Overlapping Circles

⏱️ 5 min 📊 Beginner 🖌️ Tool: Pen
Overlapping circles drawing practice

Why this matters: Overlapping circles – also known as a Venn diagram – teach you one of the most important concepts in drawing: layering. Understanding how shapes interact when they overlap is crucial for composition, transparency, and creating depth in your artwork. This simple exercise builds the foundation for everything from logo design to complex illustrations.

🎯 A gentle reminder: Your circles don't need to be perfectly round. What matters is understanding how shapes interact when they overlap. Wobbly circles and uneven intersections are completely normal – you're training your eye and hand to work together!
🖥️ For the full interactive experience, try this tutorial on your desktop.
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Challenge

1 Setup Your Canvas

Look to the right panel – that's your live drawing app. Make sure the Pen is selected. Set your brush size to 5 or 8 (click the gear icon on the right toolbar). Pick a bold color like #E74C3C (red).

You'll be using multiple colors for this exercise, so get familiar with the color picker in the Settings menu!

💡 The app auto-saves every stroke. Don't worry if you refresh the page!

2 Draw Two Overlapping Circles

Start by drawing two circles that overlap in the middle – like a Venn diagram.

  • Draw the first circle on the left side of the canvas.
  • Draw the second circle on the right side, overlapping the first.
  • Try to make them roughly the same size.
  • Don't worry if they're not perfect – this is practice!

Pro tip: Use the circle-drawing skills you learned in the first tutorial. Remember – smooth, continuous motion!

Pro Tip: If your circles look more like eggs than circles, that's okay! With practice, they'll get rounder.

3 Add Color & Opacity

Hit Clear on the right toolbar. Now draw two overlapping circles again – but this time, use different colors.

  • Circle 1: Use red (#E74C3C) with 100% opacity.
  • Circle 2: Use blue (#3498DB) with 100% opacity.
  • Notice how the overlapping area looks darker or muddy.

Now try this: In the Settings menu, lower the Opacity of the blue brush to 50% and draw it again over the red circle. See how the overlapping area becomes a beautiful purple?

🎨 Pro Tip: Transparency is a powerful tool. Playing with opacity creates depth and beautiful color interactions – just like real paint!

4 🏆 The Challenge

Click "Clear" on the right toolbar. Now draw a three-circle Venn diagram.

Your mission: Create a beautiful overlapping composition using three different colors and varying opacities.

  • Circle 1: Red (#E74C3C) – 100% opacity
  • Circle 2: Blue (#3498DB) – 70% opacity
  • Circle 3: Yellow (#F1C40F) – 50% opacity
  • Arrange them so all three overlap in the center.

When you're happy with your creation, hit the Save button to download your masterpiece!

Remember: The magic of overlapping shapes is how they interact. The colors blending in the middle are the reward. Keep experimenting!

✨ What's next?

⬅️ Previous: The Square & Cube – master 3D shapes.
➡️ Next: Connect the Dots – gamified learning!