandarin orange.

How to draw a mandarin orange step by step

Step 1: Sketch the mandarin shape

Begin the drawing process by sketching a circle for the overall shape of the mandarin orange. Do not use a compass or round objects to make the outline perfectly even. Mandarins are not perfectly round, so a slightly irregular contour will make the citrus fruit look more natural. Consider the mandarin as a spherical form, not just a circle on the paper.

Sketching the rounded outline of the mandarin orange.

Step 2: Draw the stem and leaves

In this step, draw the mandarin stem and two leaves. Note that one leaf should be larger than the other. You can also see that the leaf on the left is more elongated and pointed than the leaf on the right. The leaves extend in different directions from the stem, so show their different angles with the shape of their contours. To make your citrus drawing a little different from our example, you can add another couple of leaves.

Adding the stem and two leaves to the mandarin orange.

Step 3: Add veins to the leaves

Now finish the contours of the mandarin orange. First, erase all unnecessary lines from the leaves and stem so that these parts do not look transparent. After that, draw longitudinal lines, or veins, inside each leaf. Let the central veins follow the direction and slight bend of the mandarin leaves.

Refining the mandarin leaves and drawing veins inside them.

Step 4: Shade the citrus fruit

Now make the mandarin drawing look more three-dimensional by adding shadows. Using light hatching, draw the shadows along the upper part of the fruit and add a cast shadow on the surface beneath it. Apply the hatching according to the spherical volume of the mandarin. Make the tone denser in the least illuminated areas and lighter as the citrus surface turns toward the light.

Finishing the mandarin orange drawing with light hatching and cast shadow.

The tutorial on how to draw a mandarin orange has come to an end. As we said above, we have many tutorials where we show how to draw a variety of fruits and vegetables.

You can combine several of these subjects with the mandarin in one drawing and practice drawing complex still life compositions.

Learn separately how to draw an orange and how to draw a grapefruit. The processes are similar in some ways, but each has its own small nuances. Then, with this knowledge, draw a single composition of different citrus fruits.

When arranging several objects, consider their relative size, position, and overlap so that they form a unified composition rather than a collection of separate drawings.