How to Draw a Gold Medal | Step-by-Step Guide

A gold medal is a prestigious award given to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional skill, talent, or achievement in a particular field.

Gold medals are commonly awarded in sports competitions such as the Olympics, where they symbolize first place and excellence in performance.

Additionally, they’re also awarded in various other contexts, such as academic competitions, artistic endeavors, and humanitarian efforts.

They serve as recognition of outstanding contributions and accomplishments and are often accompanied by honor, respect, and admiration from peers and the public.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to draw your very own gold medal in only 7 easy steps.

Steps	Complexity Level
The Outer Circles	2
The Inner Circles	2
Middle Circle and Logo	3
Ribbon Holder	3
The Ribbon	4

What You Will Need

• Drawing paper or sketchbook
• Pencils (2b, 3b or 5b)
• An eraser
• A ruler
• Mathematical drawing compass
• Household circular objects, like coins, plastic cups, spray or perfume bottles (optional)
• Color pencils or markers

How to Draw a Gold Medal 

Drawing a gold medal requires some patience, a keen eye for detail and dedication.

There are varying shapes you will need to draw, thus it’s important to make sure you have ample pencils, a ruler, a drawing compass or circular household objects handy.

It may seem difficult to do, but it’s completely achievable if you follow this guide!

Step 1: Draw The Outer Circles 

The first thing you will need to do is draw the outer circles. These will determine the ease of the rest of the drawing, so be sure to take your time.

Start by drawing a semi-large circle in the middle of your page. To make your line nice and round, use a mathematical drawing compass, or a circular household object you might have nearby, like a plastic cup or a spray bottle.

Try your best to make your circle as neat as possible! This will only make your drawing look sharp and realistic.

Next, draw another circle within the one you first drew. Like you did with the first one, make sure your lines are not squiggly at all.

Remember, this circle needs to be smaller than your first one, and it also needs to be spaced a bit apart – approximately a quarter of an inch away from your first circle.

• Draw a large circle using a drawing compass on the middle of your page
• Draw a smaller circle within the big circle
• Make sure the space between the circles are accurate all the way around

Step 2: Add The Inner Circles

Like you did in step 1, you’re going to add two more circles in this step. It’s easier to add them in pairs because then we’ll have more time to work on other parts of the drawing later on.

For this step, start by drawing a smaller circle within your gold medal outline. Your circles are working their way towards the middle, so this circle needs to be drawn next to the last one you completed in step 1.

Next, draw another, slightly smaller, circle within the one you just drew. If you completed our drawing tutorial on how to draw a target face, you might notice how the process is quite similar. If you haven’t done that drawing yet, be sure to check it out!

• Add two more circles within the circles drawn in step 1
• Make sure the spaces in between each circle matches each other

Step 3: Draw the Middle Circle and Logo

Now, we’re going to add one more circle and a logo to our gold medal drawing.

In order to complete this step, start by drawing a smaller circle next to the last one you completed in step 2.

Once you’re done, add the Olympic Rings Logo in the center of your gold medal.

Start by drawing three small circles next to each other. Next, draw two circles beneath them, but make sure they go over the upper three.

E.g., bottom circle number one should go over both top circle number one and two, and then bottom circle number 2 should go over both top circle number two and three.

• Add a circle within the previous circles drawn
• Draw the Olympic Rings logo in the middle of your gold medal
• Add a series of circles that interlock with each other at various points

Step 4: Draw the Ribbon Holder

Now that the circular part of our medal is complete, we can move on to the ribbon holder!

To start, draw the ribbon holder on top of the first circle. Draw a combination of wavy and straight lines to make a beautiful design.

Start by drawing vertical lines, then curve them slightly inward to demonstrate an indent, then let your pencil flow into a horizontal line to showcase where the ribbon will be attached.

• Draw vertical lines on top of the outer circle
• Add some inward moving curves before adding a smooth horizontal line
• Make sure the space between the top and bottom of the ribbon holder is even

Step 5: Draw the Ribbon

Your gold medal now needs a ribbon! Adding a ribbon gives the drawing a well-rounded feel because it makes the gold medal look realistic.

To complete this step, start by drawing a diagonal line from the bottom left corner of your ribbon holder. End your line at approximately three inches, and make sure that it’s facing away from where you started – in other words – to the right.

Next, draw a diagonal line starting from the bottom right corner of your ribbon holder, and end it off at the same length you did with the first line. Connect the two lines with a horizontal line.

For accuracy, use a ruler, though if you’re confident in your drawing hand, feel free to go right ahead without one!

Next, starting from the top left corner of your ribbon holder, draw a diagonal line ending at approximately 2.8 inches and towards the left. Then, starting roughly from the middle of your right-facing line, draw a diagonal line that ends at approximately one and a half inches. Connect these two lines at the top with a horizontal line.

Both ribbons should be cut off at the same length. Pro tip: place your ruler at the top and make sure both ribbons are on the same line.

At the end, you should have something that looks similar to what the image below suggests.

• Draw a series of diagonal and horiztonal lines to create the ribbon
• Ensure that the width of each ribbon is wide
• Take your time and really get your measurements and dimensions on point

Congratulations! Your Gold medal Drawing Is complete

You’re now done with the sketching part of the process! Give your drawing hand a well-deserved break and once you’re ready, inspect your work to make sure you’re happy with the final product.

If there are any parts you’d like to correct, now would be the time to do so. Use your eraser and pencil to perfect the little inconsistencies, if any.

It’s great to do this now, because once you’re finished with that, there’s a really fun part waiting ahead.

Taking your Gold Medal Drawing to the Next Level

Right now you have a black and white sketch of a gold medal. While some people enjoy the aesthetic appeal of a black and white drawing, adding some color and a background instantaneously enhances the visual allure, depth and well-roundedness of a drawing.

step 6: adding a Background

There are many background ideas to choose from for a gold medal. Seeing as you’ve drawn a medal with a ribbon attached, you could place your medal on a person of your choosing. Let your newly drawn medal dangle from the neck of an athlete of your favorite sport.

There are a lot of athletes to choose from, like a soccer player, american football player, cricket player, fencer, cyclist, boxer, karatist, or volleyball player.

Of course, these are only some ideas to think about. You can choose whichever athlete you prefer, or scrap the athlete idea entirely and place your gold medal on a podium if you want.

Another great background idea is to add some other “winner” objects surrounding your gold medal drawing. Like a trophy, or a wrestling championship belt.

step 7: adding Color

The color is all in the name, is it not? Give your medal a dazzling golden color by mixing equal parts brown and yellow together. Add some shine by shading certain parts with silver or white to make your gold medal look all the more real.

For the Olympic Rings in the middle, use light blue, yellow, black, green and red for each ring.

Make sure your ribbon holder is colored in with a golden color as well.

For your ribbons, make them stand out by using a vibrant color. We’ve used red for our drawing because it compliments the gold quite beautifully. Maybe you’d like to do the same.

If you’re going for a more personalized touch to your drawing, feel free to experiment with different colors.

Bonus Tips

Consider adding some fun and distinctive features such as glitter or metallic accents for a cool and eye-catching effect.

Be sure to leave behind the faint lines of each circle within your medal to create a more textured look.

Add shading by coloring the outline of the right side of your drawing with a dark gray or black color.

Check out more drawing tutorials related to sport for inspiration on what you could draw next.

Conclusion

You have hopefully learnt quite a bit by completing this tutorial today, like how to draw smooth circles and make use of household items to help you do so, how to make use of color and background to boost a drawing and some fun facts about gold medals.

There are so many other drawings to get started on that will really challenge you and your creativity! If you’ve already drawn a few things and have just added this drawing to your body of work, well done! 

Continue to challenge yourself and do more. That’s it for today, hope to see you in our next tutorial!

Thanks for reading & feel free to check out more of our articles!