How To Draw and Paint a Banana, Apple and Orange

Here's a simple tutorial for kids on how to draw a banana, apple and orange using the anthropomorphic technique and paint them with watercolors!

Fruits can seem to be a simple subject to sketch, but it teaches kids many valuable drawing skills. Aside from that, there are so many different kinds, forms, sizes, and colors… It makes for some very interesting subject. 

Grab your pencil and paper, and let's start!

Blog cover image of watercolor painting of a banana, an orange, and an apple

Table of Contents

Learn How To Paint at Creativity School!


Let’s start the creative journey of your kids through drawing using basic shapes!

Our award-winning artists also give away free LIVE art classes from the Creativity School. 

Learn how to make collages, animations, pop-up cards, draw ninjas, characters, paint, and much more!

What are anthropomorphic characters? 

Image of anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables

Anthropomorphism adds human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors, mostly to animals and other non-human things like plants and other objects.

It is widely used in children's literature because it is a powerful educational tool that creates beautiful, memorable characters. From dancing cats and dogs to singing bears, cars and many more, popular texts and messages for children rely heavily on this non-human dialogue.

How To Draw and Paint A Banana, Apple, and Orange


Let's draw an apple, a banana, and an orange and turn them into cute cartoon fruit characters! We'll also paint them as well using watercolors. 

You can get some pieces of fruits from the fruit baskets in your house for some inspiration.

Materials

  • 2 or 3 small or medium pieces of watercolor paper
  • 2-3 cups of water
  • One palette or plate for mixing
  • Watercolors
    • Yellow
    • Red
    • Black
    • Blue
    • Orange
    • Brown
    • Green
    • Any extra colors you want
  • 2 paint brushes – 1 large and 1 small
  • Pencil and eraser
  • Paper towel

Instructions

Image of a palette with yellow, orange, brown, red, green, blue, and black watercolor paints.

Step 1. Prepare your palette.


Add your watercolor paints to a palette. You can use pre-made orange, green, and brown, or you can mix your primary colors to produce them.

Numbered picture instructions on how to draw a banana cartoon character

Step 2. Let’s draw the banana.


First, draw a crescent-moon shape that has soft ends instead of pointy ones. 

Draw the arms and legs using two curved lines each.

On the top of the banana, draw two connecting lines (this is where the fruit is connected to the bunch)

Draw a line lightly along the middle, then a small oval at the bottom.

Add the fingers and shoes.

Lastly, draw a smiling face to your banana cartoon.

Numbered picture instructions on how to draw an orange cartoon character

Step 3. Next, draw the orange.


First, draw a big circle for the orange. 

Let's make the arms as if the orange is putting them on the waist. Draw half circles on the sides, then add small half-circles inside to show the round arms. Add small triangles on each end for the hands.

Draw two small straight lines for one of the legs. Let's make the other one raised by drawing two small lines side by side with each other.

Draw the boots using straight lines on the top, a crescent-moon shape at the bottom, and a small square heel.

Lastly, draw the face. You can add details like eyeglasses, and you can draw any emotions that you like for your orange.

Numbered picture instructions on how to draw an apple cartoon character

Step 4. Let’s draw the apple.


First, draw two c-shapes opposite each other, then add curvy bumps at the bottom to close.

Next, use curved lines for the arms and legs.

Draw a closed fist for your apple, then add inverted ‘U's for the feet.

Draw the face, then add other details like the stem and leaf on top.

Step 5. Paint your fruits.


There are a couple of different ways to paint your fantastic characters to achieve different looks. In this blog, I'm going to show you 2 ways on how you can paint them.

Image of a banana, orange, and apple cartoon characters painted with single colors using flat/solid base way.

Flat/Solid Base


The first way is painting using a flat/solid base. This is simply painting the whole body of your characters with one color.

As shown in the picture above, the banana is painted yellow. The orange is painted orange, and the apple is painted red.

You can paint your characters with any color you want.

Image of a banana, orange, and apple cartoon characters painted with single colors using flat/solid base way.

Textured Base


The following way is painting using a textured base. You do this by painting the whole body of your character with one color then adding the shadow color while still wet.

The shadow color is usually placed behind your character or on the opposite side of the light source.

Here are the color mixes you can use for the shadow effect:

Yellow- use brown, black, or green

Orange- use brown, black, or red

Red- use either brown or black.

There you have it! You can now draw and paint many cartoon fruits as you want and make a cool and funky fruit basket!

Tips for art-amazing success:

  • Watercolor paint is fun yet hard to control, and most of the time, the paint can run over the lines. Here’s a short guide to clean up the edges.
Numbered picture instruction on how to clean up the edges of the watercolor run-on
    1. Find where the watercolor runs over the lines.
    2. Wet the spots with a clean, slightly wet brush.
    3. Dab the wet area with a paper towel.
    4. Lift the paper towel.
  • Complete your masterpiece by painting the shoes and boots. You can also add other objects or create a dialogue among the characters.
  • It’s okay to be messy; as long as you enjoy what you are doing.

Here’s some of the cute cartoon fruit characters of our young artists at Creativity School.

Image of a watercolor painting of a banana and orange cartoon character.
Image of a watercolor painting of an orange, banana, and apple cartoon characters.
Image of a watercolor painting of a banana orange, and apple cartoon characters.

Cool watercolor fruit characters at Creativity School by Hannah (top-left), Saatvik (top-right), and Krish (bottom)

Did you enjoy learning how to draw and paint fruits? Which fruit do you like to draw the most? We'd love to hear from you in the comments section below. 

Want more awesome watercolor paintings? Check out our other painting tutorials in the links below. 

Beautiful Tulip Painting

Space Painting

Beautiful Sunset Painting

Cute Unicorn Painting

How to Make a Color Wheel

Creative Kids Live

“We can tell that Creativity School is having a positive impact on my son’s motivation for school and his overall well-being. We know art and creativity are always boosts for academics and health! This is proving it!!!"
- Celina G.

On Demand Class

“Arree Chung, your class is fantastic! I am sure other parents would agree that Creativity School is more of a FAMILY DEAL! Because I, as a parent who has no drawing experience, learned too.”
—Miao
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