How to Draw a Lily Flower – An Easy Lily Illustration Lesson

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The beautiful lily smells as sweet as it looks. This gorgeous bloom has a colorful history and loads of cultural and symbolic associations dating back to Greek mythology. This beautiful bloom has been used to represent feminine virtues and health. The lily flower has robust petals and is an artist’s delight to paint. This easy-to-follow tutorial will focus on the basics of building a beautiful lily flower from start to finish. Get your art materials together, find a well-lit spot to sit, and let the drawing-fun commence!

A Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Draw a Lily Flower

Welcome to our simple 15-step how-to draw a lily flower tutorial! In this guide, we will teach you how to draw a lily flower, starting with creating your lily drawing’s foundation lines and eventually applying color and shading. Whether you are an experienced or amateur artist, our lily-drawing tutorial is for all!

This how-to-draw-a-lily-flower tutorial has been mapped out in the image above. It may look daunting at first, but you can be guaranteed that once you work through the stages, it won’t be as tricky as you thought! This guide was created for paint, but you are welcome to adapt it to any physical or digital medium you wish to use. Gather your art supplies and let us begin the lily flower outline.

Step 1: Drawing the Center Petal of Your Lily Flower Outline

Find the center of your page and begin your lily flower outline by drawing a petal shape curving slightly upwards. This is the first foundation line for your drawing. If you are using a digital design tablet, you should make this a separate layer.

Step 2: Adding Side Petals to Your Lily Flower Drawing

The first petal you drew forms the central petal of your lily sketch. Now draw two more petals either side of the central one that overlap it at the base. Draw these petals so that they appear to lean away from the center petal.

Step 3: Drawing the Bottom Petals of Your Lily Flower Outline

Your lily flower outline should be starting to look more like a flower! The next petals will be the bottom petals, but to make them look realistic, you will want to make the bottom petal rounded and facing towards the front. Do not overlap the petals.

See the diagram for guidance on how to draw three petals at an angle.

Step 4: Drawing the Sepal of Your Lily Sketch

In the previous steps, you created the lily flower outline, the next step will be to draw what is known as the sepal. This green leafy cocoon is where the flower blooms. You should place it between the two petals on the right-hand side, making it a slightly pointed, oval shape. See the image example if you are a little confused. On the left-hand side, draw two lines that will become the stem of your lily sketch.

Step 5: Drawing the Stamen of Your Lily Sketch

For the fifth step, you will be creating the stamen of your lily flower outline. The lily plant has defined pollen stamens which are a distinct asset of the flower. Draw about six stamen lines extending from the center of your lily, each with small oval-shaped pollen seed pods on top.

Then, to finish this step, you will add a closed lily flower onto the end of the stem you drew protruding on the left-hand side.

Step 6: Applying the First Color Coat to Your Lily Flower Outline

The foundation lines have been completed, and it is time for the coloring phase. Using a regular paintbrush and light pink paint, generously cover the unopened lily bud and the lily flower.

Step 7: Adding Color to the Stem of Your Lily Sketch

In the seventh step, you will be adding dark green paint to the lily flower stem. Take a regular paintbrush and coat the stem evenly.

Step 8: Applying Color to Your Lily Flower’s Stamen

Your lily flower drawing should be coming together nicely! The pink petals should be evenly colored, you should now add color to the stamen lines. Take a fine paintbrush and purple paint as you begin to trace the stamen line. Next, you can color the seed heads by using gray or black paint.

Step 9: Adding Highlights to Your Lily Flower Drawing

In this next phase, you will concentrate on adding highlights to your lily drawing. Use a fine paintbrush and white paint to create simple brushstrokes on each petal to give the flower depth and texture. Remember, the lily has robust petals, so add a curve in the petals you draw. Next, you will add a second coat of paint to the unopened lily, use a soft paintbrush, and caramel paint.

Only paint the large front petal, then paint the side petals in a soft-peach color.

Step 10: Creating Shading on Your Lily Flower Drawing’s Petals

You have successfully reached the shading phase of your lily drawing! Using a soft paintbrush and lilac paint, you will gently add brushstrokes between the texture lines and the edges of the flower petals. Once you have completed this, you can add a darker shade to the unopened flower petals.

Step 11: Detailing Your Lily Flower Drawing’s Petals

Take a small paintbrush and purple paint and add tiny dots and fine lines to the lily’s petals. Finally, switch to green paint, and add a generous number of brushstrokes coming from the center of the lily flower, fading into a soft pink and white blend.

Using the same pink/white shade, you can add highlights to the curves of the unopened lily flower.

Step 12: Detailing the Stem and Sepal of Your Lily Flower Drawing

Shifting your attention over to detailing the sepal and stem of your lily sketch, take a small paintbrush and dark green pigment to create surface lines to the sepal leaf. You will use the same green tone to add tiny streaks and dots to the sepal. Next, you can use light green paint on the top part of the lily flower’s stem.

Step 13: Completing the Stamen of Your Lily Drawing

In this step, you will add the finishing touch to the lily flower stamen. Use a sharp paintbrush and a touch of black paint, and you can begin to paint each tip of the stamen. Next, a touch of dark green paint to blend the color of each stamen line.

Step 14: Completing the Shading for Your Lily Flower Sketch

To complete this beautiful lily flower drawing, you will need to add shadow to your lily. Imagine the lily casting a shadow in real life as you try to mimic this by adding a gentle mixture of paint applied with a soft paintbrush. Add this around the bottom edges of your lily.

You can use a mix of caramel, pink, gray, and a touch of white color paints.

Step 15: Completing the Last Step of Your Lily Flower Drawing

To add the final outline, you will take a small, fine paintbrush and the corresponding colors of each part of your sketch. You should gently trace over each line to give it the last bit of emphasis it needs. If you have any pencil lines or cleaning up to do, you should now rub those out.

Congratulations! You have finished our how-to-draw-a-lily-flower tutorial! With our guide, you have explored all the basics, from the construction of the lily flower drawing to adding color, shading, and more! We hope you return for more exciting and easy drawing tutorials!

Frequently Asked Questions

How Difficult Is It to Draw a Lily Flower?

The lily flower is one of the easiest flowers to draw. Its robust leathery petals are an artist’s dream to paint as the colors blend beautifully. This how-to-draw-a-lily-flower tutorial will show you the basic formula for creating a masterpiece!

What Colors Should I Choose for My Lily Flower Drawing?

The lily flower possesses some beautiful coloring. Traditionally, the lily comes in shades of white and pink, but seeing as this is a fun drawing and painting exercise, you do not have to follow any rules!

Izzy Benloulou( Digital Artist and Content Creator )

Israel Benloulou aka IzzyBll is a digital artist and content creator from Israel, currently living in South Africa. Originally, he started his career in videography but later shifted his focus to digital graphic art. He specializes in using digital drawing software like Photoshop and Procreate. Drawing and photo editing have always come naturally to Izzy, and he now has 5 years of experience in the industry, working on commissions for various renowned brands such as Audi. Izzy creates drawing tutorials on his drawing tablet and produces related content for Craft Art since 2021.

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