How to draw sweets!

(This is a tablet tutorial, i’m using s7 fe if you’re interested, i use a dark filter to draw so it might look a little bit darker, i will let the links for my my tablet workspace and models used later here (after tips) if anyone is interested in following this tutorial using them :D)

Intro

More than just delicious, sweets are a burst of nostalgia, and a canvas for creativity. Whether decorating a picnic table or lighting up a mobile game, they hold a special place in our hearts and memories. From childhood treats to the occasional indulgence that throws our diets off track, sweets have the power to evoke pure joy.

And in this guide, I'm gonna teach you how to draw some of them!

 

Japan holds some of the most delicious and creatives types of candies of all times, so I'm going to show how to draw some of my favorites, BUT first we should be talking about some drawing fundamentals

Fundamentals

Think of everything you draw as being made up of basic 3D shapes like spheres, cubes, cones, and cylinders. Even complex objects can be broken down into these simpler forms.

It's the same with candies designs, so you should be breaking them down in simple shapes to start, by using some references this process should be way more easier, and after deconstructing them, we should have a better idea of how we're gonna construct it all over again

SIlhouettes

A strong silhouette instantly conveys the basic form and essence of a subject, be it a character, object, or food. This allows viewers to grasp the overall composition and message even before diving into details.

They help artists analyze the balance and visual weight of their work. By reducing everything to black and white shapes, they can assess the effectiveness of the composition and make adjustments for a more aesthetically pleasant result.

And by that, even for sweets, the silhouettes play an important role in telling the viewer the nature of your object, without needing too much details, and done it right, it makes the shape easily recognizable, even for unaware eyes.

This is not limited to sweets, but many sweets have distinctive silhouettes, so it's something you should be especially aware of.

 

So don't forget to test you silhouettes, and if it's easily recognizable, you're in the right path!

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Colors

Colors in sweets illustrations can trigger cravings and positive emotions associated with sweetness, happiness, and indulgence. Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow stimulate appetite, while cool colors like blue and green can suggest freshness and lightness.

Using colors that accurately represent the flavors and ingredients of the sweets, like brown for chocolate, pink for strawberry, or green for matcha, creates a sense of realism and enhances the illustration's appeal.

Contrasting colors can be used to draw attention to specific features of the sweets, like sprinkles, textures, or fillings, making them appear more visually interesting.

For example, take these three versions of the same cake, one of them feels bland and tasteless, while the other feels sweet and hot, and the final one fresh and cold.

Final notes

A well-chosen color palette can make a sweet illustration more memorable and easy to recognize, which is crucial for marketing and brand recall.

My main suggestion is that you choose mostly saturated and contrasting colors depending on your goal for the vibe.

So make sure to give it a thought when choosing how you want to color your sweets.

References

Now that we already discussed the raw theory for drawing sweets, i'm gonna present you an important step to master the aesthetic of them, and it is, references, so before we start, you should collect all sort of references for your sweets to be able to break them down in silhouettes and simple shapes, i'm not going to add any image here because its against the guidelines rules but i’ll use a finished art as a reference to show you how you can break them down.

Drafts/thumbnails

Clean drafts divided by more layers will often help you maintain clarity of all your elements of the objects, the thumbnails usually are a a small, preliminary sketch of an illustration:

In this case, the thumbnail is a miniature version of the final illustration, used by the artist to explore composition, layout, and key elements before investing time and effort into the full piece. Thumbnails are typically quick and rough, drawn as a series to brainstorm different ideas and compare options.

 

They don't need to be perfectly detailed, but they should capture the essence of the illustration.

Let's draw sweets in practice

Mochi

Mochi are chewy, stretchy Japanese rice cakes made from pounded glutinous rice. Think of them like a sweet, bouncy dough! They're often filled with yummy things like red bean paste or ice cream, but can also be enjoyed plain. Mochi is a very popular treat year-round, but especially during Japanese New Year celebrations

Mochi is also a popular choice of decoration when it comes to illustration, and although they are pretty simple to draw, you can be very creative with their designs.

 

Let's start with our plate. I'll be using some 3d models from clip studio assets to save us some time, but you can draw them too, it's not that hard.

Now let's add another layer on top and decrease the opacity of the initial sketch clicking this button to change the color for an easier distinction of the layer. This way we're gonna have better control of each element.

In the new layer, let's sketch the mochis beside each other, mochis are usually pretty bouncy so you just need to sketch imperfect circles with rectangular soft edges, and cut off some of them in half for better presentation

Also, we will be using these candies as a decoration for our final illustration so keep in touch.

For this lineart, we will be separating the lineart layers in two aspects, plate and food, so now I will ask you to add two folders, double click to name them after their respective objects, and this process will carry for each one of the candies we will be drawing.

Now for the lineart, we surely want a smooth and perfect roundy line, so let's use a trick with this csp feature, so for a better control of the line quality, lets add a vector type layer to act as our lineart only layer, vectors can come in handy when you want to keep the quality of your image even when resizing or editing with the mesh curve, but keep in mind we cannot use liquify tool while in this layer, and we cant use fill bucket too, so it’s best use will be almost always as a lineart layer. 

In the subtool figure palette, select the bezier curve tool, for this lineart we can either use a cubic curve or spline, but I would rather do it with a cubic curve.

 

 

let’s click and drag like this to create the shapes, and to adjust them click on control while in the curve, so you can adjust the format, but also clicking in “shift” while in the bezier will get you control over the curvers itself, it's easy right? so well let’s lineart the drawing like this, so it will look smooth.

Clicking in ctrl will get you control over the curve

Shift otherwise will get you control over the curves edges

Now that we have already finished the lineart, let's color them using the sub tool filling: enclose and fill, but first, let's set the sketch as a draft layer with this icon, so it won't be considered while you’re applying any effect or using the filling tool. while still being able to see it.

with the fill tool set for “all layers” reference, in the tool property, if you start circling the areas, it will fill up automatically.

Now that we have the base color, let's add a multiply layer on top of that, and select a warm color, (as the base color is pretty desaturated) and now we will gently shade around the mochis, focusing on the base part, avoiding the parts where the light is supposed to touch, and now selecting each mochi with the selection tool, we will improve the shadows with a darker color, using the selection tool on reference as well will make the selection easier, and we can also use the spray brush to create even more texture and depth in our mochi.

And now let's add another layer on top of the multiply layer, with the add effect and using a spray brush with a light color we will create a powder effect on top of the mochi, spraying around the places where the light is more focused.

And now to finish, in the same layer, you're gonna choose a darker and warmer color to create some highlights around, using the smudge brush in the sub tool palete. 

 

 

Some of the mochi are cut in half, so you can also draw their fillings, we can go with black bean fillings, or maybe strawberries, let your creativity flow.

And after plating, here is what we got, a pretty perfect mochi plate!

Melon Pan

Melon pan, also known as melon bun or melon bread, is a popular Japanese sweet treat with a unique appearance and texture. They are round buns with a distinctive grid pattern on top, resembling a melon rind.

As before, we gonna start by breaking down this little boy into simple shapes then sketch the grid pattern on top of it, and detail it with a little bit of shadow around the edges to have a better idea of how we gonna line it.

Now we're gonna line it normaly, but don't forget to turn up the stabilization, so we can have a nice smooth line, and as we do it, try to make the lines thicker where they meet.

Now we make the same coloring process as before, but this time we can add some darker dots around for this smooth bread effect.

 

 

:3 done

Cake Roll

A roll cake, also known as a Swiss roll, jelly roll, or cream roll, is a delicious dessert made with a light and airy sponge cake that is rolled up with a sweet filling.

To draw it, let's start by sketching a cylinder, closing the gaps with circles and then drawing a spiral inside of it. Next we should add the details. I want this roll cake to have whipped cream and strawberries on top so let's draw it! To draw the whipped cream, let's start sketching a format like a thick braid and if needed using the liquify tool to adjust it, then adding details, sketch the half cut strawberries on top to finish, they pretty much look like hearts.

Now line it, we gonna decrease the stabilization to make the lines look more imperfect, using real g pen for a rough look, by adding some details such as dots, and breaking the lines in random parts, we can create a texture illusion, but as you can see, now the lineart is broken so it will be impossible to use the fill tool, so we gonna use this silly trick called, “close gap”.

By selecting “target only transparent pixels” in the tool property palette, we can set the “close gap” option to 5, then we can fill it without needing to worry about the broken lines around.

 

 

Very useful right?

Now that we finally have our base color, let's do all the rendering process from the start as we did before, we can also use the Sub view palette to add some references and pick on colors inside them.

 

 

And done!

Dango

Dango are delicious Japanese dumplings made from rice flour. a popular wagashi from japan, that are usually small, chewy balls, often served on skewers (3-5 per skewer).They are also very popular decorations for illustrations and stickers so knowing how to draw dango can often come in hand sometimes.

There are two types of dango we can come with, a version with and without sweet soy sauce, i'm gonna teach you how to do both variations, so lets start!

As always first, we gonna start by drawing some skewers, you can use a ruler if you feel like its kinda difficult to draw, but overall just pull two sticks together, and now we gonna do the dangos, they are not perfect circles, in the base usually there's a lightly pressure between them, something like this squishy shape, and now after we are done, it's time to line it.

 

 

If you have difficulty lining roundy shapes, you can either use the bezier curve I've taught you earlier, or the circle ruler, but with the circle ruler, you might need to use the mesh tool to give it that squishy effect.

use vector eraser to erase the inside parts more easily

Dangos are often depicted in 3 colors, matcha, vanilla and strawberry, but you can be creative with this one, and use other colors as well.

We can paint this normally, just adding some juicy highlights in the end just like I taught you earlier, and now that we are pretty much done with the painting, we can start doing the sweet soil sauce version.

For the sauce version, we might need to add another layer on top, after doing that, let's sketch the effect. the sauce usually have a watery sticky physic, just like water dripping around, and we should go for the same effect, you can sketch it like its dropping around the mochis, and dripping on the plate, usually, the soil sauce is more dense than water so all the edges should have a shadow effect, for more depth.

Now we can fill the sauce with the proper color, and we can shade it around with a darker and saturated color, making it even darker in the areas where the material meets itself, you can also use a normal pencil with low opacity to create some distortion in the reflection, it can be pretty much be done by drawing random shapes around the watery material, because these distortions are caused by the reflection of other objects around the mirror part, so the distorted reflection can be whatever you want it to be.

 

 

And to finish, we add highlights that are also influenced by the reflections around, so, a double round of highlights will look really cool, but as its light, it can't be randomized so try to focus on the parts where the light is coming from.

spray brush to highlight

blur

done :)

Secret Sweet

Now its the time for the secret sweet.

 

And it is, JAPANESE PARFAIT

 

A Japanese parfait is a beautiful and decadent dessert that takes the classic ice cream sundae to a whole new level. While inspired by the American version, it has evolved into a distinct treat with its own unique characteristics:

This surely is one of the most complex of all sweets we ve had here.

 

But why is it so complex?

 

Just like lots of sweets you gonna find yourself out there, parfaits have lots of layers in its composition.

Japanese parfaits are known for their elaborate layering of various components, creating a visually stunning treat, and they are basically.

 

• Icecream

• Fruit

• Whippedcream

• Additionaldecors

But as we are smart little creatures, we should first start drawing the cup. Have you ever tried to render a complex gleaming glass cup before? Well I had my fair share of those, so let's try to break them down.

Gather some references and use curved lines to create a tall, elegant glass shape. I'm using this model because it went the best with the design for my final illustration, but it has wavy edges and it can be quite complex to render, as you can see it doest seem too symmetrical so we gonna be using this tool called symmetrical ruler, by selecting the rule option in the tool palette, you might find it in the ruler sub tool palette named as symmetrical rule, and  it's pretty easy to use, i personally like to add another layer just to make use of rulers, by adding your rule and clicking in this icon, you can set the “show in all layers option” and the rule will now affect your sketch layer as well.

Now we can properly sketch the glass, without worrying about it being asymmetrical, but if you have not use this tool yet, remember to set your eraser snapping option on, by clicking in the command bar in the tool property options, and enabling snapping, so your eraser can be affect by your ruler as well, it can be done the same way  for any other tool that doesn't have the enable snapping option set.

After adding some more details and using the liquify tool to create the wavy effect, now we have a perfect parfait glass sketch ready to line.

Add a vector layer on top for your sketch layer, and let’s meticulously line it still using the mirror ruler, and after we are done, it’s time to color.

by using the previous sauce technique.

1 in a folder you gonna fill it with a basic color that we might alter later to fit the fillings under it, because as a transparent object, its color will be heavily affected by what's inside.

2 Add a multiply layer, and with a darker color, we're gonna start by making some straight and wavy shadows like this, following the object pattern, and taking in consideration the shape and depth effect we want, that's a wavy glass.

3 blur and add highlights, now we can consider that we have a glass for our parfait for now.

For the fillings, i think i'm going for the basic in this design, matcha and vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, strawberries, and for decor, a single mint and a monaka wafer (a traditional Japanese wafer cookie)

let's first sketch it all together, it's the best part before suffering with render (cries) but we will be rendering each element separately, witch will be quite useful as we can reuse it eventually, I got references for all the decorations of the parfait, i've put it in a mood board, but as always i'm not showing it here, so make sure to make a mood board as well, might help you a lot.

i'll be showing each step of the render with visuals here, so just follow it and it might work out, I hope.

Drop the transparency

add color layer, spray like this and drop the transparency to 45%

Now we put all the elements together in the cup, adjust the colors and voila! a perfect parfait glass cup, looking really shiny and gleamy.

Decorating your illustration

… Now that we have all those nice candies done, what can we do with them as they are obviously not edible? 

 

Of course!

 

We're gonna decorate an illustration using them as material images! and also i'll be teaching you how to set all of them as materials so they can be easily reusable.

Setting image materials

At first, we rasterize the candy in a single layer, make it in a different canvas so you don't lose your progress, by right clicking any layer, we can select the “merge visible to new layer” option, and after setting it up, we gonna come here and click in edit, register material, and without setting anything, you just gonna name your image, chose the place it will be, chose a search tag for it and save.

Now coming back to the canvas you can click on the materials icon, and select all materials or search up the tag you choose, but the material you saved might be around here, ready to be reusable at any time you might need.

Decorating your illustration

This is an illustration I'm working on. It's kinda boring so we should add some candies to decorate it. After adding all the candies in my material catalog it became really easy to add them to my illustration, and now we can just take our time to decorate it carefully.

Now after doing some major color adjustments we are practically done! I hope this tutorial was useful for you in some way, and if it was, don't forget to drop a like and a comment if you have any questions!