How to Draw a Football Step by Step (Easy for Beginners)

An American football looks simple until you try it and end up with a lemon or an egg. The secret is in the two pointed ends and in curving every seam and stripe around the ball instead of drawing them flat. In this lesson I'll show you how to draw a football step by step, starting from one slanted line and ending with a leather ball flying through the air, laces up. It's a great pick for game day, a sports-loving kid or a Thanksgiving afternoon at the kitchen table.

How to draw a football step by step - finished colored football drawing — Our finished football, mid-spiral: brown leather, crisp white laces and stripes, plus a few speed lines to show it's moving.

Think of each picture like a replay: the fresh lines for that step show up in blue, and the gray ones are what you already drew.

Quick overview
⏱️ Time: about 20 to 25 minutes with coloring
🎯 Level: easy, fine for kids from about 6 up
✏️ Steps: 11
🏈 You'll draw: an American football flying through the air

Gear for Drawing a Game Day Football

A pencil you can press lightly with (HB works well)
A soft eraser
A black marker or fineliner for the final lines
Colored pencils, crayons or markers in brown, dark brown and light gray
A sheet of plain paper, turned sideways

A ruler can help with the first line, but a freehand line looks just as good here.

How to Draw a Football Step by Step

Step 1: Draw a tilted center line

Draw one long, light line that climbs from the lower left to the upper right of your page. Leave some room on the left for speed lines later. Then cross it in the middle with a shorter line at a right angle. These two lines tell you where the ball points and where its fattest part is.

💡 Tip: A slant of about the angle of a clock hand at two o'clock gives the ball a nice flying feel.

Step 2: Sketch a light oval guide

Around the cross, sketch a long oval that follows the slanted line. It should be almost twice as long as it is tall. Inside the top half, add a gentle curved line that bends the same way as the top of the oval. That curve marks where the laces will sit.

💡 Tip: Keep this oval so faint you can hardly see it. Most of it gets covered or erased.

Step 3: Draw the ball with pointed ends

Now draw the real outline. Start at the left end of the center line and sweep a curve up and over to the right end, staying just inside the oval. Do the same along the bottom. Where the two curves meet, let them form a soft point instead of a round end. Those points are what make it a football and not an egg.

💡 Tip: Draw the top curve and the bottom curve as two separate strokes. It's much easier to land the points that way.

Step 4: Add the curved center seam

Follow your lace guide curve and stretch it out until it reaches both tips, so the seam runs the full length of the ball. On the left it slips over the edge just before the tip, because that end turns slightly away from us. Leave a gap in the middle where the laces will go.

💡 Tip: The seam should curve like the top of the ball, never straight, or the ball looks flat.

Step 5: Draw the lower panel seam

A football is made from four leather panels, so there's another seam lower down. Draw a long curve that runs from the left tip to the right tip, close to the bottom edge. It bows down in the middle, almost like a smile that follows the belly of the ball.

💡 Tip: Keep a steady gap between this seam and the bottom outline. If they touch in the middle, the ball loses its roundness.

Step 6: Add stripes near both ends

Many footballs have a white stripe around each end. Near the right tip draw two curved lines that wrap from the top edge down to the bottom edge, bending toward the tip. Do the same near the left tip, but make that stripe a bit narrower, since it's turned a little away from you.

💡 Tip: Curve the stripe lines like the letter C or a backwards C. Straight stripes look painted on instead of wrapped around.

Step 7: Draw the long lace on the seam

In the gap you left on the center seam, draw a thin, long strip with two lines very close together. Square off each end. This is the main lace that the crossings will sit on, and it only covers the middle part of the ball, about a third of its length.

💡 Tip: Don't press hard. The crossings will cover parts of this strip in the next step.

Step 8: Add eight lace crossings

Over the long lace, draw eight small rectangles that cross it, evenly spaced from one end to the other. Each one should lean the same way, following the curve of the ball. I usually place the first and the last crossing, then the middle two, and fill in the rest between them.

💡 Tip: Count as you go. Eight is the classic number, and kids love checking a real ball to see it's true.

Step 9: Add speed lines behind it

Draw three straight lines behind the lower left tip, running parallel to the slanted center line. Give them different lengths and leave a little gap between the lines and the ball. Now the football looks like it was just thrown in a tight spiral.

💡 Tip: Lines that touch the ball look glued on. A small gap makes the motion feel faster.

Step 10: Ink the football and erase the guides

Trace all the keeper lines with your black marker: the outline first, then the seams, the stripes and the laces, and the speed lines last. Skip the light oval and the cross. When the ink is completely dry, erase every pencil line so only the clean drawing stays.

💡 Tip: Go a little thicker on the outline than on the seams. That one change makes the ball pop off the page.

Step 11: Color your football

Color the whole ball a warm medium brown. Add a darker brown along the bottom and right edge for shade, and a lighter brown streak near the top left where light hits it. Leave the laces and stripes white, with a touch of light gray where a stripe dips into the shade. A soft gray oval under the ball is its shadow on the grass.

💡 Tip: Color the leather in strokes that follow the long curve of the ball, so it looks rounded.

Why Football Drawings Turn Into Lemons

Round ends. A football with round ends looks like an egg or a potato. Bring the top and bottom curves together in a clear point.
Straight seams and stripes. Flat lines make the ball look like a sticker. Bend every seam and stripe so it wraps around the ball.
Laces from tip to tip. The laces only cover the middle part of one seam. Keep them short and centered.
Crossings that lean every way. When each little lace points in a different direction, the laces look messy. Keep them evenly spaced and parallel.
A ball that's too skinny. A thin football looks like a leaf or a canoe. Make it almost twice as long as it is tall.

Team Colors, Kicking Tees and Other Football Twists

Once the ball feels easy, set it upright on a small orange kicking tee, or add a goal post and yard lines behind it. Older kids can draw the ball in a hand or tucked under an arm. You can also color the stripes in your favorite team's colors instead of white. For a younger artist, leave out the lower seam and the speed lines, and it still reads as a football. If you want another ball with tricky curved seams, try this basketball drawing step by step lesson, and for more ballpark practice the baseball bat drawing tutorial comes with a ball and a glove.

Football Coloring Page and Printable Step Guide

The free football coloring page has a colored ball at the top as a model, a color key for every part and a large outline to color below it. The step-by-step PDF guide holds all 11 steps with pictures and tips, so you can draw without a screen. Both print on Letter or A4 paper.

🎨

Free PDF

Football Coloring Page

1 pageUS LetterColor key

Black outlines with a colored example and the color names at the top. Ready to print and color.

⬇️ Download Coloring Page

✏️

Free PDF

Step-by-Step Football Drawing Guide

7 pagesA4All 11 steps

Every step picture with its instructions and tips, to keep beside your paper while you draw.

⬇️ Download Drawing Guide

📱 On a phone? Tap a download button, then open the file and choose Share → Save to Files or Print. On a computer, the PDF opens or saves straight to your Downloads folder.

A Football Playbook for Your Pinterest Board

How to draw a football step by step - all 11 steps on one page (Pinterest) — Every football step on one tall image. Save it for practice before the next big game.

These are full step-by-step tutorials too, with a picture for every stage and a free coloring page.

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Rocket Drawing: Send a cartoon rocket blasting off through puffy smoke with this rocket drawing tutorial.

Football Drawing Questions from the Sidelines

What is the easiest way to draw a football?

Draw a slanted line, sketch a long oval around it, then trace a shape with two pointed ends inside the oval. Add a curved seam, short laces and two stripes, and you're done.