How to draw a peony with petals, stem and leaves. 

Flowers! Spring! Peony’s are the theme today.

Peony’s have many, many layers of ruffled petals.

They look so delicate and come in several soft colors.

Thankfully, they have a simple shape (the circle!) underneath that we can build from. 

How to draw a peony flower with instructions

Supplies to draw & color a peony

Supplies you will need to draw and vibrantly color in a peony flower:

  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Eraser
  • Colored pencils or crayons
  • Watercolors

Supplies for drawing peonies

  Artist tip: As with any drawing it’s important to recognize how much space you are working with. To do this, point to the middle of your paper with your finger or pencil.

This will tell your eyes how much space you have to draw in.

It does not have to be exact! 

How to draw a peony

Let’s get started with the circles.

1. First, lightly draw a medium sized circle.

This will be the guideline that we draw the flower inside of, most of it will be erased at the end.

Drawing flowers with circles

2. Each petal will be a curved line. Start with one on the side.

How to draw petals on a peony

How to draw petals for your peony

1. Keep drawing curved lines, overlapping each other and getting smaller as they get towards the middle top of the circle. 

Draw the center of a peony flower

2. Let’s add some petals on the outside of the circle as well.

I drew 2 off the bottom of the circle. 

How to sketch a peony

3. Peony petals are meant to look ruffly. Go to the top of each petal and make it jagged.

How to draw peony stem and leaves

1. Add a stem, 2 lines down to the paper; close together for the thin stem.

How to draw a peony stem

2. Now, for the leaves.

Peony leaves have 3 eye-shaped leaves off of each branch.

Drawing peony leaves

3. Add a few more branches of leaves.

Pencil sketch of a peony

How to color a peony

The BEST part: COLOR!

Use any color you want, for your peony. The most common shades are pink, orange and white.

Using color to draw peonie flowers

Artists Tip: if you are using a light color, gently erase the pencil lines a little so they are not as dark.

Then trace over the pencil lines with the color you want to use for the flower. Color the rest after this taking note of lights and shadows in the flower.

Remember using different shades of the same color will help your flower to look more realistic. 

How to draw a peony

There you go! You’ve done it. A peony flower perfect for spring.

 Let’s see what else we can draw together… perhaps a learning how to draw a Shamrock would be fun!

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