How To Draw A Tomato Using Acrylic Paint Markers

I love tomatoes. When I’m not eating or cooking with them, I’m drawing them. There’s so much depth, texture, and shine to play with. Whether you're sketching for fun, creating an illustrated cookbook like me, or just want to improve your coloring techniques, this guide will walk you through how to draw a vibrant, juicy tomato. This is one of my most requested drawing tutorials and I hope it’s helpful!

* Pencil
* Eraser
* Paper or cardstock
* Acrylic paint markers (I use Shuttle Art dual tip markers)

Before starting, grab a good reference photo of a tomato. This helps with proportions, highlights, and shadows. Look for an image with strong lighting to make your drawing pop. This is the one I used.

Think of a tomato as a collection of simple shapes:
* Draw a large circle for the body.
* Sketch out rectangles and triangles for the stem and leaves.
* Keep your pencil strokes light and loose, so you can refine as you go.

Using your basic shapes as a guide, begin shaping the tomato.
* Refine the curves - tomatoes aren’t perfect circles!
* Sketch out the segments if your tomato has slight indentations.
* Draw the stem and leaves, giving them some organic movement.
* Once your sketch is looking good, erase the extra guidelines, leaving only the clean outline of your tomato.

Before adding color, lightly sketch where the shadows and highlights will go.
• The brightest spots are where the light directly hits the tomato.
• The deepest shadows will be on the sides or bottom.
• Add some light shading to plan your coloring

A tomato isn't just one red, it's made up of a whole range of colors.

Here's a good mix to use:

• Dark green/blue for shadows
• Reds for the main color
• Oranges & pinks for mid-tones
• Yellows & whites for highlights
• Greens & yellows for the stem

I use the dual tip acrylic paint marker pens from Shuttle Art.

(Hot tip: you can get 10% off any of their products using my discount code Bianca10SA)

Lay down the base color by filling in the darkest areas first. I like to use a dark blue or green to make the other colors pop.

Gradually build up layers, working from darkest to lightest:

• Start with the darkest red
• Add oranges and pinks in mid-tone areas.
• Use lighter pinks and oranges where the tomato curves towards the light.
• Leave space for the white highlights.

Use the same dark-to-light layering method:

• Start with dark greens at the base.
• Blend into lighter greens and yellows toward the tips of the leaves.
• Add finer details like the hairs on the stem
• Erase the unnecessary lines

Now for the best part: highlights!

• Add white blobs where the light directly hits the tomato.
• Think about how the sun hits your cheeks when you get sunburnt - that's how you should apply highlights to the bumps and lumps of the tomato.

This is where things get really fun.

• I like to add pops of unexpected colors. It might sound weird but I find it gives the tomato more life.
• Try adding a bit of aqua blue, pink or purple in the shadows to make them richer.

• Deepen the shadows with darker reds and the dark blue/green from the beginning.
• Adjust and blend highlights so they feel natural.
• Outline areas with a slightly darker shade for extra definition.

And you're done!

Congrats, you've drawn a tomato!

This method works for any style, whether you want realistic depth or a more stylized look.