How to Draw a Mardi Gras Mask

With parades, colorful beads, and decorations, today we show you how to draw a Mardi Gras mask. From basic sketches to making outlines and adding color you’ll illustrate colorful artwork in three simple steps. This easy Mardi Gras drawing exercise is perfect for people of all ages to take part in. Make a sublimated t-shirt, party decor, stickers, and more.

For your Mardi Gras clipart, you can use any drawing, painting, or digital supplies you have on hand. So feel free to use your acrylic paints, colored pencils, and Procreate.

To illustrate our New Orleans-inspired artwork we are using Procreate and these Ink brushes. We have a wide selection of Procreate brushes you can use to draw, color, and decorate your mask.

Step 1 - Create Sketches of your Mask

Let’s begin our drawing lesson by making a few rough sketches first. For your sketching medium, we recommend using a pencil or light medium that you can erase or hide behind your lining tool.

To sketch the shape of our mardi gras mask, we need to make sure we get both sides even. You can either free-hand this, draw a line through the center, or use Procreate drawing guides.

Shape the Mask

Sketch the outline of your mask in your drawing area by making a rounded bottom with a wavy line at the top as we did in red. Then, add pointed oval shapes on the left and right sides of the mask for the eye cutout.

Remember, Mardi Gras masks come in all shapes and sizes, so feel free to experiment with different shapes and designs.

Add Details

Add decorative elements to your mask, such as swirls, dots, or other patterns. Use your imagination and experiment with different designs until you find something you like.

You can also add feathers, sequins, and other embellishments to your mask to make it even more festive.

Step 2 - Define the Mardi Gras Mask Outline

Swap to a dark or permanent medium to make your rough sketch lines define, creating a clean line art style drawing. Begin tracing over the sketches of your mask shape, then carefully lining the details.

Once you are done tracing your Mardi Gras drawing, clean up your artwork by removing the remaining sketch lines.

Step 3 - Apply Color to your Illustration

Mardi Gras's traditional colors are purple green, and gold. But you can use any three colors you have available. We added purple for our mask colors and used green and yellow for the decorations.

To add sparkle we applied a gold glitter texture over the areas we colored yellow. Learn how to use a clipping mask in Procreate to decorate your mask with unique textures.

That’s it, your Mardi Gras mask clipart is drawn and ready to be used on your next project. We have easy-to-follow drawing ideas for your holiday crafts or to add to your art portfolio. So be sure to view our collection of FREE drawing tutorials and explore creative ways to illustrate and color your drawings.