How to Draw a Flower Step by Step
Realistic Flower Drawing Tutorial

How to draw a flower is a compelling, timeless subject. In this realistic drawing a flower tutorial, not only will you learn the essential steps to drawing a flower in pencil – you'll also discover the 6 foundational drawing skills that unlock every subject.

Download the flower drawing reference photo and flower drawing steps infographic below, and let's get started!

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Materials Used in this Flower Drawing Tutorial

I'll be using graphite pencils on a smooth drawing paper for this drawing a flower tutorial.

Why? Graphite is an excellent medium when learning how to draw a realistic flower because it allows for incredible precision.

However, graphite can look shiny when used to draw large areas of dark values. While this particular subject has a full range of values from white to black, the darkest areas are contained to small accents, so managing graphite shine shouldn't be a problem.

1. Drawing Board: This is a sturdy yet lightweight drawing board made by Helix. Don't miss this video on 3 keys to a successful drawing setup.

2. Bulldog Clips: A convenient way to attach a drawing to a drawing board, and preferable to using tape, which often leaves residue, or can damage your paper upon removal.

3. Drawing Paper: I'm using a sheet of Strathmore 400 Series Drawing Paper.

*Helpful Hint: Place a few extra sheets of paper underneath the one that you're drawing on. This creates a smoother, more pleasant drawing surface, and prevents the drawing board texture from appearing in your drawing!

4. Drawing Pencils: I'm using HB, 2B and 4B Staedtler Mars Lumograph graphite pencils throughout this tutorial.

5. Kneaded Eraser: I usually use the General's Jumbo Kneaded Eraser. Don't miss this video tutorial on 3 ways to use a kneaded eraser for realistic drawing.

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Drawing a Flower Step by Step: The Process

We can think of the drawing process as having two halves.

First half: The Block-In. This is the line drawing that acts as a blueprint for shading. During the block-in our main priorities are drawing accurate proportions and shapes (foundational skill 1), and adding the construction (foundational skill 2) that will make our line drawing look three-dimensional even before we start shading.

Second half: Shading. Here our priorities are:

➤ Establishing an effective value structure (foundational skill 3), which creates a convincing effect of light.
➤ Designing the edges (foundational skill 4), or transitions between values, to create depth and dimension.
➤ Refining and finishing (foundational skill 5) our values and edges to add believability, and enhance the realism of our drawing.

Knowing the steps and how to move through the drawing process is the last of 6 foundational drawing skills needed to draw anything.

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Blocking In a Realistic Flower Drawing

We start most realistic drawings with a 'block-in' - the line drawing that acts as a blueprint for shading. We develop the block-in by working from general to specific - a drawing principle that you'll come across time and time again. Here's what general to specific looks like in the block-in, when drawing a realistic flower:

I start my drawing with a general shape that envelops the entire form. I usually recommend that students use straight lines for this initial stage, because it's important to capture the major angle changes of the flower.

However, because the flower has so many curving lines and gestures, it's possible (and may feel more natural) to begin with more gestural lines, as in the top right image.

If you choose the more gestural option, though, make sure that the major angle changes remain clear! The risk of using flowing lines early on, is that you'll lose the angle changes, and this will decrease the accuracy of your drawing.

Once I've sketched in the most general, approximate shape, I double-check the angles and general proportions of the flower, such as its height vs. width. You can learn 10 ways to measure and check the accuracy of your drawing in my Intro to Accuracy and Measurement course in the Atelier membership.

I'm using an HB graphite pencil for these initial stages of my drawing, but if you're heavy-handed it may help to use a harder-grade pencil such as a 2H.

Next, I start dividing up this general shape into slightly more specific segments: the petals of the flower. I'm ignoring all detail for the time being and focusing on just the next, slightly more specific step.

We don't have to be 100% accurate from the beginning. In fact - I expect for my drawing to be incorrect for most of the process! That's simply what drawing is: making approximate marks, checking how accurate they are, and adjusting them to better resemble the subject. So, when drawing a realistic flower we can take some pressure off of ourselves to 'draw perfectly', and instead build up to accuracy.

The most basic way to create depth and dimension in a line drawing is to rely on overlaps. Overlapping lines allow us to show that one petal is in front of another petal in this flower drawing.

To make these overlapping lines the most convincing, we need to pay close attention to the trajectory of each line. As we get more specific about the overlapping lines, notice that each interior line leads to a specific spot on the contour.

Drawing a Flower Using Gesture Lines

Because this subject is very flowing and gestural, one of my goals in these initial flower drawing steps is to achieve a balance of accuracy and movement.

Paying attention solely to accuracy can result in a very stiff, static-feeling drawing. On the other hand, only paying attention to the movement within the subject results in incorrect proportions, and the drawing not resembling the subject at all.

Too much accuracy = a static-feeling drawing
Too much movement = incorrect proportions

The solution is quite simple and elegant. When drawing a flower, we can look for gesture lines. Gesture lines are implied lines that flow from one element of a subject to another.

Here are some examples of gesture lines in this flower:

Gesture 1:

Some gesture lines are more evident than others. For example, in the image above, I point out how the contour of the central petal connects on both sides of an intersecting petal.

If we were to miss this connection, do you see how easily this area of the flower drawing could look disjointed?

Gesture 2:

We can look for gestures that are farther away from each other as well. At first glance, you might not notice this gesture. However, actively seeking out and drawing these gestures can subtly but effectively link two elements that appear far from each other, creating an underlying unity and inter-connectivity.

Can you see how this strategy can also be just as useful as measuring proportions or using comparative measurement? When drawing subjects that consist mostly of curving lines, such as this one, I often find gestures more effective than the aforementioned methods.

You can learn how to use gesture as a method of measurement, along with 10 other measuring techniques, in Intro to Accuracy and Measurement.

Gesture 3:

Gestures are not only found along contour lines - they can be interior lines as well, such as the one pictured above.

Gesture 4:

A gesture can connect different parts of a subject. For example, the gesture line above connects three petals of the flower.

Gestures 5 and 6:

Finally, the same line can flow into two or more gestures, as shown above.

These are just a few of the gestures that can be found in this subject! Why not download the flower reference photo I'm drawing from at the bottom of the page, and see how many more you can find.

How to Draw a Flower:
The Completed Block-In

Here is my completed block-in, or line drawing, of the flower. I used an HB graphite pencil for the entire block-in process.

At this point in drawing a flower step by step, I'm confident in the proportions. I've carefully looked for gesture lines and used them to add movement, connection, and accuracy to my drawing, and I have overlapping lines creating depth in my drawing.

Part 2: Shading a Flower

Now that the line drawing is complete, we can turn our attention to shading.

Shading a flower can be thought of as having three main components:

1) Value Structure
2) Edge Design
3) Refining and Finishing

To understand how to shade a flower, we first need to look closely at how light falls across the form. Let's first analyze: where are the light values, and where are the shadow values?

This flower has so many subtle half-tones. How do we determine which values fall into the 'light' category and which fall into the 'shadow' category? We squint at our subject!

Simply half-close your eyes, and look at the flower. This should heighten the contrast and blur much of the detail, making it easier to decide how the half-tones should be grouped.

Learn the modes of seeing, technical skills and essential knowledge for realistic shading in Smooth Shading in Graphite.

In the drawing step above, I've covered the white of the paper with a fairly flat, even value to indicate the portion of the flower that's in shadow. Notice that my values are not yet as dark as they need to be. Because the value shifts are subtle in this flower, I'm going to build them up slowly so that I have many opportunities to compare them to each other, and make sure that the value relationships in my flower drawing are accurate and believable.

Though I'm still at the beginning of my drawing, I'm already making certain design decisions. For example, how will certain shapes, such as the leaf at the bottom right, end? I decide to create a gradation in the leaf that fades into the white of the paper.

I continued to use an HB graphite pencil in this step.

How to Draw a Flower:
Determining the Value Extremes

In the previous step I was looking at the flower as though it had only two values: a light value and a shadow value. Now I switch my 'mode of seeing' to view the subject in three values: light, half-tone, and shadow. This is our value structure.

To determine the value structure, we can look to see:

• Where are the darkest values in the subject?
  
• Where are the lightest values in the subject?
• If I establish those two extremes, then the rest of the values are half-tone, or middle value, by default.

Here I've started drawing my value extremes. I leave the lightest values as the white of the paper, and I start darkening the darkest values using a 2B graphite pencil.

In drawing, an edge is not just the boundary of a subject. An edge occurs wherever a value transitions into another value. Read more about edges in this realistic shading guide.

Analyzing and Drawing Realistic Edges

To create the illusion of depth and dimension needed for a realistic flower drawing, we need to mimic the edge qualities that we carefully observe on the subject.

To start, we can identify the edge extremes: 

➤ Where is the sharpest edge (or sharpest edges)?
➤ Where is the softest edge (or softest edges)?

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Now that we've found the edge extremes, we can compare the rest of our edges to those extremes as we draw, to determine how sharp or soft to make them.

Especially if you're new to the concept of edges in drawing, an extremely effective exercise (and way to analyze your subject) is to find at least 10 edges and rank them in order from sharpest to softest, like this:

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How to Draw a Flower:
Building up the Values and Edges

A creative decision I've made in this step is to add a gradating background outside of the left flower petals, to separate them from the background. (Note that a gradation is a soft edge!)

Outlines, such as the ones that enveloped each petal in the previous step of my drawing, look more illustrative, and can decrease the realism of a drawing.

However - this is personal preference. You may love the illustrative look of the outlined flower, and choose to keep at least some of your contour lines in your drawing. Personally, I prefer a more realistic flower drawing, which is achieved by placing one value next to another, instead of leaving an outline around each form of the subject.

In this step of drawing a flower, I also continued building up my values. For example, look at the two darker petals in the center of the flower: the top one is slightly lighter than the bottom one. Once I make that subtle distinction, I notice that each of these petals also have gradations within them.

Remember: work from general to specific! Differentiating the values between the two petals is more general than creating the gradations within each petal, so I addressed that first.

What about the detailed markings on the flower?

You may have noticed that I've been ignoring the obvious markings on the central petals of this flower. In an earlier step of this flower drawing tutorial, I determined that some of them are within the category of 'darkest values of this subject', yet I still haven't drawn them!

This is because it's infinitely more important to the realism of my drawing that I draw the larger, underlying forms first, making sure that they look three-dimensional before adding details and markings on top. 

This step is sometimes called 'modelling the big forms', or 'turning the larger forms'.  Understanding that this comes before detail is a vital part of learning how to shade a flower convincingly.

In addition to my HB and 2B graphite pencils, I also used a 4B for the dark accents in this step.

To draw the petals so that they look convincingly 3D, we need to 'see through' the details, and instead look for the general value of each petal, as shown in the above right image.

Speaking of the above right image, did removing the markings on the petals reduce their believability or realism? Not at all!

I could easily choose not to draw in those markings, and it wouldn't detract from the realism of my drawing. The overall form is always more important to the realism of a drawing than any superficial markings on the surface.

Still no markings on those central petals?!

Nope! However, look at the gradations within the central petals. I refined the values and edges, smoothing them and adding nuanced transitions, and now they look much more three-dimensional and realistic.

Alright - let's dive into the details! Here we'll analyze and patiently adjust nuanced values and edges to make the illusion of light, form, and depth even more convincing.  This last stage of shading can easily take the most time.

Because there are so many extremely subtle tonal (value) shifts in this flower, we need to even more sensitively observe and compare values at this stage. Here's what I mean:

Value A is close in value to value B. The two are only separated by a sliver of lighter petal between them.

Value C is lighter than values D and E. Of the three values indicated on that particular petal, Value D is the darkest, value E is slightly lighter, and value C is the lightest.

Value F is approximately the same value as Value E, perhaps juuust barely lighter.

Value G is darker than Value F. Value G is similar in value to Value D.

These are just a few examples of my thought process while comparing values in the refining and finishing stage. Analyzing which values are similar and which are slightly different help me to notice and re-create these subtleties in my drawing.

I analyze the subtle edges in the flower the same way.

How to Draw a Flower:
The Finished Realistic Flower Drawing

As I add detail to my drawing, I pay attention to both similarities and variations. For example, notice that the markings on the petals radiate out from the center of the flower.

Also notice that they are not evenly spaced. Drawing these 'imperfections' of a subject, for lack of a better word, adds tremendous realism. The more specific our drawing is to our subject, the more believable and natural it will seem.

When learning how to draw a flower or any other subject, the order of steps is important. For example, without accurate proportions and shapes (step 1), our realistic flower drawing will never look like this specific flower. Without construction after that (step 2), we'll miss the essential overlapping lines that position one petal in front of the other. 

Here are our steps of drawing a flower, at a glance:

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This concludes the flower drawing tutorial, but don't miss the bonuses below!

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Flower Drawing Tutorial
Free Downloadable Resources

I hope you enjoyed this how to draw a flower step by step tutorial! What next?

If you have not yet downloaded the flower drawing reference, along with the flower drawing steps infographic - you can do that below.

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