How to Draw a Cannon in 8 Steps
This tutorial shows how to draw a cannon with cannonballs in eight steps. It provides very easy to follow instructions and illustrated examples.
The cannon show in the example is an “old style” cannon that uses cannonballs. It’s design is fairly simple making this guide fairly beginner friendly. It can also be great for anyone who just wants something fun to draw.
To make things even easier there is also a step by step breakdown of drawing the wheel (shown lower down). As this is the most complex part of this particular cannon.
Please note that you will need to erase parts of the drawing in one of the steps. For this reason be sure to start the tutorial in pencil and to make light lines (so they don’t leave marks when erased). You can trace over your lines with a black pen or marker before coloring.
Step 1 – Outline the Cannon’s Barrel
Begin by making an outline drawing of the barrel. For this step the goal is to get it’s overall shape without any of the smaller details.
Draw the barrel on a slight angle as is common for cannons of this type. Make it wider towards the back, narrower towards the front and then again wider near the end (for the muzzle). Draw it’s front end flat and back end rounded.
Optionally you can make a straight line at the angle at which you wish to have the barrel to act as a guide. This can make it easier to see if it’s shape is symmetrical.
You can the erase the guide line once you’ve got the barrel outlined.
Step 2 – Outline the Wheel
For this simple step draw a circle overlapping the outline the barrel to get the shape of the wheel. Make this fairly large as old cannons of this type tended to have large wheels.
Step 3 – Draw the Carriage
Draw carriage (the wooden part that supports the cannon). At this stage of the drawing outline it’s entire shape, even the area that should be partially hidden behind the wheel.
Step 4 – Add the Knob & Muzzle
At the back of the cannon draw the knob and the base ring (erase a bit of the barrels outline when drawing this part). At the front add a line to defines the forward face of the muzzle.
Step 5 – Draw the Details of the Wheel
Draw the inner parts of the wheel. You can erase bits of the outlines of the other parts of the cannon as needed when adding these.
As the wheel is fairly detailed a step by step breakdown of drawing it is shown above (as was mentioned at the start of the tutorial). However, you should hold off on coloring it until you get to step seven.
Draw the wheel as follows:
- Have the wheel’s main outline (should already be done at this point)
- Draw the inner part of the wheel’s rim
- Draw the hub (the center area)
- Draw the first set of spokes (vertical and horizontal ones in this case)
- Draw the second set of spokes in between the first set
- Color the wheel (do this later)
For drawing other kinds of wheels see:
How to Draw a Bike Step by Step
Step 6 – Draw the Cannonballs
To make the drawing look a little more interesting add a small stack of cannonballs next to the cannon. Be careful not to make them too large so that they look like they can actually fit inside the barrel.
Outline the cannonballs as three circle, two on the bottom and one on top to create the stack.
Once you have the cannonballs in place go over your drawing to make sure that everything looks good (make corrections if required). Afterwards, trace over your lines with a black pen/marker or simply darken them with the pencil.
Step 7 – Color the Drawing
Make the barrel and cannon balls a grey (so that they look like metal) and make the wheel and the part the carriage brown (so that they look like wood).
An easy way to create the grey is simply by using a regular pencil.
When coloring be sure to leave a white strip along the top of the cannon and round white spots inside the knob and each of the cannon balls. You can also leave a little white strip along the upper par of the metallic center of the wheel. These white ares will show light reflecting from the smooth metallic surfaces and will help make them look shiny. You can either lightly outline the reflections beforehand or simply create them as you go.
Step 8 – Add Shadows
You may notice that the drawing in the previous example looks a little flat. To fix this add some very basic shading. In this example it’s done as though the light is coming from above and slightly to the left of the cannon. To show this shade the lower part of the barrel, the carriage (it’s the entire thing) and the lower part of each cannonball.
Once done shading it’s different parts, you can then (optionally) also add a shadow underneath the cannon and cannonballs (as in the example). The shadow will help make it appear as though they are actually sitting on a surface.
An easy way to create all of the shadows is by simply darkening the above mentioned areas with a regular pencil.
Conclusion
As was already mentioned, the cannon shown in the example is drawn in a fairly simple style to keep the tutorial beginner friendly. At the same time it’s not oversimplified. By adding just enough detail and some basic shading you can make what would otherwise be a plain looking artwork stand out and be much more interesting to look at.
If you like these kinds of drawing guides with useful tips and easy to follow instructions, be sure to also try the following:
