How to Draw a Candle | Easy with Pictures and Examples

Candle Drawings for Beginners

Learning how to draw a candle, or anything else, can be fun or it can be stressful. Today we are going to make things easy and fun. The simplest way to draw anything is by starting out with some basic shapes.

Just about any object can be broken down into a combination of shapes (2 dimensional) or forms (3 dimensional). An in today’s drawing tutorial you’ll only need one form, which is a cylinder. There’s a lot of different ways to draw a candle and by starting out with some basics shapes as your guide it will be really easy.

The more you draw, the better you will get. So don’t stop at just one. Keep going and experiment with some different techniques and designs. Now let’s grab some supplies and get started.

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Art Supplies

FREE Drawing Guide

Candle Drawing Guides

The basic shape of a candle is a cylinder, if we are drawing it in 3D. Which we are because it looks cooler than 2 dimensional art.

Start your drawing by sketching out a quick cylinder. If you’re not familiar with this process, take a look at our cylinder drawing how to lesson.

Dripping Wax

The next thing you need to do is add in some dripping wax on the side of the candle. This will make it look more realistic.

When drawing your wax drips, keep your lines rounded and avoid sharp edges.

You can add some uneven wax at the top as well.

I’m drawing kind of dark so you can see the drawing better. You’ll want to make sure you’re drawing your lines lighter so you can erase more easily.

Candle Flame

Now draw a curved line where the center of your candle is. This will represent the indentation that is caused by the heat of the flame.

Draw a line for the wick from that curved line that goes just past the back edge of your candle. To draw the flame, use a tear drop shape starting from the middle of the wick. We have a full step by step tutorial on How to Draw Flames if you want to explore that further.

Clean up your drawing by erasing the extra lines. A click eraser works really well for this.

Shading Your Candle Drawing

The final step is to add some shading to your drawing. Add shadows around the dripping wax, the inside of the candle under the wick, the flame, and the sides of your candle.

How to Draw a Birthday Candle

Drawing a birthday candle is very similar to drawing a regular candle. There are only a couple of changes you need to make. The biggest difference is the shape of the candle. Typically, a birthday candle would be tall and thin compared to a regular candle.

So when drawing your birthday candle, start with a cylinder that is thinner and taller than what you would draw for a normal candle.

Draw the flame and dripping wax the same way as you did in the first drawing exercise. Or reference the above steps.

Birthday candles will typically have stripes or some other design on them. For this drawing lesson we are going to use stripes.

Draw your stripes so they are on a bit of an angle and with a slight curve to them. They should be roughly the same width, and evenly space apart.

Don’t draw your stripes across where the dripping wax is. When the wax drips, it will melt in and cover the stripes.

Finish your drawing with some shading or add some color.

All you need to do now is decide what you want to do with your candle drawing. Your only limitation is your own imagination.