How to Draw a Lily Flower – Create Your Own Lily Flower Drawing

With their large and prominent leaves, lily flowers are considered to be the “true” lily over other versions, such as the calla lily. This type of flower is important in cultures and literature all over the world, with many other plants having “lily” in their common name despite not belonging to the same genus! In today’s drawing tutorial, we are going to show you how to draw a lily flower from the very beginning. Select the drawing supplies that you will be using and let’s get started!

How to Draw a Lily Flower: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Join us and learn how to create your very own lily flower drawing with our 15 easy steps! In our tutorial, we cover everything that you need to know, from the drawing instructions to adding color to your flower, so that you are left with a beautiful drawing at the end. 

Our tutorial is great for beginners and professional artists alike, and can be done on paper or a graphics tablet!

The above collage shows each of the 15 steps taken to achieve the final result of a seamless lily flower outline, and demonstrates what your lily sketch should look like at every step. Select the drawing supplies that you will be using today and let us start learning how to draw a lily flower!

Step 1: Draw the Center Petal of Your Lily Flower

To start your lily flower drawing, you will need to draw the outline of your first petal. Find the center of your drawing area, whether it is on paper or a graphics tablet, and begin to sketch this petal, making sure to curve it upwards slightly.

This petal is the center petal of your entire lily sketch.

Step 2: Add the Side Petals to Your Lily Flower Outline

Once the center petal has been drawn, you can add the side petals to your drawing to begin to make it look as realistic as possible. Attaching these on both sides of your center petal, draw two side petals leaning outwards. 

Step 3: Sketch the Bottom Petals of Your Lily

For your lily flower outline to fully resemble a flower, you will need to add bottom petals to your drawing. Underneath the center and side petals that you have just added, draw three bottom petals that are angled away from these top petals. 

Your bottom petals should be individually drawn and must not overlap.

Step 4: Construct the Sepal in Your Lily Sketch

Now that the petals have been added, we can move on to the sepal of your lily flower. The sepal is green and makes up the outer part of a flower, usually enclosing the developing buds. On the left-hand side of your drawing, outline the top end of a stem and on the right-hand side, draw the remainder of the sepal.

Step 5: Draw the Stamen of Your Flower

We will now be adding the stamen to your lily drawing! Stamens are found in all flower species and make up the pollen-producing part of the flower. Within the center of your lily flower, draw several outflowing lines with seeds at the end of each. 

Moving back to the top end of the stem that you drew on the left-hand side in the previous step, draw an unopened lily flower attached to this part.

Step 6: Add the First Coat of Color to Your Lily Flower Drawing

We are now ready to add our first coat of color to our lily sketch! Making use of a regular paintbrush and a shade of pink paint, evenly color the main lily flower and the unopened flower.

Step 7: Color the Stem of Your Lily Flower Outline  

Once you have added a base coat of color to both lily flowers, we can move on to adding some color to the stem of the flower. Using a regular paintbrush and dark green paint, evenly color the stem and sepal of your lily drawing.

Be careful not to paint outside the lines, so that your lily drawing already looks seamless at this point!

Step 8: Apply Color to the Stamen of Your Lily Drawing

Focusing on the stamen in your lily flower drawing, select a fine paintbrush and purple paint to color in the stamen lines at the center of your flower. Once this is done, switch over to gray or black paint and color in the top seeds of the stamen.

Step 9: Highlight Your Lily Sketch

As all of the base coats of color have been added, we can now work on adding some highlights to our lily flower drawing! With a fine paintbrush and white paint, gently add hairline brushstrokes to each petal, to enhance the texture. Repeat this step with a softer paintbrush to fade these highlights into the main petals.

Moving on to the unopened lily flower, take a soft paintbrush and a caramel color to paint this section, using white paint to lighten this area. Once you have finished, blend the smaller petals of the unopened lily flower with a light peach color.

Step 10: Add Shading to Your Lily Flower Drawing

At this stage of our drawing tutorial, we will be adding some shading to our lily flower outline. With a soft paintbrush and purple paint, apply fine brushstrokes between the edges and texture lines of the main flower to enhance its structure. Switch over to a smaller paintbrush and black paint to add shading to the edges of the unopened lily flower.

Step 11: Create Detailing Along the Petals of Your Lily Drawing

With a small paintbrush and purple paint, add some dots and fine texture lines to each lily petal. After this, switch over to a clean paintbrush and green paint. From the center of the flower, add several strokes that reach outwards and gently fade these lines.

With a small paintbrush and white paint, add some final highlights along the main edges and arches of the unopened flower.

Step 12: Add Detail to the Stem and Sepal

Moving away from the petals in your lily flower drawing, we can now add some detail to the stem and sepal of your flower. Firstly, with a small paintbrush and dark green paint, add fine texture lines within the sepal leaf. Secondly, take another paintbrush and dark green paint to apply several dots and streaks onto the sepal. Thirdly, paint the top part of the stem with a lighter green color.

Step 13: Complete the Stamen of Your Lily Flower Drawing

At this stage of our lily flower drawing tutorial, we can complete the stamen. Take a sharp paintbrush and black paint to fill around the tip of each stamen.

After this, select a soft paintbrush and green paint to fade and blend the colors on the stamen lines.

Step 14: Apply Some Final Shading to Your Lily Sketch

In the second-last step, we are going to add some final shading to our lily drawing! With a soft paintbrush and a mixture of pink, gray, and caramel paint, softly paint a casted shadow underneath the lily flower and around its edges.

Step 15: Finalize Your Entire Lily Flower Drawing

In the final step, you will be tracing over your entire lily outline to give it a seamless effect. With a fine paintbrush and the corresponding colors for each section, trace over the whole flower. Remember to include the inner texture lines to create a clean and seamless final result.

Once this is finished, you will be left with a beautiful lily drawing that has no visible outlines at all!

Well done, you have just learned how to draw a lily flower by yourself! Now that you have mastered all of the steps needed for creating a lily drawing, you can recreate this drawing at any time, making many beautiful lily flower drawings in many different colors. We hope that you enjoyed our tutorial on lily drawing today, and that you will join us again for more easy and exciting drawing guides!

Our Flower Drawing Tutorials

• Flower Drawing Basics
• Tulip Drawing
• Hydrangea Drawing
• Poppy Flower Drawing
• Orchid Drawing
• Magnolia Flower Drawing
• Hibiscus Flower Drawing
• Calla Lily Drawing
• Lotus Flower Drawing
• Peony Flower Drawing
• Daffodil Drawing
• Dandelion Drawing
• Daisy Flower Drawing
• Sunflower Drawing
• Cherry Blossom Drawing
• Rose Drawing
• Forget-Me-Not Flower Drawing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is It Easy to Learn How to Draw a Lily Flower?

Absolutely! While the exact shape of the petals may take you two or three tries to get right, drawing a lily flower is very easy. With our straightforward tutorial, where we detail every single step that you need to take, you will have a beautiful lily flower drawing in no time.

What Color Is a Lily Flower Drawing?

Lily flowers commonly grow in white, pink, yellow, and even orange! Because of this, you have many options to choose from when creating your own lily sketch! We have chosen the color pink for our lily in our guide, but we encourage you to let your imagination run wild and choose whatever color you wish.

Matthew Matthysen( Drawing and Painting Artist )

Matthew Matthysen is an educated multidisciplinary artist and illustrator. He successfully completed his art degree at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, majoring in art history and contemporary drawing. The focus of his thesis was to explore the philosophical implications of the macro and micro-universe on the human experience. Matthew uses diverse media, such as written and hands-on components, to explore various approaches that are on the border between philosophy and science.

Matthew organized various exhibitions before and during his years as a student and is still passionate about doing so today. He currently works as a freelance artist and writer in various fields. He also has a permanent position at a renowned online gallery (ArtGazette) where he produces various works on commission. As a freelance artist, he creates several series and successfully sells them to galleries and collectors. He loves to use his work and skills in various fields of interest.

Matthew has been creating drawing and painting tutorials since the relaunch in 2020. Through his involvement with artincontext.org, he has been able to deepen his knowledge of various painting mediums. For example, watercolor techniques, calligraphy and lately digital drawing, which is becoming more and more popular.

Learn more about Matthew Matthysen and the Art in Context Team.