Q&A for How to Draw Leaves

Not if you don't want to. If you're doing a very detailed drawing, then the veins on the leaves would look more realistic.

Find a reference photo online from a good source. Sketch the basic shape. Ignore any bumps or veins. If you're drawing the stem too, just draw a line in the shape you want the stem to be. Find patterns. This is stuff like how many bumps are on each side or how the main veins fit together. Fill in the details. Draw the shape of the stem around your original line. Pay attention to thickness and if the bottom is straight, like it was cut, or curved, like it was plucked off the main stem of the plant. Pick a light source for shading. Remember that light comes from there and only there.

Examine a holly leaf. If you can find one in real life, that's ideal but a photo from Google should do just fine. See how the leaf is constructed out of basic shapes? Try to mentally break the leaf apart into shapes and then try drawing that to get a basic idea of your shape. Once that's done you can outline it, adding more detail. Look at the leaf again. See where its high points and low points are; where does the light hit it? Use your observations to help you shade and render your drawing.

You can use colored pencils to shade it in multiple colors. Try figuring out where you would see shadows in real life and color that area in darker.

First, draw a trunk. Make sure that it is rather thin and a bit curvy. Next, draw some coconuts up near the top of the trunk. On top of that, draw a few lines coming out of the trunk. Add a bunch of long, rounded diamond shapes on each side of the lines. These will be the leaves. Erase any extra or overlapping lines.