How to draw a cucumber step by step? What is a "Turkish cucumber"?

Cucumber is a popular and beloved vegetable by many. It looks quite simple, but there are some nuances in its depiction. To understand how to draw a cucumber most realistically, you should pay attention to its slightly curved shape, characteristic pimply surface, uneven color and stalk. Sometimes there remains a dried-out piece on the opposite edge yellow flower. It is advisable to take these details into account so that the resulting pattern looks like a real cucumber.

Realistic example

The proposed sequence will teach you how to draw a cucumber with a pencil. The detailed visual explanation will be clear to artists of all skill levels.

It is most convenient to start a pencil drawing by preparing a sketch. For a cucumber, this can be an elongated rectangle with beveled corners and a marked stalk.

Then the corners of the sketch are rounded to form an oblong oval, slightly curved inward. In the resulting picture you can already guess the cucumber.

Finally, surface structure and shadow are conveyed by shading to give volume to the image. The drawing is ready.

Step by step example of drawing a cucumber

In order to learn how to depict a vegetable along with a stem, leaves and flower, we suggest using the tips below. This method explains in detail how to draw a cucumber step by step and taking into account all the necessary details that make the final result resemble a real vegetable in the garden.

Stage 1
The future image is marked with auxiliary lines resembling the sides of a rectangle.

Stage 2
The main outline of the figure is drawn using them.

Stage 3
In the foreground there is a schematic representation of a cucumber flower and its tendrils. On background- visible part of leaves.

Stage 4
It’s time to start detailing the image: voluminous pimples are drawn on the surface of the vegetable, and veins are drawn on the leaves and flower. The edge of the cucumber is slightly darkened.

Stage 5
The resulting drawing is shaded. You can also color it or shade the strokes and leave it black and white.

A simple example for children

You can show your child how to draw a cucumber in color right away. It's easy and doesn't require much time or effort.

First, the outline of the vegetable is depicted in the form of an oblong oval, slightly narrowed in the center. On the edge is the tail of the stalk.

Then the lines convey its uneven surface.

After this, you can immediately start coloring. The main color is dark green. The irregularities are filled in with a lighter color.

cucumber leaf

The leaf is the most complex element of the plant. But to understand how to draw a cucumber leaf, just follow the recommended sequence, and the result will be excellent.

First, the main veins are depicted, showing its five-pointed shape. Then, using thinner lines, small veins are added between them.

After this, arcs connecting them are drawn along the vertices of the rays. From the main ones, even smaller veins are added. The sheet is ready.

Now it can be added to any cucumber design. For example, it might look like this:

crooked cucumber

Knowing how to draw an ordinary vegetable, understanding how to draw a crooked cucumber is as easy as shelling pears. For this purpose, the form is also depicted first, but bent as desired.

Surface details are drawn on it: stripes. You can also add pimples.

The finished image is filled with color.

Jar

In order to understand how to draw a jar of cucumbers, it is enough to be able to draw the vegetable itself. A glass jar can be drawn quite easily in any desired shape. For example, like this:

You can also depict more difficult option, with lid. The prepared transparent container should be filled with cucumbers drawn using any of the proposed methods. And the finished image is filled with color.

I was about to call the article “How to draw vegetables” and out of curiosity I looked on the Internet: what other vegetables could (and should) be drawn. This is where a discovery awaited me - cucumber and tomato are formally... yes! - fruits.

So, here are the conventions: it is agreed that those edible fruits that contain seeds are fruits. And those that are edible, but are not intended for plant propagation, are vegetables. This is the modern classification. Although I called cucumbers and tomatoes vegetables for years (and they didn’t mind).

But, having found out who is who in reality, now we will stick to the truth: how to draw fruits - a cucumber and a tomato?

Let's start in order.

Let's draw a cucumber step by step

Let's take a cucumber or even two and consider.

Long green cucumbers. One is slightly curved. Not as cool as but there is a little bit. However, if the banana always lies on its abdomen, and the ends are raised, then the cucumber agrees to any arrangement: with a bracket up and a bracket down, everything suits it. Taking into account the experience of difficulties when shading a banana, I will place the cucumber conveniently - with an arc upwards.

Let's draw the contours - wow, the cucumbers turned out - immediately recognizable (if you know what we're talking about). Well, if so, then let’s call this picture “Cucumber Coloring Page”:

And let's start coloring. First with pencils. What do we have in the set? Salad, grass-green, blue-green (hmm...obviously not suitable - let it stay in the box), brown, gray and black. Armed with this whole range, let's get started.

Here! I’m smart that I positioned the cucumber correctly - the hand itself moves along a comfortable arc.

The nose of the cucumber is lighter and has white longitudinal stripes, and the tail end is dark green and almost black. And here I admit, comrades, watercolor pencils-great stuff, but bright, rich colors It’s difficult to convey them. Even when many overlapping layers are applied, the color turns out transparent and airy. Although, if you add a few pimples to the skin, the cucumber looks pretty cute.

But another one is waiting for his turn. Oh no! I’m already tired of applying ten layers of pencils - I can’t achieve the desired tone, and the paper will soon begin to tear. How will we decide?

Come to me, my faithful watercolor!

With paints things went more fun and much faster. True, I also had to apply several layers, but not 10! Although there are also some disadvantages - now the paper is wet and immediately bends slightly. But what a rich color!

I draw shadows under both cucumbers... Ehhh! Was - no - was! Since we have such a disco, let's get a tomato here! I'll draw a tomato too.

Let's draw a tomato step by step

From life. And paints.

The pencil drawing of a tomato is nothing complicated - a circle. If there is anything interesting, it is the tail - a short petiole with five long, curved, pointed sepals.

And now, in a wave of inspiration, we will try to draw a portrait of Senor Tomato as similar as possible.

This time the colors had to be applied in many layers - the shades on the sides were very diverse: red and orange and ocher and scarlet and purple.

Blik! Comrades, don’t forget the glare! IN watercolor technique There is no white paint - so you need to provide a place where the highlight will not accidentally be painted over in the general color of the blush. Also analyze shadows and reflexes (highlights on the sides) carefully. For me, the shadow is not just dark burgundy, but even crimson and even with a certain hint of cold purple. So that. As a child, studying at art school, I didn’t want to see this, but now I’ve become an adult and the shades and nuances have become interesting to me. Alas, I got punished for inattention precisely then – in childhood. Eh-ma, everything has its time.

According to designers and art historians, this unusual and very ancient pattern is today experiencing another round of popularity; on its basis, many famous brands of branded clothing have already managed to release completely different and very original forms of clothing.

But why exactly “Turkish cucumber”? What is this strange name and where does it come from? Why is it so popular and why is it known literally all over the world? Let's figure it out.

The history of an amazing ornament

“Turkish cucumber”, “Persian cypress”, “Japanese cucumber”, “Oriental cucumber”, buta, “Tear of Allah” and, perhaps, one of its most common names - Paisley... And these are not all the “names” of this unique pattern, which is not only known almost throughout White light, but almost every country has its own special history of origin.

This drawing is truly capable of boasting an ancient, and still completely unknown, history of its origin, which, according to experts, began in the ancient Sassanid Empire, approximately 225 BC. In fact, this is the territory of modern Iran and Iraq, and therefore these countries can be considered the ancestors of the Turkish cucumber.

Thanks to trade relations, over time, paisley fabrics reached the countries Central Asia, spread to Africa and India, from where, in principle, they came to Europe at the beginning of the 17th century thanks to British settlers.

Beautiful oriental patterns usually covered scarves and shawls, which were highly valued in those days; only aristocratic and wealthy people could afford them.

Europeans liked the unusual pattern so much that in a Scottish town called Paisley they even launched mass production of fabrics with a “cucumber” pattern, from where, by the way, it got its another name. True, at first the products were much inferior to Indian ones, the meager palette of colors was not pleasing, and the quality was much worse.

But, over time, factories developed more and more widely, the “cucumber” from the East became more and more popular and spread to the masses, which deprived it of its original value and the uniqueness of authentic motifs. TO end of the 19th century century, Paisley completely lost its relevance, falling into a period of long oblivion.

They remembered its existence only a century later, and this happened thanks to famous group The Beatles, suddenly “Turkish cucumbers” become a symbol of the hippie movement. After that about unusual drawing they forget again, and the next rebirth of the famous “eastern cucumber” occurred in the mid-2000s and continues to this day.

Meaning

But why still “Turkish”, and even “cucumber”? Mainly Russian name, because motifs of such patterns are often found on the fabrics of Russian young ladies, starting from the 18th century. A striking example are Pavlovsk scarves and shawls, Ivanovo chintz with its printed patterns, dresses and furniture covers, and so on.

And the name turned out to be simple: “cucumber”, since the shape of the pattern strongly resembles this vegetable, well, “Turkish”, because the pattern came to us from the East, and in Rus' at that time, Turkey was most associated with it.

As we have already said, in each country this drawing received its own name and mysterious interpretation. For example, in India, the drop-shaped shape of the pattern is personified with the symbol of the god Ganesha, a mango, or with a palm leaf. According to Indians, this is a symbol of life, movement forward, energy and the power of nature. It is probably not for nothing that the traditional outfit of an Indian bride is decorated with the help of “cucumbers”.

For all Arab countries the pattern has one name - “tear of Allah”, but the name “Persian cypress” symbolizes the leaf of a cypress tree, which, in turn, speaks of eternity and life. In Turkey, “oriental cucumbers” are called “beans”, and in Azerbaijan – Buta. In fact, “buta” means “flame” or “fire”, which in oldest religion peace, Zoroastrianism, again, symbolizes life.

Paisley today

Nowadays, cucumber motifs from the East are widely used not only in clothing, scarves and shawls, but also in interior design, with its help decorating bed linen and furniture covers, usually through embroidery or color printing.

Turkish cucumbers look very interesting on decorative elements, crocheted or knitted, embroidered with threads or beads, painted or even forged. Elements of such an ornament can be found on dishes, various accessories, wallpaper, tiles, women's bags and even in jewelry!

Modern girls take great pleasure in wearing jewelry in the form of necklaces, earrings or pendants that repeat the famous shape of the “Turkish bob”. In addition, cucumber motifs are found even in landscape design, manicure art, cooking and any other branches of human activity.

Today, the manifestations of the cucumber pattern are the most amazing and varied: the elements can be large and small, sophisticated and, on the contrary, deliberately rough, blurry and clear, decorated with many additional curls and patterns, monotonous or made in a rich color scheme.

Paisley - a noble ornament, “tear of Allah”, Turkish bean or simply “cucumber” Turkish cucumber, Japanese cucumber, Paisley, Indian cucumber, Persian cypress, Eastern cucumber, buta... everyone calls it in their own way. In the east - buta, in Europe - Paisley. All these are names of one pleasant oriental ornament that has become a classic.
The birthplace of the ornament is considered to be Persia (according to some sources - India).
This ornamental motif has been characteristic of Persia and Iran since the time of the Sassanid dynasty (III-VII centuries) and developed to a variety of forms by the 16th-18th centuries - during the reign of the Safavid dynasty.

Robert Lefebvre. Portrait of Elizaveta Demidova. 1805

Clothes, jewelry, dishes, household and religious items were decorated with such an ornament; cakes were even baked in the shape of a “cucumber.”
There are no unambiguous interpretations of the origin of the “cucumber” shape. Some sources say that this is a floral ornament depicting a thorn, a cone, a flower and symbolizing fertility and wealth. In modern Iran, a gift with such an image is considered a wish for the well-being of the home.

According to others, this is one of the symbols of Zoroastrianism, depicting flames and symbolizing courage and bravery. The word “buta” (the name of the ornament) means “fire” in Sanskrit.
In India and Pakistan, the design is associated with the shape of the mango seed - Curry in Pakistani and Ambi in Hindi.
In the Russian tradition, the name “cucumber” was adopted from in English. In America, the professional slang of bedspread manufacturers sometimes includes the name “pear”.

Antoine Jean Gros. Empress Josephine, 1808

The pattern became popular in Russia and in Western Europe in modern times (XVIII-XIX centuries) thanks to cashmere fabrics with a “cucumber” pattern imported from the East.
In Great Britain, the “Indian cucumber” became widespread after British army personnel returning from the colonies brought home oriental fabrics (the first half of the 17th century). The main center for the production of cheap fabrics with such patterns in Western Europe was the Scottish city of Paisley (in honor of which the pattern received its name in the West). Paisley was not the only place, where fabrics with this pattern were produced. So the “cucumber” from the East conquered all of Europe. The production of paisley fabrics continued in Scotland for about 50 years and then gradually died out.

1840s

1850s

Dress from the 1860s.

Alfred Stevens.After the ball.1874.

Short coat from the 1880s.

Early 20th century.

The next explosion of popularity occurred during the hippie era - the 1960s.

The variegation of the ornament suited the psychedelic and floral preferences of the subculture. At the same time, the paisley tie made a splash in men's fashion, which is still considered a classic example of ties.

Paisley pattern became business card many famous fashion houses, including Etro, Pucci, Missoni and many others.

1950s

1970s

This pattern remains relevant today and appears again from time to time in the collections of famous fashion designers.

Jil Sander spring-summer 2012

It seems that the famous “Indian cucumber” as a pattern is now experiencing new round popularity - based on it, many famous brands managed to release it completely different shapes clothes. To wear such things with skill, FURFUR decided to recall the main moments in the history of this design.

History of the origin of the pattern

Paisley, Indian cucumber, or, to be more precise, buta - the pattern is very ancient. It probably first appeared in the Sassanid Empire - ancient state, from 224 to 651 AD, located in the territory of modern Iraq and Iran. Thanks to trade relations, fabrics with this pattern spread throughout Central Asia and even reached India and Africa. “Cucumbers” came to Europe from India in the 17th century thanks to British colonists. The demand for exotic Indian fabric turned out to be so high that enterprising Europeans began to weave fabrics with “cucumbers” themselves. The small Scottish town of Paisley completely devoted all its resources to the production of Indian-style fabric and, thanks to this, has remained for centuries - but as the name of the pattern itself.

There is no consensus on what paisley actually is. According to one version, this is a floral motif combined with the silhouette of a cypress tree - a symbol of life in Zoroastrianism. Another possible origin is stylized flames, also symbolizing life. It may also originate from the cashew nut, which was a symbol of fertility. In India, it is widely believed that “cucumbers” represent the seeds of the mango tree. In any case - no matter what theory you take - we're talking about about life and fertility. Some even manage to see sperm in paisley - but, given the antiquity of the pattern, this version is extremely doubtful.

The appearance of paisley in Europe and the USA

The first popular paisley product in Europe was cashmere shawls made from. They were extremely expensive, and only wealthy aristocrats could afford them. IN early XIX centuries, Scottish craftsmen learned to weave paisleys on jacquard looms - and paisley shawls became a more mass-produced product. True, they were no longer cashmere, but made of sheep’s wool or silk, and there were significantly fewer colors than authentic Indian goods.

A little later, paisleys begin to be printed on cotton, and the pattern ceases to be a luxury, and by the 1870s, paisleys are not exactly going out of fashion, but rather moving into the realm of the ordinary.

This situation would continue until the seventies of the 20th century, when paisley suddenly became an integral attribute of the hippie movement. This happened mainly thanks to The Beatles, who brought Indian flavor from their trip to Rishikesh to the guru Maharishi.

Suddenly, cucumbers are appearing everywhere: on John Lennon's Rolls-Royce, on shirts with huge collars, on bell-bottom trousers, on the linings of jackets and on the jackets themselves, women's dresses and baby carriages.

Paisley today

Now paisley is experiencing a new heyday. Back in the mid-2000s, streetwear brand The Hundreds released a black jacket with a hood and white paisleys, which is now considered a collector's item. But the coolest guys painted each “cucumber” by hand.

This year, Vans released sneakers with a paisley pattern, Undefeated - a cap, Opening Ceremony together with Adidas - a whole collection of clothes and shoes, Herschel - backpacks, and Fred Perry, together with the famous manufacturer of ties Drake's - a series of polos and shirts. Considering the appearance of paisley on the runways during this year's fashion shows, we can assume that summer will bring new wave passion for cucumbers. After all, not everyone wears camouflage.