How to Draw A Cartoon Light Bulb using simple shapes

Drawing a cartoon light bulb is certainly a simple exercise if you can sketch basic shapes like circles and rectangles. In this lesson, I will also show you how to add simple effects like gradients to create an even cooler object.

No doubt that life wouldn't be so easy without electricity (and simple light bulbs). Life at night would be quite hard and frankly, no one wants to go back to the time where people were using oil lamps! Let's see how you could draw this useful object in this easy step-by-step drawing lesson now. :)

Sketching a simple template

First, it can be a good idea to construct our object using mostly basic shapes. Once all shapes are added, we can then polish the silhouette of the light bulb using smoother lines. We can start the creation of this template by adding a large rectangle to form the cap located at the bottom of the object.

adding the bulb using a perfect circular shape

Next, sketch the glass bulb itself using two simple shapes. On top of the cap, you can add another rectangular shape as shown below. This new addition must be slightly narrower than the previous rectangle.

Then, add a big circle to illustrate the main part of the bulb. A light bulb can be made from oval shapes or circular ones, but let's use the latter for this simple lesson.

drawing subtle details below the cap

Under the cap, you can draw a circular line to form the electrical contact. This one is completed with the addition of another small rectangle on the bottom of the cartoon light bulb. Great work! Our template is now done. It's time to use all shapes below to polish our illustration and create a realistic version of the object.

polishing the light bulb

Draw the glass bulb using a long line that must be straight near the bottom, but perfectly circular on top. It's time to be precise and you can use any circular object to help you sketch the perfect circle. Remember that the cap on the bottom must be slightly larger than the bottom part of the bulb. You can erase the previous shapes once the bulb is created.

adding more details inside the cap

The cap of the light bulb is used to screw this one wherever you need it. That's why it's important to sketch a few lines on this part of the object as shown in the image below. In this case, four pointed lines were added inside the cap. Also, the silhouette of the cap was polished using basic curved lines.

drawing the contact wires

We are not done yet! Inside the light bulb, you can also draw the contact wires using two long straight lines. These lines are connected by another broken line. This new addition can be seen below (with a temporary red outline). Nice work! We are done drawing the object. It's time to play with colors and add some fun effects to this illustration.

working with plain colors

Inside the light bulb, you can add a nice yellow color. This one can be bright and saturated. Next, make sure the cap is colored in gray. The electrical contact is colored in black and the rectangular tip can be gray. This image looks great, but we can make it even better ...

applying nice effects to the cartoon light bulb

Whether you are using or not a vector application, adding gradients inside the image can easily be done in just a few minutes. Simply start by making the center of the light bulb brighter. As you can see below, the center is now white while the edges are still yellow. The same process can be used on the cap. The left side is now darker compared to the right one.

I hope you had fun learning to draw this amazing cartoon light bulb. Like I said earlier, this object comes in various sizes and shapes. Don't hesitate to sketch more versions using this tutorial as a starting point. If you need more help creating this object, then maybe the illustration below can help you. It contains all eight steps required to draw a light bulb quickly and easily.

Now that we are done with this lesson, you are invited to try more fun objects from this site here. Other amazing objects are also available below. These additional tutorials are offering fun challenges to help you learn new things and work with various digital effects. Have fun drawing and remember to practice as often as possible. It's the key to becoming better at drawing. :)