How to Draw Mushroom

FUNGI

Today, we will focus on fungi-type mushrooms. Within this category, there still exists a multitude of mushroom families. These are living organisms made up of filaments and contrary to what one might believe, they are neither plants nor animals: they belong to the fungal kingdom.

They grow in all types of habitats and enjoy moisture. They are commonly found in forests but also in meadows, swamps, and can develop on trees, or very close to them by living in symbiosis... or by parasitizing them. They feed on organic materials - living or dead - and play a role as decomposers by transforming these materials into humus.

FOCUS ON THE MUSHROOM

In terms of their structure, it is quite similar across all their species; a stem, a cap... but visually elements distinguish them: the shape of the cap and stem, the type of ring, the coverings of their caps, etc.

More precisely:

• The cuticle is the part that covers the cap: it is the thin skin that is removed before cooking the mushroom.

• There are various forms of hats: bell-shaped, conical, petaliform, mammillated, convex, turbinate, umbilicate… The same goes for the stem and the ring.

• Under its hat, you may find either gills, pores, spines, or folds.

• Not all mushrooms have volvas or rings.

• The set of blades of the mushroom are called the gill. If they do not touch the stem of the mushroom, they are called lamellae, and for even smaller and shorter blades, the term lamellula is used.

DRAWING A MUSHROOM: THE PARASOL MUSHROOM

I will start this tutorial with the parasol mushroom because this fungus has many characteristic elements of the mushroom as we commonly imagine it: it’s a good basis for you to then vary on other drawings.

This pretty edible mushroom is also called "parasol mushroom". It resembles a parasol when it reaches its full size with its umbo-topped cap. In terms of color, it varies from whitish to beige. Its scales are a bit darker. Beneath its wide cap, one can see thin gills that are closely spaced together.

Let's start!

1/I draw lines (not quite straight) for his foot. It is quite long and thin.

2/I draw its rounded bulb at ground level. This mushroom does not have a volva so I leave the bulb bare. I leave space for some herbs that I will add later.

 

3/3Here, I draw the top of the mushroom: its cap. Following a line, I draw three distinct curves; one at each end of the cap and one at its peak.

 

4/4In a few irregular lines, I sketch the bottom of the hat (following a general oval shape). The flesh, fragile, crumbles more easily at this spot, which is why mushrooms are sometimes cut at this level.

5/5With very fine lines, I draw the gills that are behind the foot: they descend from the heart of the foot in a curved line, rising back towards the edges of the cap. For the gills at the very center, draw them in perspective. Feel free to vary their appearance slightly as they are not all exactly the same size.

6/6Always with fine lines, we detail the blades that are in front of the foot. We can only suggest some of them, and not draw all of them in order to keep an aesthetic rendering.

7/7The parasol mushroom has a ring that neither goes completely down nor completely up: it seems to wave around the stem. (It should be noted that the rings are closer to the cap than to the bulb.)

8/8I sprinkle the mushroom cap with scales. They seem to gather at its top and are sparser and larger on the bottom of the cap.

 

9/10I am now drawing the scales that decorate its foot. For this, you can interlock several abstract shapes together and keep a light stroke while drawing them.

10/10I'm sketching some grass on the ground to hide the bottom of the foot.

 

11/11I choose a few colors and apply them as a gradient on my drawing. The parasol mushroom is finished!

DRAWING A MUSHROOM: THE BOLETE

It's a tube mushroom that doesn't have gills under its cap, but pores. Let's see how to draw it together.

1/Its general shape is quite simple. It is round and dented in places. One can draw its domed cap first. Both the cap and the stem must be very fleshy.

2/2Once the general shape is sketched out, I draw the rough edges of his hat's brim.

3/3I'm drawing a foot, usually wide.

4/4I hatch his hat and add texture. The cap of these mushrooms is never smooth and perfect, so I add small scratches.

5/5I'm drawing small dots for the texture of the pores.

6/6I'm shading my drawing, hatching in the direction of the mushroom's form. The cap is quite dark compared to the rest. For the stem, this time there are no scales, but a fibrous texture.

7/7I'm adding some herbs around the porcini mushroom.

8/8Following the tones of the mushroom, I use color gradients to give it some life: brown, beige, maroon… and green/blue tones for the shadows and grasses.

The drawing of the bolete mushroom is finished!

Here are some other mushroom shapes you can draw by following the same sequence of steps seen above, and to go further, I have highlighted concepts that we have not yet illustrated:

• We see that some mushrooms form small groups. In the above example, the mushroom's gill is made up of blades (larger) that alternate with lamellae (smaller).
The conical shape of the hat is the same as for some morels, for example.

• The chanterelle, well known on our plates, has a funnel-shaped cap. To describe it, the surprising term "infundibuliform" is used!

• Spine mushrooms are less known and less common, but you might have heard of the hedgehog mushroom, or "hydnum repandum", an edible mushroom that falls into this category.

If we take other examples, the morel has deep cavities on its cap (and therefore no gills/pores/spines) and the coral fungus could be confused with actual coral due to their striking resemblance!

These organisms, which I find so fascinating, take on a plethora of shapes and textures (slimy, scaly, fleshy, porous...). They may seem common to us, but from their few centimeters high, they are essential to the balance of our ecosystem.

Illustrator and writer: Vincyane