How to Draw a Leaf

Learn how to draw a leaf with these three easy steps and create a design that's perfect for your garden-themed ideas. A leaf can be added as foliage to flowers, seasonal crafts for Fall and Summer, or gardening ideas for events. You can create abstract designs, cartoonish sketches, or real-life drawings.

If you want to explore other plant drawing lessons be sure to check out how to draw a monstera leaf. Our FREE drawing guides can be used with any medium that you have available. This can include colored pencils, ink pens, crayons, or digital apps.

In today's tutorial, we are working on Procreate and using the pre-installed ink brushes. You will need a brush for sketching, outlining, and adding color. You can even add textures if you want to.

Looking for new brushes to add to your digital library? Design Bundles offers a selection of Monoline brushes that work great for outlining your design.

Step 1 - Create the Rough Sketches of your Leaf

To begin, we will first create rough sketches using a pencil or a medium that is easy to remove or cover up later on. If using a lighter-colored medium, choose one that can be hidden when applying color.

Sketch the Stem

Begin by roughly sketching the stem of your leaf. The stem will go through the center of the main shape. The tip of the stem will be narrower while the base will be wider.

Draw the Leaf Shape

Next, create the shape of your leaf around the stem, leaving a small area open at the bottom left where it connects to the stem. The shape can be minimal or more complex by changing how you draw your line. You can choose from different types of leaves such as creating a teardrop shape, scalloped, or a wavy line.

Add the Leaf Veins

Draw the veins extending out from the center of the stem. These leaf patterns can be simple, straight lines drawn at an angle or curvy, wavy lines. We chose to use slightly wavy lines in the image below.

Step 2 - Outline your Leaf Sketch

With your rough sketch ready, it's time to permanently outline it with a medium like a marker or a pen. Fill in the veins and the stem with a dark color. Once you are done creating the leaf outline, remove your rough sketches.

Step 3 - Add Color to the Leaf Drawing

Leaves during Summer and Spring are shades of green, while during Winter and Fall, their colors change. For our color palette, we selected two shades of green. You can use as many colors as you wish.

Start by adding a base color to your sketch. We added a lighter green and then created depth to the veins with a darker shade of green.

You can be as creative as you want in this step by adding shading or even using Procreate painting brushes for texture.

Here is the final result.

One single leaf can be duplicated in Procreate to make enough for a tree. You can also make physical copies of your leaf and let the kids craft a paper tree. Surprise a garden lover with a personalized t-shirt featuring a quirky comment such as "You are unbe-leaf-able".

If you enjoyed following this tutorial, we have many more available in the Design School for all kinds of drawing skills.