How to Draw a Lily in 5 Steps

A lily is an herbaceous (non-woody) flowering plant that grows from bulbs. It typically grows in temperate and sub-tropical regions, but lilies can also grow in most gardens or as potted plants.

These fragrant flowers symbolize purity and they bloom in a wide variety of striking colors such as gold, peach, red, green, orange, pink, and even black.

In this section, we'll show you how to draw the above lily. You can draw this flower freehand while looking at your computer monitor or print out this page to get a closer look at each step.

Follow the red lines in each illustration to learn exactly what to draw in that step. The lines drawn in previous steps are shown in gray. Here, we'll show you an illustration of each step and then give you a description of how to draw it.

1. Sketch the Outline

Draw a Y-shaped stem having two short branches at the top. Make the ends of the branches rounded. For pods, draw a long, narrow oval at the end of each branch.

One quarter of the way from the top of the stem, draw two more short branches. For the lily flowers, draw a long, thin bell shape at the end of each of these branches.

2. Leaves

Draw curving leaves along the stem. When leaves go behind flowers, make sure that the leaf lines don't go through the flower shapes.

3. Pods and Petals

Put ridges in the pods with two or three long lines. In the topmost leaf, draw a line down the center. Draw the petals of the lilies with rounded triangular shapes as shown.

4. Leaves and Stem

Draw the centers of the flowers with four small ovals attached to short lines. Define the leaves with curving lines. Redraw the stem line.

5. Shading

Shade the pods and leaves with delicate lines that follow their curves. Shade the stem and branches with a few lines that suggest shadows.

Darken the ends of the flowers with long, delicate lines. Shade the petal tips with shorter lines. Make the centers appear fuzzy by adding very short lines to the ovals.

Your lovely lily is complete and ready to be added to your growing flower collection. In the next section, learn how to draw a flower that has the ability to grow just about anywhere.

Continue to the next page to learn how to draw a geranium.

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