Mycena chlorophos glowing green at nightCaps to 3 cm on thin translucent white stems. The caps and gills give a pale green light; the stems barely glow.
Amethyst deceiver, purple from cap to footCap, stem and widely spaced gills are one deep purplish lilac when moist. Cap to 6 cm, usually with a central dip.
Artist's bracket with a drawing scratched inWoody brown bracket with concentric growth rings. The fresh white underside turns dark brown where scratched, for good.
Bleeding tooth beaded with red dropletsA whitish velvety cap 4 to 10 cm across, uneven, oozing bright red droplets when young. Spines underneath, not gills.
Chicken of the woods shelves on an oakFan-shaped shelves in overlapping tiers, sulphur-yellow to bright orange, suede-textured. Pores underneath, not gills.
Common puffball puffing in the rainPear shape, off-white, studded with cone-shaped spines. A raindrop on the hole at the top sends out a cloud of spores.
Devil's fingers bursting from an eggFour to eight pinkish-red arms up to 10 cm long break out of a white egg, streaked with dark olive slime.
Earthstar opened on the forest floorThe outer skin splits into segments that fold back like a star. In the middle sits a spore sac with a small cone mouth.
Fairy inkcaps trooping over a stumpBell-shaped tan caps that grey with age, under 4 cm tall. Draw dozens, overlapping. Unlike most inkcaps they never melt.
Fluted bird's nest holding its eggsA cup under 1 cm wide, shaggy outside, grooved and shiny inside, holding lens-shaped 'eggs' that raindrops splash out.
Fly agaric, red cap flecked with white wartsBright red cap 5 to 30 cm, white pyramid warts, white free gills, a white ring and a bulb with two to four ruffs.
Giant puffball in a meadowA white ball with no stem, 10 to 50 cm across. One sphere; set a boot or a daisy beside it for scale.
Golden chanterelle from the sideEgg-yellow funnel. Rounded forked folds, not true gills, run almost all the way down a stem that tapers from the cap.
Indigo milk cap oozing blue milkIndigo cap 4 to 15 cm with paler and darker rings and a central dip. Cut gills ooze blue milk that slowly turns green.
Lion's mane hanging from a hardwood trunkOne rounded clump of crowded hanging spines, each 1 to 5 cm long. Draw it like a frozen waterfall, strand over strand.
Morel with a honeycomb capA network of ridges round deep pits, in white, grey, black, brown or yellow. Hollow when sliced lengthwise.
Mycena chlorophos glowing green at nightCaps to 3 cm on thin translucent white stems. The caps and gills give a pale green light; the stems barely glow.
New Zealand's sky-blue mushroom in leaf litterEntoloma hochstetteri: a conical cap to 4 cm, blue all over. It is printed on New Zealand's fifty-dollar note.
Oyster mushrooms stacked on a trunkFan-shaped caps 2 to 30 cm, white to grey or brown, wavy at the edge. Whitish gills run down a short off-centre stem.
Parasol mushroom with a snakeskin stemFlat cap to 25 cm with a smooth dark umbo and loose flakes. Thin tall stem, scaly like snakeskin below a movable ring.
Penny bun with a netted stemRounded reddish-brown cap like a bread roll, pores underneath instead of gills, stout pale stem with a raised net.
Scarlet elf cups on a fallen stickCups 2 to 6 cm across with rolled-in rims, smooth deep red inside, whitish and felted outside. A winter and spring find.
Shaggy ink cap melting into inkTall white cylinder cap with shaggy scales, pale brown at the tip. Its gills go white, pink, then melt to black liquid.
Turkey tail brackets tiled along a logThin stalkless fans to 10 cm, zoned in rust-brown, darker brown and sometimes black. Named after a wild turkey's tail.
Veiled lady in a lace skirtBell-shaped cap on a hollow white stalk up to 25 cm. A lacy net skirt hangs from under the cap nearly to the ground.
White coral fungus with crested tipsWhite to cream arms 2 to 4 mm wide that fork three or four times and end in small pointed crests. Up to 8 cm tall.
Yellow brain on a dead branchTranslucent yellow-orange jelly in brain-like lobes, up to 7.5 cm across. It dries to a film and revives after rain.
Studies and scenes 12
A chart of seven cap shapesConical, convex, flat, bell-shaped, umbonate (knob in the centre), depressed and funnel. One silhouette each, in a row.
A cluster of mixed sizes on a fallen logLean the stems away from each other, overlap the front caps on the back ones, and treat the log as a cylinder.
A fairy ring seen from aboveThe mycelium grows out from a centre and the middle dies off, so the mushrooms come up in a ring. Add darker grass.
A field-guide page with every part labelledCap, gills, ring, stem, volva. The ring is the remains of the partial veil that covered the gills; the volva is a cup.
A jar terrarium with moss and tiny mushroomsDraw the jar's ellipses first, then run one highlight stripe down the glass across everything inside.
A mushroom cottage with a door in the stemFat stem, wide cap. Door low in the stem, a window tucked under the rim and a bent chimney through the top.
A mushroom sliced in half from cap to baseThe cut face shows the gills as a thin fringe under the cap flesh and the stem running up into it. Shade it flat.
A spore print on black and white paperA cap left on paper overnight drops a powdery print: white, cream, black, red, purple or brown. Draw the cap lifted.
Gills seen from directly belowLines run from the rim to the stem like spokes. Short partial gills, called lamellulae, fill the gaps and stop short.
Mycelium threads under one small mushroomThe mushroom is only the fruit body. Below it, draw a mass of branching threads, the hyphae, spreading through the soil.
One tall mushroom from a worm's-eye viewFrom below, the cap is a wide ellipse, the gills converge on the stem, and the stem narrows as it climbs. Foreshorten.
Three ages of a fly agaric: egg, dome, plateThe cap goes from globe to hemisphere to plate. The warts stay the same size, so they spread apart as the cap grows.
Paint it 12
A brown cap left to bloom wet-on-wetBurnt sienna, yellow ochre. Wet the cap shape with clean water, touch in both paints and let them spread and blend.
A speckled cap made with table saltBurnt umber, raw sienna. Sprinkle salt on the wash while it is wet; it pushes pigment away and leaves pale blooms.
Amethyst deceivers in one graded purple washViolet, permanent rose. One graded wash per cap, darkest at the centre, then lift a highlight out with a damp brush.
Chanterelles in acrylic on a black groundWhite, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow. Block each shape in white, let it dry, then add the yellows. Drybrush the folds.
Chicken of the woods in thick knife strokesCadmium orange, cadmium yellow, white. Heavy body acrylic holds a knife stroke: one thick swipe for each shelf.
Fly agaric in watercolour with masked wartsCadmium red, yellow ochre, sap green. Mask the warts with masking fluid, wash the cap red, rub the mask off when dry.
Glowing caps on a night-blue groundPrussian blue, black, pale green. Dark ground first, then thin green glazes round each cap, brightest at the gills.
Indigo milk cap rings built in glazesCerulean, indigo. Let the pale blue dry, then glaze darker rings over it. Transparent layers build the zoned cap.
Morel in sepia, pits before ridgesSepia, raw sienna. Drop dark sepia into each pit, let it dry, then glaze sienna over the cap so the ridges stay light.
Pen-and-wash sketch of a penny bunWaterproof pen, burnt sienna, ochre. Draw first, then drop loose washes over the lines and let them miss the edges.
Three toadstools in acrylic, dots lastRed, white, leaf green. Acrylic dries in 10 to 20 minutes, so dot the white warts over dry red with a brush handle.
Turkey tail bands pulled with a dry brushBurnt umber, raw sienna, grey, cream. A brush squeezed nearly dry leaves scratchy arcs, much like the real zones.
How it works
These mushroom drawing ideas start from real fungi. Twenty-six are named species with a cap shape, colours and one feature to get right, checked against Wikipedia: a morel is hollow, and a chanterelle has folds where gills should be. Twelve are studies and scenes; twelve come with a palette and a painting method. It is a drawing list, never a field guide.
Read the full guide
Cap first, then look underneath
Cap shapes have names: convex like a bun, conical, bell-shaped, flat, funnel, or umbonate, meaning a knob in the middle. A chart of seven cap shapes is in the list. Then look under the cap. A penny bun has pores, a chanterelle has forked folds running down the stem, and a bleeding tooth has spines. The underside is what makes a drawing read as one species.
Three groups, and a palette on every painting
Every idea has a level: 18 easy, 19 medium, 13 hard. Group and level combine, so Named species plus Easy holds nine. Paint it covers mushroom painting ideas: each hint lists the paints, then one method, such as masking the warts on a fly agaric or sprinkling salt into a wet brown wash.
Draw the cap's rim as an ellipse. You nearly always look down on a mushroom a little, so a flat semicircle reads as a cut-out.
Gills are not parallel. They fan from the stem to the rim and bunch together where the cap curves away from you.
A puffball, an earthstar and an elf cup are a sphere, a star and a bowl. Draw all three before you try a gilled cap.
Questions and answers
Which mushroom is easiest to draw?
Giant puffball in a meadow is one sphere with a boot beside it for scale. Penny bun with a netted stem is a bun on a barrel. The red fly agaric is easy too: a dome, a cylinder, a ring, and white warts dotted on last. Eighteen of the 50 are in Easy.
What is under the cap if it is not gills?
A penny bun has pores, which draw as a fine sponge, and so does chicken of the woods. A golden chanterelle has rounded forked folds running down the stem. A bleeding tooth and a lion's mane carry spines. The hints help you get a likeness on paper. Never use them to identify a find.
Should I paint mushrooms in watercolour or acrylic?
Watercolour suits caps: wet paint spreads into soft blotches like real markings. Wet the cap shape, touch in two browns and leave it alone. White warts need masking fluid first. Acrylic is opaque and dries in 10 to 20 minutes, so you can dot white over dry red.