How to Draw a Burger in 12 Steps

This tutorial shows how to draw a burger with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and pickles in twelve illustrated steps.

As the burger in the example has cheese on it it’s technically a cheeseburger. If you prefer to just be a hamburger you can leave the cheese out.

While the burger is fairly detailed, it’s draw one ingredient at a time to make the steps easy to follow. A lot of the smaller details are also added separately to make things even simpler.

It’s recommended that you start in pencil and make light lines that are easy to erase in case of a mistake. You can darken them once you’ve draw out all part of the burger.

Step 1 – Draw the Top of the Bun

Outline the top part of the bun with a curved upper end and a lightly curved bottom.

For drawing a different kind of bread see:

How to Draw Bread in 4 Easy Steps

Step 2 – Draw the Tomato Slice

Draw the tomato slice’s shape with a light curve that follows that of the lower end of the bun.

For drawing a whole tomato see:

How to Draw a Tomato Step by Step

Step 3 – Draw the Burger Patty

Draw the burger patty with a wobbly outline to show that it has a an uneven surface (as burgers usually do). Make it fairly thick in comparison to the tomato but not quite as thick as the bun.

You also want the burger’s overall shape to be slightly curved.

Step 4 – Draw the Lettuce

Coming out from below the burger patty add the lettuce. Draw it with a wavy/wobbly outline to show it’s various curves and folds.

Step 5 – Draw the Bottom of the Bun

Add the bottom of the burger bun with it’s upper end hidden by the lettuce. Make it a little wide thicker than the patty but thinner than the top half. Outline it’s shape with somewhat straight sides that then transition into a slightly curved bottom.

Step 6 – Draw the Cheese

Inside the outline of the burger patty draw the cheese. Show that it’s melting by defining it with a slightly “wavy” outline.

As was mentioned at the start of the tutorial, if you want this to just be a hamburger you can leave the cheese out.

For drawing a piece of cheese see:

How to Draw Cheese in 4 Steps

Step 7 – Draw the Pickles

Coming out from below the tomato slice add the pickles. First, draw their outer shapes and then add a second set of lines to define the skin and upper edges.

Step 8 – Draw the Sesame Seeds

With the main parts of the burger outlined you can begin drawing the smaller details.

Scattered along the top of the burger bun add the sesame seeds. Draw them facing in different directions but distributed fairly evenly throughout bun’s surface.

Step 9 – Draw Patty Texture

Show the texture of the patty by adding a few small wobbly lines and curves along it’s surface (as shown in the example).

Step 10 – Draw the Lettuce Folds

Show the inner folds of the lettuce with small, wobbly and sometimes broken up lines (as in the example).

Once you’ve added the last set of detail darken your lines by tracing over them with the pencil or a thin black marker.

Step 11 – Color the Different Parts of the Burger

To color the burger you can use whatever medium you prefer (paints, color pencils, markers, etc…). Just about anything can work. You can also mix and match different things.

Color each of the ingredients as follows:

Bun – orange/yellow/brown
Sesame Seeds – yellow
Tomato – red (with white spots to show reflections)
Pickles – light green with dark green skin
Cheese – yellow
Burger – brown (with lighter spots to reflections)
Lettuce – green

Adding little reflections in the tomato will help show that it has a smooth and shiny skin. You can simply leave these white as you color (optionally lightly outlining them beforehand).

The surface of the burger patty can also be somewhat reflective when covered in grease or cooking oil. However, these reflections will usually not be quite as bright as those on the tomato. For this reason lightly go over them with a lighter brown.

Step 12 – Add Shadows to Finish the Drawing

A drawing without any shading can look “flat”. To fix this add a few shadow.

In this case the shading is fairly generic. The shadows are distributed as they would be in most common lighting conditions where the burger is in a well lit environment with most of the light coming from above.

For such a setup you can add the shadows in the following places:

Along the bottom of the cheese slice
Along the bottom of the burger patty
Inside the lettuce folds
Below the lettuce
Along the bottom of the lower half of the burger bun

In this case the shadows are highly simplified (without any gradients). However, as you can see in the example, even basic shading can still be very effective.

To add the shadows you can either use darker variants of the different colors or a regular pencil.