How to Draw a Realistic Sunflower

Wanna know how to draw a sunflower step-by-step?

What a coincidence.

It just so happens that I made you a step-by-step tutorial on how to draw a sunflower! It even includes free traceable worksheets!

Yep, free worksheets! You can download those at the end of this post.

First Things First…

The links below may be affiliate links where appropriate. This means that your purchase through these links may result in a few cents in payment to me, to support creating further resources like this one! That being said, I will never suggest supplies that I do not personally use and fully recommend.

Supplies Mentioned

Micron Pens (sizes 01, 03, 05) – You don't have to have multiple sizes. One pen is totally fine if that's what you have available.
Rhodia Paper
Pencil
Eraser

Rather watch than read? No problem! You can watch me draw a sunflower in real-time by clicking the video below!

Let's Get Started!

Thankfully you don't need super fancy supplies for this one. Grab a pencil and some blank paper (I used Rhodia).

Start by drawing a small circle and then a slightly bigger circle around it.

From there, you're going to add one more circle. (I promise this will make sense and isn't a dirty drawing – this is a flower, remember?!)

Finally, you'll add a fourth and final circle. Nothing in nature is perfect, so don't worry too much about perfecting size or spacing. This isn't meant to be perfect. And flowers are meant to be a bit imperfect.

Next, grab your Micron 01. Remember, if you only have one pen, that's totally fine.

Draw some jagged edges around your first three circles (not the fourth and biggest circle). These don't have to be perfect – they are just to add some dimension.

Adding Petals

Then grab your Micron 03 and start drawing petals. People start to freak out a bit at this part, but try not to let it worry you too much when you get to this step. Again, nature isn't perfect. Flowers aren't perfect.

You will draw those petals from the outside of your third circle and extend them out to around where your fourth circle is. These don't need to be the same distance apart, the exact same shape, etc. Perfection would never happen in real life, and you want your drawing to be realistic.

Draw your petals all the way around your circle, unevenly spaces, varying shapes.

Adding Partial Petals

Then draw in your partial petals. You want to fill in the rest of your circle with these. Make sure you get both the tips on the outer edge as well as the parts on the inside of your circle. You need to see all the parts of the petals to make the petals look finished.

Fill in any gaps – ultimately you're just filling in this bigger circle with petals.

Adding Some Details

Then switch back to your Micron 01 (if you're using multiple sizes).

This part is super tedious. Start in the middle (your smallest circle) and make a bunch of little circles. Your goal here is to fill in the center of the circle with little tiny circles that are tightly packed. They don't have to be perfect at all. They can overlap. They can touch or overlap your original jagged line/circle. They can vary a bit in exact size and shape. No perfection needed.

You're going to do the same thing on your next section, but you'll make these circles a little bit bigger. Still imperfect. Still filling in all that space. Just a little bigger and not as tightly packed this time.

Then switch back to your Micron 03. You're going to make tiny circles again in your last bigger section. You want to do tiny, tightly packed circles again for this one (like in the center of your circle) – you're just using a bigger pen this time. You want this to look like the most tightly packed section. The bigger pen will get your lines nice and dark, which will help your tiny circles look more tightly packed.

This might take a while. Put on some nice music, zone out a bit, and fill in your circle. Your wrist might hurt – take a break if you need to! 🙂

As you finish this last section, you'll start to see how each section is differentiated a bit based on how you filled them in.

Adding Some Contrast

Remember those jagged lines you drew to separate your circle sections? You're going to go over those again with your Micron 05 – essentially you are going to add in some more jagged lines around each circle to add some contrast.

Then, go over your center section again with the bigger pen.You want to add some more circles in there to make it even darker.

Next, add in your thicker jagged line on your outermost rim. Adding contrast!

Then, in that outermost section, you want to fill in some of the space between tiny circles with your thicker pen. Instead of actually filling in allllll those spaces, just draw scribbled lines throughout. Just a lot of scribbled lines throughout the entire section. Don't worry about overlapping your tiny circles – just scribble.

This will add more and more contrast.

If you're wondering what exact shapes to make here for scribbles, here's an idea of what I did:

It looks really messy, but once you're putting it inside your section with all the tiny circles, it looks pretty good.

Be sure you fill out the entire outer section.

Then you're going to do the exact same thing with your middle, lighter section too. Same jagged lines but a little less dense – you don't want this section to be as tightly packed, remember?

Adding Some Spikes

Back to your Micron 03. You're going to add some spikes to the outer edge of your flower. This gives your flower even more dimension.

If you want to know what that looks like, here's an idea of what I did:

Just little shapes, super imperfect. This adds some more shape, more dimension, and more texture to your flower. Make sure you go all the way around your circle.

Adding Some MORE Details

Time for the Micron 01 again. You're going to add some shading and dimension on the actual petals themselves now.

Starting at the center, bring up some super imperfect lines up from the center of your petals. These can go all the way to the tip, they can stop part of the way, etc. These are meant to be light, imperfect lines. The only "rule" here is to make sure they are always directional to the center of the flower. You don't want lines coming sideways out of the petals.

Work your way around your flower until all of your petals have some of these dimension lines.

This part is so fun! You can finally see the flower really coming together now!

Adding Some Pop

Technically you could stop here if you wanted to (it looks pretty nice already). But I recommend adding a bit more contrast. This is what I find makes the flower really pop.

Go back to your Micron 05 for this step. Fill in some of the gaps and overlapping spots at the center of your flower (where the petals overlap a bit). This gives some depth to the petals and makes them pop around the edge.

Next, go over all of your petals with your Micron 05. Be careful when you're doing this, and go slow if you need to. You still want to keep the same general shape of your petals, but add some dimension to the edges with your thicker pen. It really makes your petals stand out from the rest of the flower and gives the edges a bit of pop.

Adding Some Final Touches

Last but not least, erase! You shouldn't need to erase the center at all (this step is mostly for the petals and the circle you made for them). But feel free to erase the entire thing just in case.

And that's a wrap!

There you have it! A beautiful sunflower! Those circles might be the bane of your existence, but I hope you love the final product!

If you enjoyed this, feel free to check out all my other floral tutorials here. 🙂

Download your FREE floral doodles workbook here!

And finally, your dad joke…

The sunflower couldn't ride a bicycle anymore.
Its petals broke.

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Source: https://www.thehappyevercrafter.com/blog/sunflower/