Caroline
Every year, millions of people around the world tune in to watch their favorite players play their favorite sports.
In the United States, there are lots of sports that people love, but there is one that stands above the others.
American football is the most popular sport in the country by quite a large margin, and it’s popular to both watch and play.
In order to play, you will need one thing, and that is what we will be creating in this guide on how to draw a cartoon football.
This famous ball is simple in shape, but it can be surprisingly tricky to draw it!
That is, it’s tricky unless you have some steps to follow! This step-by-step guide on how to draw a cartoon football in just 6 steps is here to show you exactly how it’s done.
How to Draw A Cartoon Football – Let’s get Started!
Step 1
Let’s kick off this cartoon football drawing with the outline of the football itself. This ball has a rather specific shape, and it’s pretty much identical to a rugby ball as well.
It has a roughly oval shape with some curved tips on each end, as shown in the reference image.
This is not a complicated shape, but it can be surprisingly tricky to draw! The reason for this is that the shape needs to be smooth, and drawing that free hand can be easier said than done.
As with anything tricky, it will be much easier if you take your time with it! You could also use a pencil first and then go over with your pen when you’re happy with how it looks.
Step 2 – Draw some details onto the football
As you know, a football is not just a perfectly smooth, blank oval, and there are certain details on each football.
We will start drawing some of these in this step of our guide on how to draw a cartoon football. This should be pretty simple to do, as we will simply be adding two curved lines onto the football.
These will go near the bottom tip of the football, and the reference image will show you how it should look. Then we can keep adding details in the next steps!
Step 3 – Now, keep drawing details
The good news about this next step is that you can definitely do it, as we will be repeating what we did in the previous step!
We will again be drawing two curved lines onto the ball, but this time they will go near the top tip of the ball. This basically means we will be creating a mirror image of the previous step.
Once these details are drawn, we can move on to the next step of the guide!
Step 4 – Draw the seam lines
As we mentioned earlier in this guide, a football is not a perfect oval, and there are some lines on them where the pieces of the ball have been attached.
We will draw one of these lines in this step of your cartoon football drawing. This line will extend from one tip to the other, and it will be slightly curved.
It won’t be a solid line, however, and as the reference image shows it will be broken up into several sections.
Try to keep the line light and thin, as it should ideally not be the focus of the image. It does help to make it just a bit more realistic though!
Then, we can move on to some final touches in the next step.
Step 5 – Now, you can add the final touches
It’s time to add the final elements we will be drawing in this guide on how to draw a cartoon football!
You will then be able to add some extra details of your own to finish it off, but first we will draw the lace stitching onto the front of the ball.
This stitching has a long central line, and then several smaller stitches extend off of it, as shown in our example.
This is another element that can be a bit trickier than expected, so this is another part where you should take it slowly and follow our example closely.
Once you have added these final details, you can add some of your own!
It would be fun to draw a background, and you could even add a detail like a boot that’s about to kick this ball. What background details would you add to this image?
Step 6 – Finish off your drawing with some color
Footballs can come in many different colors and designs, but we went with a simple, classic approach for our example image!
We used various shades of browns for the ball, and you’ll notice we used a darker shade for the lower portion in order to provide some shading.
Then, we kept the other details white with some light greys for some portions to again provide some shading.
You could go for similar colors for your own cartoon football drawing, but don’t be shy about adding some colors that we didn’t!
As we mentioned, footballs can come in pretty much any colors you can think of, and some have branding logos or team colors.
If you have a favorite football brand, you could draw and color their logo onto this one for a fun touch! What colors and mediums will you choose?
Bonus: Try Out These Methods For Applying Texture
In this guide on how to draw a cartoon football, we briefly covered a few of the ways that you can bring color to your drawing. There are some more creative ways that we didn’t have time to cover, however!
We wanted to go over a few of these creative ways that you could use to color your drawing and make it even more interesting to look at. You could use these methods, or you could be inspired by the ideas to make up your own!
First, let’s think of the distinctive texture of a football. If you’ve ever held a football in real life, you probably know what we mean. The question is, how can we portray this on a 2D image?
One way you could do it would be to use a sponge and some paint. You can special sponges made for art, but you could use a regular sponge from the kitchen. (Just make sure it’s a sponge someone wouldn’t mind getting ruined.)
Once you have the sponge, you can dip it in paint and then dab it over the surface of the ball. If the sponge is the right kind, it will give it a dappled effect.
Another way to do it would be to use some actual leather-like material. This could be fake craft leather or maybe even an old football that you cut open.
Then, with the help of an adult, you can cut this material to fit the shape of the cartoon drawing. That way, the football will have some actual texture to feel!
These are a few of the unusual ways you could color this drawing, but what else can you think of?
5 Tips To Make Your Cartoon Football Drawing Even Better!
Get your head in the game as we make this cartoon football sketch even better!
We love the design of this drawing of a cartoon football, but if you’re feeling creative and want to try something else, you could change the style a bit.
For example, you may wish to make the football look a bit more realistic. Some texture details would be a good start if you want to do this!
You could also go ahead and make it even more cartoony than it is now. What are some styles you could use?
The way this cartoon football is drawn makes it look like it’s sitting on the ground. You could change the drawing to make it look like it’s in more of an action-packed scenario!
For example, you could do this by making it look like it is flying through the air after it has been kicked.
Another way you could make your cartoon football drawing more action-packed would be to add a player handling it. This character could be drawn in any style you find fun to draw.
Making them a cartoon character would be a good fit if you stuck with the style of our example!
Whether you went with the previous tips or not, adding a background would be a great way to finish off this picture. This could be as simple as showing the football sitting on the grass of a field.
Or, if you drew it flying through the air then you could show some details of the stadium or field the game is being played on. What other backgrounds could you create for this artwork?
A football is one of many pieces of equipment you would use for this game. You could finish off this cartoon football sketch by adding some more pieces of football equipment.
This could include some boots, pads or maybe a helmet. This would be a great chance to show what you would like to be equipped with if you were going to play a game of football!
Your Cartoon Football Drawing is Complete!
American football is the most popular sport in America, and we hope you enjoyed celebrating the sport in this guide on how to draw a cartoon football!
Even though it is a simple ball, it can still be challenging to draw certain aspects, and we hope that the steps in this guide helped you to overcome all of these challenges.
Now you can show off your love of football as you add your own awesome details and extra touches!
Then, if you had a ball working on this guide, you can find many more to enjoy on our website. There are tons of guides and we add more often, so keep visiting us to join the fun!
We would love to see how your cartoon football drawing turned out, so please share it on our Facebook and Pinterest pages for us to see!
