Learn How to Draw a Sun Flower Easy Step by Step
Learning how to draw flowers is pretty easy to do. Today we are going to learn how to draw a sunflower. Also, very easy to do.
And then we will look at some different ideas of what you can do with those sunflower drawings to turn them into a beautiful work of art.
This is slightly more challenging and takes some creativity. But hopefully I can show you some things that will help you get started in the right direction.
Sunflower Reference
Let’s begin by taking a look at a photo of a real sunflower, and seeing what we notice about it.
Photo from https://www.pexels.com.
First the center is almost perfectly round, and filled with small seeds. Looking at all of the seeds make the center of the sunflower look sort of fuzzy.
The center of the sunflower also as a lot of texture because of all the seeds.
There are two layers of petals and they overlap each other as well. And the petals themselves are narrower at both ends and wider in the middle.
The stem is pretty thin and goes straight down from the center of the sunflowers lower edge.
That seems pretty easy, right? So let’s start drawing what we observed from our photo of the sunflower.
But before we get started on the actual sunflower drawing, let’s take a look at all of the art supplies we’ll be using in today’s lesson.
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Art Supplies
- Thin black marker
- Paper or cardstock
- Markers
- Pencil
- Click Eraser, Pink Pearl Eraser
- White Gelly Roll pen
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How to Draw a Sunflower (Easy)
Start by drawing a circle for the center of your sunflower. For now we are just going to rough everything. We’ll add in more detail later.
We talked about this in How to Use Shapes to Draw. You don’t want to spend a bunch of time adding details as you go, only to realize something isn’t quite right with the drawing itself.
Sunflower Drawing – Petals
Pick a spot on your circle and start drawing your petals. Work your way around the entire circle, drawing one petal after another.
You can make your petals all the same, or you can add some variation to them like I did.
Now, add in a second row behind the first row of petals. Draw them in the negative space between the first row.
Next draw a stem straight down from the center of your sunflower.
Finish your rough sketch of your sunflower by adding in a couple of leaves on your stem.
Adding Texture to the Sunflower Drawing
Now it’s time to refine your sunflower drawing and start adding in more detail. Begin by making the center more textured.
Texture is one of the 7 elements of art. Since this is a two-dimensional drawing, we are working with perceived texture.
To do this, draw some squiggly lines to represent the seeds of your sunflower. Do this for the outside edge of your flower, as well as several more circles in the center of your sunflower drawing.
How to Draw an Easy Sunflower with Texture
Finish your sunflower sketch by drawing in some lines on each petal and the leaves.
I only drew in a few lines on the petals because I know I’m going to outline my drawing with a black pen.
If you are going to keep yours graphite, fill in the detail on all of the petals.
Easy Sunflower Outline
The next step is to make your sunflower outline. For most of my drawings I use a Pitt Artist Pen. I’ve been using them for years and they are my go to outlining tool.
Trace over all of your pencil lines with a black pen. Add in any other details you haven’t already added to your sunflower drawing.
I put in a few extra scribbles for the seeds to add some additional texture.
Easy Sunflower Drawing with Markers
Now comes the fun part. This is where your sunflower artwork really comes to life. I love how bright and colorful markers are, so that’s what I’ll be using here. But you can use whatever medium you prefer.
I like using markers because they can be blended together to create smooth transitions of color. And they’re so bright on bold.
How to Draw a Sunflower Stem
We are going to start by coloring in the stem. You could begin with the flower instead if you wanted to. But I prefer starting with the easiest parts first so I can warm up a bit. I find that it’s less intimidating that way.
Begin by filling the stem in with your lightest color, and building up your areas with the darker colors.
If you need more help working with markers, take a look at How to Blend Markers for Beginners.
For the stem the following colors were used.
Sunflower Seeds Drawing
Next we move onto coloring in the center of the sunflower drawing. You want to have a nice blend of colors with a variation of lights and darks.
The following colors were used for this section of the flower.
Sunflower Petals Colors
Using the same technique, color in each petal of your sunflower.
You want the tips of the petals to be lighter than the end that connects to the center. This is because the center of your sunflower creates a shadow on the base of the petals.
How to Color a Background
You can leave your background white or add some designs or color to it. I’ve been forcing myself to add a background to all of my drawings since doing a robot swap last year. You can read more about that at, Robot Drawing Challenge.
For this sunflower drawing I decided to use blue to represent the sky.
These are the colors used for my background.
I also added some white swirls with a Gelly Roll pen just to add a little bit of style to the drawing.
Sunflower Drawing Ideas
For the majority of my drawings, I prefer doing them on ATCs. This is a highly addictive art form for many reasons. If you are not familiar with them, check out How to Make Artist Trading Cards (ATCs).
Whenever I do a new art tutorial that teaches how to draw something, I will typically do 7 variations of that subject. This gives me several different options to choose from for the actual how to draw lesson.
The following picture shows all of the variations I came up with when practicing how to draw a sunflower.
How to Draw a Sunflower | Easy Art Tutorial
Learning to draw a sunflower is easy and fun, which is how creating art should always feel. The more you practice the better your drawings will get. And if you can practice for a little bit each day, you’ll be setting yourself up for success.
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