How to Draw Cartoons:
Create Your Own Style

Drawing cartoon food, like so many other drawings, can be simplified to just four steps that make learning simple for new artists. Your cartoon food can take on just about any form and make your mouth water in the process, but today, we'll draw a tasty hamburger, using some of the most basic elements and shapes that we've reviewed in some of the previous lessons.

Step 1 - The Top Bun
Okay, so McDonald's starts with the bottom bun, and in essence, we are going backwards, but if you want to make the process simple so that you can build from the ground up, this is the way to go. The top bun on this cartoon food is going to be an arc that is about half a circle, with another extremely shallow arc connecting the two ends below. Ready to move on?

Step 2 - Lettuce and Cheese
We're going to skip over the onions, special sauce, and all the junk that really just overcrowds the drawing of our cartoon food, mostly because I don't like those parts of the burger!

The lettuce comes next. Starting on the left, you are going to draw a short line out to the side of the bun, then a sideways "V", followed by another, wider "V" that points more downward.

Create a sweeping line that reconnects at the "bun line" a little to the left of center. The center section of the lettuce will be a "W" and a "V", with another sweeping line back to the bun, about a third of the way from the right point. Your last section of lettuce will look like a star with the top point "hidden" under the bun.

The second part of this step is the cheese and it is extremely simple. A banana shape can be drawn that overlaps the existing drawing so that erasing overlap lines causes the cheese to completely "disappear" under the lettuce in the center and only be seen on the two edges under the lettuce.

TIP: If you're unsure which is cheese and which is lettuce look at the colored image at the top of the page.

Step 3 - Tomato, Meat, and Bottom Bun
This step to creating your cartoon food couldn't be simpler. Draw a line with a slight downward curve just below the melted ends of the cheese. This is your tomato.

Right next to the points of the cheese, you'll draw two short downward lines, then connect them with a slightly arced line matching the angle of the tomato. Round off the corners where the lines connect, and that's your meat.

Do this one more time, starting just a little inward of the edges of the meat and making the layer slightly thicker, and you've drawn your bottom bun.

Step 4 - The Plate and a Sesame Bun
Since I know you didn't expect to eat this off the floor we're going to add a plate! It can be formed by drawing two ovals, one inside the other, with the overlap lines disappearing behind the burger at the "meat" level. The bottom of the plate is just a moon-shaped arc.

Also, a cartoon food burger wouldn't be complete without a sesame seed bun. Your sesame seeds are basically tiny teardrops at various angles scattered over the top bun.

Now, your burger is complete, but it might be a good idea to color in the layers if you REALLY want it to make your mouth water!