how to draw a cartoon bottle that feels real

Learn how to draw a realistic cartoon bottle filled with great effects, but made with basic elements and shapes. You need to be aware of a few basic rules to learn to draw this illustration quickly and effectively. Indeed, although the shape of this bottle is quite easy to draw, adding all these shadows, reflections and digital effects can be more challenging. All details are important to give depth and volume to an image like this one. Ready? Let's start this lesson now! :)

Enjoy a license to use this illustration here

step 1 - drawing the cartoon bottle using a few curved lines

First, we need to draw the object using mostly curved lines. The top part of the bottle is probably the most difficult one to achieved. The mouth, the neck and the shoulders are drawn using several small curved and straight lines. You can also add colors like shown below. For now, simply use a light blue color for the bottle. Only the bottom of the object and the part located below the cap are darker.

step 2 - Color gradients to create a little bit of depth

Color gradients are great to create some volume inside an illustration. You can see how the cap is now darker on top, but almost white on the bottom. The body of the object is also darker near the left. The bottom part of the cartoon bottle (that was filled with a dark blue color earlier) is now almost invisible.

step 3 - More shapes added inside the object

Near the neck of the bottle, draw two small irregular shapes that are used to form shadows. Inside the object, you can also sketch long stripes that are filled with a long and thin white rectangle.

Please note that the green lines found around the shadows as well as the red lines located on the stripes are only used to help you read these new shapes more easily.

step 4 - reflections to create a 3D look to this object

On the cartoon bottle found below, you can see several shapes filled with (temporary) pink and blue outlines. All these elements are colored in white and partially transparent. Our goal is to create reflections and highlights on the object to create even more realism. You can see how these shapes really look like in the next step.

step 5 - more details to complete this tutorial

Finally, you can draw a few lines on the cap to create some texture. You can also sketch some drops of water all over the bottle. These drops can be small or large and all of them are mostly circular. They are filled with a white color and partially transparent.

A Cool bottle filled with simple digital effects

Below you can see the final illustration once all effects are added. This tutorial is not that difficult to achieve if you are able to draw all digital effects properly. Knowing how to use color gradients and play with transparency is the key.