How to Draw a Flower

We all know the beauty of flowers and their endless array of colors and textures. In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how you can draw a Poppy flower and add color and detail to bring it to life.

Before we get started, grab your supplies. You can use anything you have on hand to draw your flower, like pencils, crayons, Procreate, Photoshop, etc. If you are using Procreate like me, we will use a procreate ink brush bundle. You can check out our Procreate texture brush section for more choices if you want.

Step 1 - Draw the Pistil

First, we are going to draw the Pistil outline which is in the middle of the Poppy flower. Drawing from the center first will help guide you with petal placement and having your Poppy flower spaced out properly.

This Pistil piece has the Stigma at the top so there are some waves in the outline of it.

Step 2 - Draw the inner petals

With your Pistil in the center, draw the 2 inner petal outlines of the poppy. Your petal placement will be at the top and bottom of the Pistil. You can see in the drawing below my bottom petal is drawn as half a petal to give the effect that the petal isn’t flat.

Feel free to draw two full petals if that’s the look you are going for.

Step 3 - Draw the outer petals

Now draw the outlines of the outer 2 petals. The outer petals flare out more than the inner petals and are placed on the opposite sides (left and right).

Step 4 - Draw the Stamens

Around the Pistil, you are going to draw the Stamens around it. The Stamens of a Poppy flower look like lines with oval shapes on top. Don’t make these too big and keep them relatively close to the Pistil (see image).

Step 5 - Add line detailing

You now have your Poppy flower outline complete. To add more details to your drawing add lines on the petals and Stigma lines on the Pistil. If you want to skip right to coloring and shading your flower skip this step.

Step 6 - Color the Poppy

Color your Poppy flower using 2 shades of red and yellow for the Pistil. I have my inner petals a dark shade of red and the outer petals are a little lighter red. Poppies come in a variety of colors like pink and purple so you can swap out the red for something else.

Step 7 - Add Shading

To give your Poppy flower more depth and texture you can add shading to the petals. You can use any medium you have on hand like paint, markers, crayons, etc.

To help with shading your Poppy flower think of how your petals are shaped and where the sun or light is coming from. Using a light source direction will help you with adding shading in the right places. Feel free to use the same shading areas as I did.

Step 8 - Add highlights 

For the final touch to our Poppy flower, you’ll be adding some highlights to the petals. Using the same shading method and light source add your highlight on the petal areas where the light reflects. Usually, this is directly on a bend or on the edge/rims of a petal.

Now you can draw a Poppy flower or other flowers using the step and tips in this tutorial. Get creative with your style and use whichever medium you have available!

We hope you enjoyed this drawing tutorial, you may also enjoy our tutorials on how to draw people in Procreateandhow to draw a pumpkin.