How to Draw A Sword that looks sharp and solid

Learn how to draw a sword using simple shapes and cool effects. This cool illustration is a little bit challenging because this sword is mainly made of metal making it difficult to create all the shadows and reflections that come with this type of object. 

If you already know how to use most tools available in a vector application, then you should not have any problems using this drawing lesson to create the sword. Below is the final image made of basic shapes and grey colors.

Step 1

Great! First, you can draw the sword using mostly rectangles and straight lines. At the end of the sword, a square can be drawn as shown below. The handle is made of a medium rectangle and a large oval shape. 

Step 2

Next, add some plain colors on all shapes. For this lesson, no outlines are visible to create a more realistic effect. The sword is filled with a light grey color while the handle must be darker and more visible.

Step 3

On the handle, you can use black lines to create a pattern like shown in the illustration below. On the blade, you can draw a long thin line to separate this one in two.

Step 4

Using the gradient fill tool, you can add a second color on all shapes. Your goal is to create some shadows and darker areas using only a lighter color and a darker version of the same color. 

Step 5

Using the gradient fill tool is cool, but it's not enough to create realistic shadows. To do so, you can draw additional shapes on areas that are not affected by the light source. The left side of the blade and the bottom of the handle are good places to draw these new darker shapes. 

Step 6

This is the result you should get once all darker shapes are created. Don't forget to use transparency to partially hide the right side of each shape. 

Step 7

In this step, you can draw even more shapes to give more volume to the sword. This time, these shapes must be lighter (almost white). The goal is to create highlights that are close to the light source.

The final image on how to draw a sword! :)

Nice work! This is the final sword once all effects are applied. I hope you had fun learning how to draw a sword and don't hesitate to create your own patterns and colors once you are familiar with this one. Enjoy! :)

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