This tutorial shows how to draw an axe step by steps. The kind of axe shown is one generally used for chopping wood.
axe drawing step by step
The axe in the example has a fairly common design consisting of two main parts, a metallic axe head and a wooden handle. Overall, the drawing is quite simple and the guide is very straightforward and beginner friendly.
It’s recommended that you start the drawing in pencil and make light and easy to erase lines in case you need to make a correction. You can darken your lines once you’ve added all of the axe’s details.
Step 1 – Draw the Axe Head
axe head guide line drawing
Start the drawing by outlined the head of the axe. Make it’s upper section narrower and make it’s lower section get much wider as it goes down. Overall, it should have a bell-like shape.
In this example the axe head is symmetrical so to help you make sure that both of it’s halves are the same you can draw a line through the middle of the area where you wish to position it. This will act as a guide that can help you see if that is the case.
axe head drawing
Once you have the axe head outlined erase the guide line.
Step 2- Draw the Axe Handle
axe handle drawing
Outline the axe’s blade (called the bit) by drawing a curved line slightly above it’s bottom. This line should pretty much trace the curve of the bottom of the axe head.
Step 2- Draw the Blade of the Axe (The Bit)
axe edge drawing
Draw the axe’s handle. Make it thicker as it comes out of the axe head. The upper end of this area is called the shoulder. The shoulders have a downwards slope making the handle thinner as it goes out. After this, make the handle fairly even in width throughout most of it’s length. However, draw this part to be very slightly curved. Finally, draw a more steep downwards curve and also make the handle thicker as it goes towards the end to create the knob. This is the part of the axe that is there to help prevent it from slipping out of the user’s hands.
Step 4 – Draw a Hole in the Handle
axe handle hole drawing
At the back of the handle draw hole that axes of this kind often have in that area. Generally, this is simply there so that it can be hung for storage.
Step 5 – Finish the Line Drawing of the Axe
axe line drawing
For the last part of the axe add one very simple detail. Draw a line a little bit less than half way down the handle. This will be used in the next step to give the area past it a different color.
Once you’ve added this last little detail, trace over your drawing with darker lines. Either press harder on the pencil or use a black marker.
Step 6 – Color the Axe Drawing
axe drawing
For the last step, color the axe. To make it like that in this particular example, do so as follows:
Axe head – dark grey
Blade/Bit – light grey
Light Handle – brown and red
Axe heads are often painted black or dark grey while the blade/bit so color the area accordingly. Make the blade a light grey so that it looks like metal.
Color the first part of the handle (coming out of the axe head) a light brown so that it looks like wood.
Having a handle colored partially red is something axes commonly have to make them easier to see. In this case you can make it red past the line drawn in the previous step.
You can apply the different colors with just bout anything you happen to have on hand, pencils, markers, paints, etc… After coloring also add a thin shadow running along the bottom of the handle. You can do so by going over the colors with a regular pencil. The shadow will help create a sense of a little bit of volume so that the drawing appears less flat.
Conclusion
This guide shows how to draw an axe with the parts and shape common to such a tool. While such a drawing is quite simple it can also look quite nice, especially once you apply some color and a bit of shading.
You can also use the axe as part of a larger picture. For example, you could draw it sticking out of a log. For drawing one see the following tutorial:
How to Draw a Log Step by Step
For guides on drawing other things in a similar style also try the following:
