How To Draw Flames

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Let’s take a closer look at this picture. Maybe someone told you that to draw flames of a campfire is difficult. Today, you are going to make your own perfect campfire drawing!

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Draw an ellipse. Ellipse represents the size of the flames of fire. Into the same ellipse, draw a couple of flames.

Yes, I know, now these “flames” look rather like seaweeds but just keep on drawing and follow my instructions.

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Hold your pencil tilted and draw some shade into the flames.

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Here you can add - draw more flames into the picture so it will look more realistic.

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Draw again more flames especially on the bottom of the fire. Do this by holding your pencil tilted.

When you draw flames with a pencil, it is good to draw the fire darker in the bottom and lighter towards the top.

I encourage you to use your fantasy and add as many flames as you feel necessary.

Now make some sharper rough pencil contours of each flame. Draw it like a quick sketch.

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Let’s sketch - outline some firewood under the flames. The shapes and size of the wood don’t really matter much, play with it, and use your fantasy.

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Work out the firewood so that it looks like wood. Erase the ellipse remaining from the initial drawing.

Now you are ready to add this fire to a little realistic look. A campfire is supposed to be enjoyed at night, so the surroundings are also supposed to be dark.

By slightly tilted pencil, draw a circle of light around the flames, first only by very weak pencil strokes.

The direction of pencil strokes should be oriented out of the fire.

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Now just draw more pencil strokes over the previous layer and gradually darken the outer part of the picture. Good! Now, you have not only learned how to draw flames but also how to draw a campfire at night.

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These types of flames are quite trendy among car and motorbike lovers. Actually, these flames are much easier to draw than the previous campfire flames.

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Again, draw an ellipse. This ellipse is a guideline or guide-ellipse into which you are going to draw the flames.

Hold your pencil tilted and begin to draw simple wider lines as you see in the picture.

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Just draw flames - draw more branches on the main flame legs that would fit into the ellipse. You don't need to exactly copy my drawing, but rather try to draw your own fantasy.

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Here you are going to decide the final shape and width of each flame. Simply similarly draw the outline contours as on this picture.

The experiment also with your own creativity if possible.

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Gently erase the whole drawing, but not completely. Leave very weak outlines of the flames.

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Now, take a red pencil and draw flames again over the formerly erased contours. After you are done, erase all the rest of the pencil lines.

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Draw the lower half of the flames in yellow.

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The tip of the flames will be in red. Enlarge the picture to see how the red gradually fades into yellow.

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Now your drawing looks like real hot flames! You can finish your flames drawing at this point or…

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….draw a black pencil contour accent around the flames.