How to Draw A Cartoon Volleyball using a simple technique

Drawing a nice cartoon volleyball filled with fun effects can easily be done using this simple step-by-step tutorial. I will show you how to sketch all the basic lines needed to form a realistic ball. Once you are done with this drawing lesson, more fun sports are available on the bottom of this page.

Volleyball can be played inside or outside (often on a beach). You can also play this fun sport with four players or twelve. All you need is a ball and a solid net to play! Let's see how we can draw the object above in just seven easy steps.

You can start your drawing journey by using the video lesson below. This one is using a different technique from the one found on this page. Simply use the technique you prefer and enjoy! ;)

drawing a perfect circle to begin with

Let's start this lesson by drawing a perfect circular shape. This circle will be used as a guideline for the rest of this tutorial. Of course, a real volleyball is not perfectly circular. We will work on this aspect of the object later in this lesson. Once your circle is drawn, you can proceed with the next step.

Adding long lines to form the stripes

A volleyball is made from several large stripes that are forming a unique pattern. Adding a few guidelines now will help us create this pattern properly. First, you can draw three lines that are joined together. As you can see below, the junction of all three lines is not quite located in the middle of the ball. The junction should be a little bit more on the right and slightly closer to the bottom of the object.

sketching the first set of stripes

Now that we are done drawing all three lines needed to form our guideline, it's time to create the first stripes. Before proceeding with these stripes, notice how the lines drawn in the previous step are now colored in green (to differentiate these lines from the new ones).

On the left side of the cartoon volleyball, you can sketch three stripes using more long curved lines. Study the shape of these new elements properly (shown below with a temporary red outline).

adding more stripes to the illustration

On the right side of the ball, you can draw more stripes using more simple curved lines. The pattern is different from the first set since the stripes are drawn using a different orientation. Less space is also available on this side of the object. Great! This drawing lesson is progressing nicely. :)

drawing four more stripes on top of the cartoon volleyball

In this step, four more large stripes are added on top of the ball. Once again, you can see these new additions below (with a temporary red outline). The orientation of all four new stripes is also different from all previous stripes.

removing all three lines

Now that all stripes are created, you can erase all three lines created earlier (the green ones). Below, you can see the object with all lines drawn and completed. This cartoon ball is visually appealing, but we can make this one even more appealing using simple effects like gradients.

adding a simple effect to complete this lesson

Inside each stripe, you can add a basic effect using gradients. Basically, each stripe is now white with a small portion being gray. The progression from white to gray gives more depth and volume to this simple illustration. The stripes on the bottom part of the volleyball are also slightly darker to complete the effect.

Great job! We are done sketching and drawing this beautiful cartoon volleyball. You can see the final illustration below.

If you need more assistance with this tutorial, you can use the image below to help you create this fun ball. Indeed, this new picture is featuring all seven steps required to draw the volleyball grouped into a single file. Sometimes, it can be easier to figure out what we need to do by looking at all steps simultaneously.

I hope you had fun learning to draw this basic object. More fun ball featuring various sports can be found below. All these lessons are filled with different tips and challenges that can be fun to try. Some are easier to illustrate while others are filled with complex digital effects like shadows and textures.

Have fun learning to draw these cool tutorials and remember to practice as often as possible. More fun sports can also be found here. Enjoy! :)