Very Easy · about 8 minutes

How to Draw a Coffee Mug

You are looking slightly down at the rim, so the opening is an oval, not a straight lid. The body hangs from that oval. The handle is a single curve on the right.

Materials Pencil, paper, eraser. A black pen is optional after you erase the box guide.

Step 1

Lightly draw an oval for the rim and a rectangle under it for the body. The rectangle is a guide. It will not all survive.

Step 2

Draw the real body inside the guide: sides dropping from the oval and a curved bottom. Keep the oval. The bottom is rounder than the rectangle's corners.

Step 3

Add the handle as one curve from the upper right of the body to the lower right. It should rejoin the cup. A handle that misses the body is a floating loop.

Step 4

Erase the rectangle. Leave the oval rim, the tapered body, a hint of the far rim inside the cup, and the handle. Darken those lines.

Finished

The finished mug reads as a cup because the rim is an ellipse and the handle attaches twice.

A common miss

A rim drawn as a straight line makes the mug look like a closed box with an ear. If the top is flat, redraw it as an oval before you add the handle.

One variation

Skip the handle and stop after step 2. That is the cup from the five-minute strip. Same oval, no curve on the side.

Related: Simple apple, Simple cactus.