You can draw a banana in hardly more time than it takes to eat one. Any paper and a soft pencil will do for practice sketching. It's fun and you get to draw your snack, and eat it too.
Hold your subject near the paper, and note the curves and angles. Sketch the general shapes lightly. Make them approximately life size. Use the side of the pencil and draw with repeated strokes, softly overlapping the lines. Note how a curve can be made of many smaller straight lines.
As you build the shape, close one eye from time to time to check that all the parts meet in the right places. Remember that each of your eyes gives you a different version of the same subject. When you are drawing subjects closely, you must choose which version you will depict. Look at your subject. Then look back at the drawing, and compare the direction of edge lines and angles.
Go over the drawing evenly. Gradually build from the general to the specific. A sculptor must understand how the shape is formed. Try to think as that sculptor does.Your drawing should progress in the same way that the sculptor might rough out wood, and then slowly carve the details.

If you repeat your drawing after peeling the banana, you will notice how the thickness of the peel affects the the shape of the curves, and how the sections of the peel fold back. The peel should look as if it would fit if zipped back up over the banana.
Don't use an eraser if you make a mistake. Put your corrected lines over the errors, and go on. Avoid using a single thin line when a mass of shorter strokes would be more expressive. The buildup of smaller lines will create shadows and contrasts. When the softer lines seem right, reinforce them with darker ones.
The banana has many curved lines in its shape, and the lines inside the peel or along the fruit repeat those curves. You can suggest those lines without being too specific about them. An irregularly dotted line, or a few sketchy strokes will express the textures of the fruit without overwhelming the drawing with unnecessary detail.
Don't spend too long on your drawing. You are not required to create great art every time you pick up a pencil. It is never a waste of time to sketch; no matter the results. When drawing fruit, you have the advantage of healthy vitamins as well as a sketch when you're done.

By Sharon Himes
Information supplied by: http://www.artcafe.net