How to Draw a Cherry Blossom - Sakura Flower Sketch Lesson

Q: What Is a Sakura Flower Drawing?

The Sakura flower or cherry blossom is a beautifully soft tree blossom that is most typically associated with Japan. In the spring, these lovely little flowers burst out on the branches of trees, and they make a fantastic drawing subject.

The cherry blossom flower is a beautiful and delicate bloom, typically associated with Japan. In the spring, cherry blossom trees are covered in these beautiful light pink flowers. In today’s drawing tutorial, we guide you through the process of drawing a realistic cherry blossom branch. From color to texture, we take you through all of the necessary steps to create a beautiful Sakura flower drawing. Let us begin!

Table of Contents

1 Step-by-Step Sakura Flower Drawing for All Artists
2 Our Flower Drawing Tutorials
3 Frequently Asked Questions
- 3.1 Is It Difficult to Draw a Realistic Cherry Blossom?
- 3.2 What Is a Sakura Flower Drawing?

Step-by-Step Sakura Flower Drawing for All Artists

We always strive to make drawing easy for artists of any level. Whether you are a seasoned artist, or you are taking your first steps in drawing, this tutorial is perfect for you! We begin our tutorial with a series of construction steps that help you to create the structure of your sakura flower branch. We then start to create the final outline, add texture, and finally create a realistic cherry blossom coloring. You can see an outline of the cherry tree drawing in the collage below.

Coloring is one of the most important elements of this cherry blossom sketch, as you can see we begin to add colors very early on in the tutorial. You are welcome to use your preferred coloring medium for this tutorial, whether it is a digital or physical medium.

Gather your drawing supplies, and let us start our cherry blossom sketch!

Step 1: Begin by Outlining the Branch

Most of this tutorial is up for your own personal artistic interpretation. We give you the guidelines on what to draw, but the final shape and placement of your cherry blossoms are up to you. With that being said, we begin our cherry blossom drawing by creating the outline of the main branch. Find the center of your drawing canvas, and create a diagonal branch that extends across it.

Step 2: Add Side Branches to Your Cherry Tree Drawing

In this step, you are going to add some smaller side branches along the main branch of your sakura flower drawing. On either side of the main branch, create a few smaller and longer side branches.

The most important aspect of ensuring that you create a realistic cherry blossom drawing is to create an uneven symmetry with the branches.

Step 3: Outlining the Cherry Blossom Petals

It is time to begin the sakura flower drawing. Against each of the branches, draw the outlines of several flowers. Each of the blossoms on your cherry tree drawing should have five petals. To create a more realistic cherry blossom drawing, apply a tilt to several of the flowers.

Step 4: Drawing the Cherry Blossom Sepals

Behind your cherry blossom petals, you now want to draw the sepals and leaves. Each of your sepals should be only partially visible behind each cherry blossom drawing. Some of these sepals can look like leaves, while others can look a little more curved.

In this step, you can also add some unopened flowers, represented by ovals or half-egg shapes within sepal cups.

Step 5: Detailing the Stamens of the Cherry Blossom Sketch

Within the center of each flower draw several outflowing lines with a dot above each line, this will represent the stamen of each Cherry blossom flower drawing.

Step 6: Erase the Overlapping Construction Lines

In the previous steps, we were creating the outlines of our cherry blossom sketch, and many of the lines were overlapping. In this step, you can now carefully erase the overlapping lines, to create one smooth final outline of your cherry tree drawing.

Step 7: Applying the First Coat of Color

We are now going to begin the coloring process of our cherry blossom sketch. Find a very light pink paint color, and a regular painting brush.

Carefully apply an even shade of this light pink shade to each of the cherry blossoms.

Step 8: Add a Base Coat to the Branches of Your Cherry Tree Drawing

We are now going to apply a base color coat to the branches of our cherry blossom drawing. Find a very fine paintbrush and a light brown color. Carefully apply an even coat of color to each of the branches.

Step 9: Coloring the Sepals, Leaves, and Buds

This step has two parts. First, use a small coloring brush and some darkish green paint to fill in the sepals and leaves on the branches and around the closed flowers.

Next, use some light purple paint and a clean small brush to add color to the closed buds of your cherry blossom sketch.

Step 10: Coloring the Stamens of Your Cherry Blossom Sketch

In this color detailing step, we are going to add some color to the stamens of your cherry blossom drawing. Use a very fine brush and some purple paint, and carefully trace over the stamen lines in each cherry blossom flower. Finish the step by coloring each of the dots above the stamen lines.

Step 11: Contouring Your Cherry Blossoms

For this step, you will need a small blending brush and a shade of light purple. Carefully apply a light shadow of this purple color in the center of each sakura flower drawing.

You can also bring a light streak of the shadow out between each of the petals, to add some dimension.

Step 12: Highlighting Your Cherry Blossom Drawing

To work alongside the contours, you can now add some highlights to each of the cherry blossom petals. Use a small blending brush and some white paint, and add some highlights from the center of each flower, blending it out towards the edges of each petal.

Step 13: Adding Dimension to Your Cherry Blossoms

We are now going to add a more three-dimensional aspect to your cherry blossom drawing with some additional shading. Use a shade of pink and a small blending brush, and apply some secondary shading around the edges of each petal.

To make a more realistic cherry blossom drawing, add more shading around the edges of the petals that are further away from our perspective.

Step 14: Building Up More Shadows

You can see that the process of creating a realistic cherry blossom drawing involves building up the shadows to create more dimension. In this step, we are going to darken the center of each individual cherry blossom flower with a maroon shade and a small blending brush.

Step 15: Trace the Stamen Lines

We are now going to trace the stamen lines again, this time with a shade of maroon. Use a fine brush, and carefully trace each individual stamen line and dot for each realistic cherry blossom.

Step 16: Coloring the Anthers

Use a very fine brush and find a shade of dark yellow paint. Use these tools to create some dark yellow anther dots in each of your cherry blossom drawings.

Step 17: Adding Highlights to Your Stamens

Again, using a very fine brush and some white paint, add some highlight lines along some of the stamen lines within each of your realistic cherry blossom flowers.

Step 18: Creating a Secondary Color for the Branches

Now that we have worked quite extensively on the realistic cherry blossom flowers, it is time to focus on the coloring of the branches. Use a small soft brush and some darker brown paint, and add a second layer of color to the main branches, the side branches, and along the sides of the branches.

Make sure that you do not fill the entire branches with this color, you want to ensure that the base color is still visible.

Step 19: Blending the Branches of Your Cherry Tree Drawing

With a small blending brush and a light brown color, create an even blend within the branches. You want to create a smooth blend between the first color and the darker shade, to create a more realistic cherry tree drawing. To make the blend even smoother, use a clean blending brush to smooth all of the coats together.

Step 20: Adding Texture to the Branches

We are now going to add some texturing to the branches of your cherry tree drawing. Find a clean sharp brush and some white paint, and begin applying fine hairline strokes along the branches. You want these strokes to follow the flow and arches of each branch.

This step acts as texture and highlights for the cherry tree branches.

Step 21: Shading the Branches for More Depth

With a small blending brush and just a touch of black paint, add a soft shaded edge to all of the branches of your cherry blossom sketch. To create a realistic three-dimensional effect, the majority of the shading should be focused on the lower side of each branch.

Step 22. Color Blending the Unopened Flowers

We are now going to add some color definition to the unopened sakura flower drawing. Use a small blending brush and some pink paint, and create a smooth blend into the base color coat for each of the unopened realistic cherry blossoms.

Step 23: Highlighting Your Unopened Cherry Blossom Buds

In keeping with our drawing style, we are now going to add highlights to our buds to complement the shading. Using a fine-tipped brush and some white paint, add hairlike streaks following the curve of each unopened cherry blossom flower to add texture and highlighting.

Step 24: Creating Definition in Your Leaves and Sepals

Using a small blending brush and some dark green paint, you can now apply a light layer of shading around the edges of each sepal and leaf.

Remember to leave the first color coat still visible.

Step 25: Darkening the Sepal Shading

You can now use a sparing amount of black paint and the same small blending brush to darken the shadows on the leaves and sepals. When using black paint, always be gentle, as you can always add more but it is almost impossible to take it away.

Step 26: Adding Final Highlights

To finalize the sepals and leaves of your realistic cherry blossom illustration, use a brighter shade of green and a soft blending brush to add a highlight to the edge of each sepal. As always, make sure that each of your separate color coats remain partially visible.

Step 27: Blending Your Colors Smoothly

Before we come to the final step of our realistic cherry blossom sketch, we are going to apply a second coat of color to each flower and blend all of our color layers together. Using a pink shade and a small blending brush, apply a second coat of color along the edges and in the center of each petal, to enhance the structure and color balance of each flower.

Finally, with a clean blending brush, create a smooth gradient between all of the colors.

Step 28: Finishing Your Cherry Blossom Drawing

You have come to the final step of the cherry blossom drawing tutorial, and it is time to put in the finishing touches. To remove the outline, you can either remove the layer on your drawing tablet, or you can trace over it with your physical medium. Remove the outline for each part of the cherry blossom sketch, including the branches and each petal, to create a seamless and realistic cherry blossom.

Congratulations on completing your very own realistic cherry blossom drawing! We hope that you are thrilled with your beautiful pink collection of blossoms, and more importantly, that you have enjoyed the drawing process. If you want to learn how to draw more budding blooms, check out our other flower drawing tutorials!

Our Flower Drawing Tutorials

Frequently Asked Questions

Is It Difficult to Draw a Realistic Cherry Blossom?

There is no real difficulty in learning how to create a soft and luscious cherry blossom drawing. The process takes a lot of color building, but our easy-to-follow tutorial guides you through, helping you to create a seamless and realistic cherry blossom illustration.

What Is a Sakura Flower Drawing?

The sakura flower or cherry blossom is a beautifully soft tree blossom that is most typically associated with Japan. In the spring, these lovely little flowers burst out on the branches of trees, and they make a fantastic drawing subject.

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.