How do you draw a D in bubble letters?
Draw a straight stem and one large curved belly in pencil, then trace around the shape at an even distance. Keep the left side flat with rounded corners, swing the right side out in one smooth arc, and leave a big oval hole in the middle. Ink it and erase the guide.
- Draw the stem. Pencil a straight vertical line.
- Add the belly. From the top of the stem, draw one curve out to the right and back to the bottom.
- Trace the flat back. Outline the left side with a nearly straight line and soft corners.
- Swing the arc. Trace around the belly in a single smooth curve. Avoid bumps where your hand moves.
- Cut the counter. Draw a tall oval inside, closer to the stem side, with a fairly straight left edge.
- Ink and shade. Trace in marker, erase, then shade the lower right of the belly.
What makes a D easy or tricky in bubble letters
The D is one of the easier bubble letters: one stem, one curve, one big hole. The catch is that a puffy D sits very close to an O. What separates them is the back. Keep it straight and keep the corners where the back meets the belly a little tighter than the rest of the curve, so the D has two shoulders an O does not.
Lowercase d in bubble letters
Lowercase d puts the round belly on the left and a tall tower on the right that rises above the x-height. Draw the belly first as a fat circle, then attach the tower so it overlaps the right side of the circle. In bubble form the tower should be as wide as the belly's stroke, not a skinny stick.
Cute, 3D and graffiti bubble D
A cute bubble D works as a little character with the belly as a round tummy. For 3D, put the shadow along the bottom and right of the belly, where it reads like a cushion. Graffiti writers often stretch the stem down past the belly or give the back a notch.
Common mistakes with a bubble D
- Rounding the back so the D becomes an O.
- Centering the hole instead of pushing it toward the back, which thins the stem.
- Writing a lowercase d with the belly on the right, which turns it into a b.
Printable bubble letter D to color or trace
Each letter fills a full A4 page (choose "fit to page" to print on US Letter), so it is big enough to color, trace or cut out for a banner. Download the uppercase A–Z PDF, the lowercase a–z PDF or the numbers 0–9 PDF, and print only the pages you need. More sheets are on printable bubble letters.