how to draw a unicycle

In this lesson, you will learn how to draw a unicycle solely made from basic shapes and plain colors. Building this unique vehicle from scratch is definitely not that difficult once you are familiar with the structure of the object. In fact, trying to use this weird thing is probably a more challenging task. Ready to learn how to draw this one wheel vehicle using only a few basic steps? Great! Let's proceed with the first step now ...

drawing the seat and the wheel

First, we can work on the tire using two large circular shapes. Unicycles usually have thin tires, but I prefer to create a thicker one for readability purposes (and honestly, it's also more fun to draw). Next, you can draw the seat tube on top of the wheel and create the saddle using a few curved lines.

adding more details inside the wheel

Below the saddle, you can draw a small square as show in the illustration below. You can also draw the second part of the seat tube (the one that is visible inside the wheel). Finally, draw another large circular shape near the tire to form the rim of the wheel. Great work! This cartoon unicycle is now easily recognizable.

sketching pedals

Inside the middle of the wheel, you can start by adding two small circles. Then, you can draw two crank arms and two pedals using thin rectangles. A small screw can be seen on the pedal located on top. Now that most parts are added, let's add more details inside the objects ...

drawing more details inside the cartoon unicycle

The wheel looks great, but we can definitely make this one even more appealing using only a few basic shapes. Indeed, our goal is to draw a believable object without using complex shadows, textures or highlights. Only a few basic shapes and colors are needed.

First, you can draw a few simple (and tiny) rectangles on the tire to create more grip. Then, you can draw two more circular shapes inside the wheel so that we can add a brighter color inside the object later on.

drawing spokes using simple Lines

In this final step on how to draw a unicycle (before adding simple colors), you can draw spokes using long straight lines. Our goal is to connect the wheel to the pedals using only lines that are fifteen degrees apart. That's it for the drawing part of this lesson. It's now time to add some colors!

adding the final touch

Colors are important if you want to bring this simple object to life. For this example, the saddle was filled with a bright blue color. The rest of the object is colored with a mix of gray colors (as well as black).

I hope you had fun learning how to draw a unicycle

Below you can see all six steps required to illustrate this object properly. Don't hesitate to create your own version of a cartoon unicycle. Indeed, you can add more textures, change some of the colors or play with proportions. You can also enjoy our lesson on how to draw a bicycle if you prefer to work on something more traditional. Don't forget to practice as often as possible and don't hesitate to try more vehicles here. :)