The Perfect Heart Drawing Lesson
Whether it’s added to the end of our signature on a greeting card, or part of a larger drawing. We’ve drawn them a countless number of times.
But what about the times when it really matters and you can’t seem to get it to look quite right. I’m here for you.
Today you’ll learn how to draw a heart perfectly every time. And you’ll also learn how to draw 3D candy hearts, just for the fun of it.
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Art Supplies
- Paper or cardstock
- Black pen
- Markers
- White Gelly Roll pen
How to Draw a Perfect Heart Step by Step
Everything we draw needs to start with the basic underlying structure. This is usually done in the form of some basic shapes that act as guidelines to build our drawings from.
The easiest way to draw a heart is with circles. This helps to keep the correct shape at the too.
Start your drawing by making two equally sized circles next to each other.
Next, lightly draw a vertical line between the two circles. And another line horizontally through the center of the circles.
Now draw a triangle by connecting the horizontal and vertical line. Notice how the angled lines for the triangle follow the edge of the circles.
Your guide for the structure of your heart drawing is finished. Now you can flesh out your drawing using those guidelines as a reference.
When drawing your heart follow the curves of your circles. This is the secret to drawing a perfect heart. Then bring the sides and bottom down along the edge of your triangle.
Use the triangle as a guide, but curve your lines slightly as you draw the sides.
When you’re happy with your sketch you can clean up your drawing by erasing your guides. And then go over your drawing with a black pen.
Drawing with Markers
You’ll most likely want your heart to be some mixture of reds, pinks, and maybe some purple.
You can create some nice depth in your drawing by layering your colors and doing some blending for a smooth transition.
We have a newly released Beginner’s Guide to Using Markers if you’re not sure how to do this.
Start by filling in your heart with the lightest color. You can leave an area or two white for your highlight. Or you can use white later to add in on top of your marker.
Add in some shading with a darker color. There are many different colors you can use for this.
Continue adding your shading and using the lighter color to blend the colors together for a smoother transition.
If you didn’t leave a highlight, go ahead and add that in now with a white pen or marker.
Get Your FREE Marker Blending Guide
How to Draw a Heart in 3D
If you want to draw your hearts in 3D for something like a candy heart drawing or a box of chocolates, it’s pretty easy to do.
You start with the same basic shapes and guidelines. And draw out your heart just like you would for a 2 dimensional drawing.
There are a couple of techniques you can use to add depth to your heart drawings.
You can use one point perspective where you’d draw a vanishing point on your paper that all your lines will converge to.
Or you can use parallel lines to add depth and draw it out freehand. It’s up to you but I usually draw them freehand.
Candy Heart Drawing
Let’s look at this in action by learning how to draw a candy heart. This is a popular drawing around Valentine’s Day and can be really fun to make.
You could draw one candy heart or you could draw several. We’ll look at both so you can see how the 3D part will look with multiple hearts.
Do you basic heart drawing using the guides we talked about earlier. Then use one of the techniques to make your drawing 3D.
A candy heart doesn’t mean much without a message on it. So draw a couple of light guidelines for your lettering and add some text.
You can stick with the traditional messages you would find on the candy. Or you can create your own message.
After you have your candy heart drawing finished you need to decide what you want to do with the outline. You could go over it with black. Or you could use a different color if you want your drawing to look softer.
When adding color keep in mind the candy is mostly pastel colors with red lettering. This doesn’t mean you’re limited to this. But if you want them to look like the real candy, just keep that in mind.
You could go completely stylized with your candy heart drawings which could look really cool as well.
Heart Drawing Ideas
The only way to get good at drawing something is with practice. The more you practice the better you will get.
Practice is also how you can improve your creativity. If you want to make some unique and interesting heart drawings do at least seven drawings. You’ll start coming up with more original ideas.
Making your drawings on artist trading cards (ATCs) is a good way to practice and save time since they are small. Here are some heart drawing ideas to help inspire you to make your own. All of these were done on ATCs.
How to Draw a Heart Perfectly Every Time | Art Tutorial for Beginners
Learning how to draw a perfect heart is pretty easy if you follow the process. And learning to draw should feel easy too. If you enjoy creating art or just drawing in general, then make sure you’re having fun. Try new things and experiment with different ideas.
The more you draw, the better you will get. So be sure to spend a few minutes everyday if possible. Learning to draw takes practice, not natural talent.
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Additional Heart and Drawing Lessons
- Draw a Teddy Bear with a Heart
- Marker Blending for Beginners
- How to Draw a Chain
- Rose Drawing Tutorial
- Tiki Mask Art Tutorial
