Sun and moon drawing: 15 ideas and how to draw them

The classic sun and moon drawing is one circle shared by two faces: a sun with rays on one side and a crescent moon on the other. Here’s how to draw it, then 15 more ideas, from celestial line art to a sleepy kawaii moon.

How to draw the classic sun and moon

1. Draw a circle. Trace a cup or a roll of tape if you want it perfectly round.
2. Draw a curve inside it from top to bottom, bulging toward the right, so the left side becomes a crescent. That’s the moon.
3. Along the inner edge of the crescent, draw the moon’s face in profile: forehead, nose, lips, chin. Give it a closed eye.
4. Give the sun’s side a face too: an open eye, a cheek and a smile, turned toward the moon.
5. Add rays around the sun’s side only, alternating straight and wavy ones, and scatter a few small stars around the moon.

Sun and moon together

1. Yin-yang sun and moon Split a circle with an S curve. Put rays on the sun half and stars on the moon half, with a tiny sun and moon in place of the two dots.
2. Eclipse A dark circle almost covering a sun, so only a thin bright ring and a few rays show around the edge.
3. Day and night split Divide a circle or a square in half: sun and clouds on one side, moon and stars on the other, sharing one horizon line.
4. Sun hugging the moon A round sun with stubby arms wrapped around a crescent moon that leans into it.
5. Hanging mobile A sun and a moon hanging from a curved stick on thin threads, with a few stars on shorter threads between them.

Celestial and tattoo style

1. Celestial line art Thin single lines, a moon face with long lashes, and small stars joined by dotted lines like constellations.
2. Moon phases A row of seven circles from crescent to full and back again. Shade the dark part with dots or tight lines.
3. Fine-line sun A small circle with thin straight rays of different lengths. It stays clear even at tattoo size.
4. Sun with an eye A circle with one open eye inside and long rays alternating with short ones.
5. Woodcut sun face A face with heavy lines for shadow down one side, and rays drawn as long triangles filled with parallel lines.

These sit well on a page of doodle art, mixed with patterns.

Kawaii and simple

1. Sleepy moon in a nightcap A crescent with a closed eye and a striped nightcap drooping off its top tip.
2. Sun with round rays Draw the rays as round bumps, like flower petals, then add blush and a wide smile.
3. Moon on a cloud A crescent lying on a fluffy cloud like a bed, with three small Zs floating up.
4. Sun and moon friends Two small round characters, one with a rim of rays and one a crescent, holding hands.
5. Sun with planets A smiling sun in the middle with tiny planets on dotted orbit rings around it.

For more soft, round subjects, see cute doodles.

Put a sun or moon on your photo with Tada

Tada, an iPhone app, has an AI look called Sun & Moon. It draws a smiling sun or a sleepy crescent moon on your subject’s head, with tiny planets, orbit rings and stars around it, in brush-pen marker with white sticker borders. Your photo stays exactly as it is and the drawn layer moves.

1. Open Tada, tap Add effects and pick a photo.
2. Choose the AI look Sun & Moon and tap Make it.
3. In about a minute your tada is ready. Tap Save and it goes to Photos as a Live Photo.

AI looks use 1 AI tada each (you get 3 free), and if one doesn’t work you aren’t charged. To make it, your photo is sent to Tada’s AI partners; Tada asks before your first one. See privacy. To draw your own sun or moon on a photo instead, use Draw and choose My lines, which is free.

Questions

More you can do

• Doodle art
• Crayon drawing
• Sketchbook drawing ideas
• Cute doodles to draw
• All guides