Drawing Tutorial: Learn How to Draw Plants

Learn how to draw plants through observation with this practical exercise by Lucía Coz

Botanical illustration requires patience and a good eye for observation. It takes a lot of trial and error to reproduce the tiny details on a leaf or stem. And you need to develop your own, intuitive way of creating textures and tricky shapes.

Illustrator, engraver and muralist Lucía Coz specialises in nature. In this tutorial, she teaches you how to get what you see onto paper.
“I explore the nature hidden in the everyday, which is just as lovely.”

Learn more in the video:

Four steps to draw plants freehand

1. Gather your samples

If you want to learn how to illustrate plants, train your gaze to detect everything different and wonderful waiting to be discovered as you walk around. There are an infinite range of shapes and sizes. Gather leaves and dried flowers to practice reproducing textures and colors.

2. Use a 0.2 drawing pen

This pen produces a medium line, ideal for achieving the basic outlines of leaves and stalks. Lucía recommends being brave and going straight for a pen. Don’t use a pencil first: going for it is the only way to learn a more confident stroke.

A 0.1 pen is ideal for more subtle, delicate details (like the one shown below).

No matter which section you’re looking at remember a liberating rule: your drawing will be your interpretation. It’s your personal take on things. So give free rein to your imagination and don’t hesitate to come back and re-do anything you’re not happy with. Don’t aim for perfection, especially at first.

3. Scale up your drawings

Anyone who has ever tried, knows it’s really hard to create a faithful representation of every aspect of your plant. Lucía recommends making your drawings a bit bigger than the original, to allow you to see all the details.

4. Find your own way to create textures

It can be a hard getting pollen onto paper. Lucía found her own method: creating a series of little arcs, to form a continuous spiral. “I try to make things simple when it comes to capturing shape. You can and need to find your own way,” she concludes.

Like these tips? Learn to flex your hand and mind and achieve expressive illustrations with lines and colors in Lucía’s online course: Creative Drawing with Ink and Gouache.

You may be interested in:

- Botanical Watercolor for Patterns, a course by Isabela Quintes.

- Negative Watercolor Painting for Botanical Illustration, a course by Cristina Cilloniz.

- Botanical Illustration with Watercolors, a course by Paulina Maciel Canela.