How to Draw Any Flower
There are hundreds of thousands of types of flowers in the world, but you can start drawing each in a similar way. Whether you’re sketching a rose or a daisy, the process is the same—so once you master it, you can draw all the bouquets you’d like.
If you’re just learning to draw flowers, we recommend working in pencil because it’s a forgiving tool. Here are some of the best drawing pencils both enthusiasts and professionals love.
Here are three different flowers that each use the same drawing technique.
Photo: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met
Step 1: Break the parts of the flower into simple shapes.
Photo & artwork: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met
Study your flower (or bouquet) for a moment to determine its overall shape. The carnation (light purple flower) is in the shape of an oval, while the smaller, darker purple blooms beneath it are a series of clustered circles.
Step 2: Refine the large shape into the smaller characteristics (like the petals).
Photo & artwork: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met
Once you’re feeling confident that you’ve got the overall shapes down, start to refine your sketch. Block out the center of the flower. Observe—are the filaments showing? The stamen? If so, what kind of shapes do they make? Additionally, study the scale. How big is a petal compared to the center of the flower? How big is it compared to the overall size? Record those characteristics, along with the petals, on your paper.
This is the most important stage of your drawing because it’s easy to correct mistakes. So, be prepared to spend extra time getting things right. You don’t want to have to erase all your hard work later just for one small error!
Step 3: Distill the shapes even more.
Photo & artwork: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met
Photo & artwork: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met
Now that the drawing is getting more detailed, continue to refine your sketch even more. Carefully look at every petal shape and observe if it has creases or overlaps with other petals. If so, record the new form. Don’t fret about erasing; this is your last chance to alter your line drawing before you start adding shading.
Step 4: Apply shading and intricate details to complete the drawing.
Photo & artwork: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met
Photo & artwork: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met
Bring your drawing to life by applying a range of tones to your artwork. The back and forth shading technique is popular, but also consider hatching and cross-hatching in order to imitate some of the veins and textures you find on real flowers.