How to Draw Chinese Lanterns

This year, the Chinese New Year starts on Monday, January 23rd. It is the most important event in the Chinese calendar and lots of paper lanterns are often hung for decorations. Their bright colors and tubular shape make for some great basic shading practice.1. When drawing any group of three, it helps to draw the middle one first to keep the art balanced. I started with the center lantern and added the top and bottom of the right lantern, making sure it was lower on the page. The connecting zig-zag lines were added. The smallest lantern on the left was drawn in the same manner, just a little higher on the page. Drawing the lanterns progressively smaller as shown will give added perspective to the art.2. I traced all the lines with a permanent, chisel tip black marker.3. To make a highlight in the center of each lantern, I heavily colored the middle section of each with a white pastel. Then I chose different pastel colors and blended the colors to make a graduated tint in the center of each. Finally, the background color was added.