How To Draw Tulip Flowers

I guess everyone likes tulip flowers and, I hope that you love them too. For me, tulips always mean spring.

Especially the month of May when everything is so fresh.

The skies are fresh, the air is new, new hopes, new plans…you just name it.

Each time I transit Amsterdam Airport I can’t help to stop at the airport tulip souvenir shop.

They sell bulbs of various tulip species.

It is absolutely amazing!

Many of us associate tulips with Netherlands.

But, did you know that the name of tulip and the flower itself originates in Persian Empire?

I picked this simple tulip flower as a drawing exercise. You are going to love it!

click the image to enlarge

While observing this picture, concentrate on three important features of this tulip:

Basically, if you can capture these 3, you can draw proportionally well-balanced flower.

Do You Love Drawing Flowers?

click the image to enlarge

Draw the stem by one single and weak pencil line. Remember how the stem is curved?

Approximately on the top of that make a sketch of the flower head.

click the image to enlarge

Outline the contours of leaves. Tulip flowers have usually straight leaves but they tend to fold on the lower part of the stem.

click the image to enlarge

Begin to work out the leaves so that they will start to look like real leaves.

Make special attention to the lowest leaf. Yes, that which is folded outwards.

Why?

Because that leaf gives this tulip more realistic look. Can you notice that?

click the image to enlarge

Decide the thickness of the flower stem proportionally to the whole size of the flower. Not too thick and not too slim.

Also notice where the leaves cover the stem and, where the leaves cover each other. This is important!

Tulip flowers are very easy to draw but three-dimensional pictures have certain rules we must obey.

click the image to enlarge

Outline the contours of tulip petals and you can erase unnecessary pencil lines.

click the image to enlarge

Now you will need two color pencils.

Draw the contours of the flower by color pencils over the initial graphite pencil lines.

Be careful! Flower head is pink and the rest is green.

Erase all residual graphite pencil lines and your drawing should look like this or better.

Now you have a beautiful template for tulip flowers coloring page.

click the image to enlarge

Use the same two color pencils and fill up the green parts and the tulip head.

No shading yet - just plain, weak, as if a smoky color.

click the image to enlarge

Add darker red and pink color tone on the petals. Lower part of the head is slightly brighter (lighter) – almost white.

click the image to enlarge

The petals are now shining in bright red color ;-)

Add more dark green to the flower stem and in similar fashion begin to darken the leaves.

click the image to enlarge

Since the upper two leaves are folded along the length, the inner parts become naturally darker – as if in a shade.

You can experiment with green leaves, shading them a bit. Unleash your fantasy. Make your drawing better than mine!

click the image to enlarge

I think you now agree with me when I said, that tulip flowers are really easy to draw ;-)

Do You Love Drawing Flowers?

Now Let’s Draw This Tulip As Twice As Fast!

click the image to enlarge

Let’s polish your tulip flowers drawing skills further. Just observe and draw from the pictures without reading my comments.

click the image to enlarge

Outline the stem, the tulip’s head and the leaves. Do it as quickly as you can using tilted pencil grip.

click the image to enlarge

Mark out the contours of the tulip’s petals. Shapes of tulip petals usually determine the image of the whole flower. Keep this in mind while you are drawing tulip flowers.

Decide the thickness of the flower stem and draw the contours of all three leaves.

Notice how the leaves fold and where, how they cover the stem and each other.

click the image to enlarge

Take two color pencils:

and

Outline the contours of the flower as you see on the picture.

Carefully because colored pencils are not so easy to erase as graphite pencil.

click the image to enlarge

Erase the residual graphite pencil lines so that only green and pink colored pencil lines remain.

click the image to enlarge

Now, just flat color both, green part and the pink part. No shading yet.

click the image to enlarge

I always begin to draw the details from the flower’s head and, I also recommend you to do the same.

You can keep control over your tulip drawing. In other words, once you have the tulip’s head ready, you are more than seventy percent done.

Shading the leaves of tulip flowers is the easiest part and doesn’t require special care as it is in other flowers.

click the image to enlarge

When the tulip’s head is finished begin to shade the leaves.

You’ll need one or two different darker green color tone pencils to do it.

click the image to enlarge

Notice, that the inner area where the leaf curls its edges around the stem is naturally darker, so make it look darker.

click the image to enlarge

You’ve finished both drawing exercises; you are now well equipped to be able to draw any kind of tulip flowers of your choice.

Do You Love Drawing Flowers?

From Tulip Flowers To Home Page