How to Draw a Crown – Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

Final product image — What You’ll Be Creating

Crowns are works of art—they’re not practical, they’re simply meant to stun people with their splendor. Precious metals, rare jewels of all colors, fancy ornaments… You can really let your imagination go wild when designing a crown! And you don’t have to be a master blacksmith to create your own crown—you can simply draw it!

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to draw a classic crown with eight arches—how to plan its structure and how to decorate it with ornaments and jewels. You can follow my steps directly or only in part, to create your own fantastic design!

1. How to Start a Drawing of a Crown

Step 1

Draw a vertical line. This will be the line of symmetry for our crown.

Step 2

Draw an ellipse on the bottom.

Step 3

Draw an identical ellipse a bit higher. Together they’ll create the “band” on the bottom of the crown.

Step 4

Draw two more ellipses inside, a little farther from the previous ones. We’ll use these for decoration later.

Step 5

Draw a horizontal line over the ellipses. Connect it to their sides.

Step 6

Draw another, shorter horizontal line above and connect it to the previous one.

Step 7

Draw ellipses around these lines. Their shape should be similar to the ones on the bottom.

Step 8

Connect both ellipses with curves.

Step 9

Our crown will have eight curved “arches”—two of them on the sides, which we already have, two in the front and back (which are simply vertical lines), and four in between. To find a proper place for them, draw a mark on each ellipse—use the same proportions each time.

Step 10

Draw a curve through these marks. Its shape should be a transition between the side curve and front curve (a line).

Step 11

Draw the back curves the same way.

Step 12

The arches need to connect at a single point, bending slightly in the middle. Draw this area as an ellipse, slightly lower than the top one.

Step 13

Draw an octagon in this ellipse—one side for each arch.

Step 14

“Copy” each side of the octagon along its corresponding curve to define the width of the whole arch.

Step 15

You can draw many of the width-defining lines to better see the shape of the arch before you attempt to draw it.

Step 16

Outline the arches.

Step 17

Draw the arches in the back the same way.

Step 18

Draw a circle on top of the crown.

Step 19

Cross it with two ellipses to better mark its 3D shape.

2. How to Decorate a Crown

Step 1

We can decorate the crown however we want, but the key is to keep these decorations consistent. Sketch some guide lines to set up equal proportions for each arch.

Step 2

Draw circles in these guide lines, changing them to ellipses in perspective.

Step 3

Draw a band inside each arch, about one-quarter of the way from each side.

Step 4

Draw a “petal” within these guide lines.

Step 5

Draw two vertical guide lines right next to the arches.

Step 6

Add some horizontal guide lines to draw the side petals of this ornamental flower.

Step 7

Add two vertical guide lines below, creating a narrow band.

Step 8

Draw the bottom of the flower here.

Step 9

“Bind” the petals in the middle.

Step 10

Draw decorative grooves over the crown’s main band.

Step 11

Draw a cross on top of the crown.

Step 12

Let’s add thin decorative bands on the arches and the ball.

Step 13

Fill these bands with tiny golden pearls.

Step 14

Let’s add some little prongs to make the bottom more interesting.

Step 15

The inside of the crown is often filled with a cloth “cap”. Draw its outline.

3. How to Add Jewels to the Crown

Step 1

Finally, the most fun part! Let’s add some shiny jewels. Draw circles right under each arch (turn them into ellipses in perspective).

You can learn about drawing different crystals/diamonds from these tutorials:

Step 2

Draw a smaller circle/ellipse inside—the flat top of the jewel. Because it’s higher than the previous circle, it should also “move away” from the center as the perspective shifts.