A collection of moving graduation illustrations that will bring tears to your eyes. Memorable ideas.
Graduation ceremonies are special moments where feelings of gratitude, farewell, and a new beginning all intersect, aren’t they? Many people are surely looking for moving illustrations that can add color to such important scenes.
Hand-drawn graduation illustrations, with a warm touch that can bring tears to your eyes, come in a variety of expressive styles.
In this article, we’ll introduce plenty of illustration ideas that deepen the emotion of graduation.
You’re sure to find ideas that help convey your feelings in graduation albums, group messages, message cards, and more!
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A collection of moving graduation illustrations that bring tears to your eyes. Memorable ideas (21–30)
A student holding a bouquet
This is an illustration of a bouquet and a person unified in pastel colors.
As graduation approaches, many of you might be wondering what design layout and color scheme to use to complete your work.
In times like that, this is recommended.
Additionally, we recommend finishing the entire piece in pastel colors or with adjusted tones.
Once you’ve settled on the motif, the sketch of the person, and the design layout, turning your usual colors into pastel shades and creating tonal consistency will give your work a stylish look!
A student singing while crying
Many of you may have the chance to sing in a chorus at your graduation ceremony.
This illustration focuses on a student whose feelings overflow into tears while singing—thoughts like “We’re really graduating,” “This will be our last chorus,” and “I’ll miss seeing everyone.” It’s lovely to view graduation not only as something sad but also as a new beginning for the future; still, this piece, which expresses the emotions exactly as they are now, really hits home.
The finished work has a sense of transparency, conveying pure feelings.
Please consider using it as a reference.
butterflyNEW!
Butterflies are symbols of good luck and motifs that evoke change, freedom, and beauty—perfect for a new beginning like graduation.
A scene with many butterflies dancing, like in this illustration, feels both energetic and graceful, calling to mind students taking flight into the future.
How about depicting cherry blossoms, a spring motif, together with the school building you’ll be leaving behind to adorn the cover of the class anthology? If it’s just butterflies, we recommend drawing them as small accents on the page or as a decorative border.
White-eye and cherry blossomsNEW!
Let’s try drawing an illustration featuring the Japanese white-eye, known as a bird that heralds spring, and cherry blossoms, the quintessential spring flower.
The Japanese white-eye and cherry blossoms are often depicted together, likely because the birds are fond of cherry nectar.
Try expressing the feeling of spring and new beginnings by drawing white-eyes flitting among cherry blossom branches or perched on them.
The Japanese white-eye is characterized by its rounded body and the white eye-ring around its eyes, so be sure to keep those points in mind when illustrating.
A student who looks at the worldNEW!
Graduates spread their wings from the places they’ve grown used to and set out into a new world.
There, they will see many things they’ve never seen before.
That kind of joyful future is captured in this illustration, “Students Seeing the World.” Graduation is a happy send-off, but some students may be filled with anxiety.
By adopting this motif for a graduation illustration, those worries may be eased, even just a little, and students might be able to focus on the wonderful future that lies ahead.
Graduation ceremony signboard and studentsNEW!
At graduation ceremonies, there’s usually a signboard in front of the main gate that says “Graduation Ceremony,” right? I think many people take photos in front of that sign as a keepsake.
How about turning that scene into an illustration? Smiling students standing before the signboard, families, friends wiping away tears… any combination will vividly color the moment of graduation.
It’s a versatile motif that works well for a class anthology cover, page illustrations, autograph boards, and many other contexts.
A film that captured memoriesNEW!
@root3_1100 #Graduation Anthology#sakuraMemoriesTranslation#Recommended to rideDid I do a good job drawing the cover for the graduation yearbook? If you think it looks good, press the heart!
Sakura – Naotaro Moriyama
These days, everyone has a smartphone that can easily take photos and videos, so we use standalone cameras less often.
But as a nostalgic, “emo” item, film cameras are surprisingly popular among young people.
So how about incorporating an illustration of film capturing memories as a graduation artwork? Try sealing scenes that evoke youth—school events like sports festivals and cultural festivals, club activities, romance, and more—inside the film frames.
Rendering them only as black-and-white silhouettes will give it a great atmosphere.