How to Draw A Cartoon Basketball Player in action

Drawing a cartoon basketball player in a cool posture like the one found above can be a good exercise. Indeed, sketching accurate postures can be difficult sometimes. The anatomy of the human body can be complex to illustrate. Fortunately, working with cartoon characters make the whole process much easier.

To help us reach our goal, we will start this lesson by drawing a few basic shapes. Building a structure from circles and rectangles can help speed up the process. Once you are comfortable drawing this fun athlete, you can easily try more versions using other poses, colors, and facial expressions.

Ready? Let's see how we can illustrate the character above using only a few basic steps ...

building a template from basic shapes

Like I said earlier, we can start this lesson with the creation of a template made from several basic shapes. You can start with the head using a long oval shape. The bottom part can be pointed to represent the chin. Next, add a small neck using a tiny rectangle. The torso is made from another large rectangle.

adding legs and arms using more thin rectangles

Once the top part of the character is created, you can work on the arms using a few thin rectangles. The left one is almost horizontal while the right one is vertical. On the right arm, a few fingers are added using small rectangles. Next, draw the shorts using another large rectangle. Two additional rectangles are needed for the legs.

drawing circles and oval shapes to complete the template

In the right hand of the cartoon basketball player, you can draw a large circle to illustrate the ball. The left hand is also created using a small oval shape. Two similar shapes are needed to represent the feet. Nice work! The template use to illustrate the character is now completely drawn.

polishing the silhouette of the cartoon basketball player

Using a mix of curved and straight lines, you can now draw the silhouette of the character using all shapes created earlier. The shorts are now visible, just like the jersey, the fingers and the legs. Once you are done, you can erase all basic shapes created in earlier steps.

creating a nice facial expression

Inside the head, you can draw two large circles to form the eyes. The mouth is made from two curved lines. Both ears are drawn with smaller circles. Another finger is added on the right hand. One tiny line is drawn on the shorts. Finally, simple details are created on both shoes as shown in the image below.

more details are needed inside the character

We are not done yet! More details are needed inside this cartoon character. First, draw small pupils using perfect dots. Under the eyes, you can sketch a small nose using a curved line. The tongue is also visible. Draw this one using another small curved line.

On the jersey of the cartoon character, you can add a number. Choose the one you prefer. On the shoes, more details are added using several small short lines. Great! This character looks great!

working with colors

It's now time to bring this cartoon basketball player to life using plain colors. For this lesson, the jersey of the character is colored in yellow. The shorts are gray and the shoes brown. Of course, the ball can be filled with a bright orange color. The socks of the athlete are white.

adding gradients to complete this tutorial

You can add gradients to this illustration to create more depth and volume. Indeed, all shapes are now darker near the bottom, and brighter on top. Now that we are done with this lesson, feel free to draw your own version. Simply change the posture, try various clothing or even add complex textures. Just experiment and have fun!

A simple image featuring all steps from this tutorial can be found below. Use this one if you prefer to see all steps needed all at once.

I hope you had fun learning how to draw this cute basketball player using this simple lesson. More fun illustrations related to sports can be found on this site. Here are a few samples to keep you busy for a while. Have fun drawing and remember to practice as often as possible. :)