Easy Leaf Drawing Tutorial
With Autumn in full swing, you might find yourself drawing more Autumn related doodles in your bullet journal spreads.
Leaves are a tricky doodle to master however, as there are so many different types of leaves to learn!
Some are a simple shape and can be drawn in just a few steps, whereas others are much more complex, and need multiple steps to complete them.
This post is all about leaf drawing tutorials to help you to draw different types of leaves in your bullet journal.
Leaf Bullet Journal Ideas
Before we go on to learn how to draw different types of leaves, you might not be sure how to actually include leaf drawings in your bullet journal.
So here are different ideas for incorporating leaves in your bullet journal:
- Cover pages for September, October, or November.
- As Autumn themed doodles in your weekly spreads.
- Habit or Mood Leaf Tracker. You can create trackers (such as habit trackers, mood trackers, etc) and incorporate leaves into your designs. For example, you can draw 30 leaves on a page for a mood tracker, and then colour them in different autumn shades for different moods (e.g yellow for happy, red for angry, etc).
- Alongside quotes about Autumn, or on a dedicated quote page.
- On a personal growth page or inspiration page.
Now you have some ideas for including leaf drawings in your bullet journal, read on to find out how to doodle them!
How To Draw A Leaf For Beginners
What You Will Need to Draw Leaves
Before you start doodling, it’s important to make sure you have the right supplies!
Below is a list of the tools you will need to create your leaf doodles:
- Paper, a sketchbook, or a bullet journal to draw your leaves onto.
- A pencil to plan out your shapes.
- An eraser to rub out the pencil markings.
- A fineliner (black is suggested, but you can use any colour)
- Colours if you want to add colour to your leaves; these can be coloured pencils, markers, or even watercolours.
That’s everything you will need to create your different leaf illustrations.
Leaf Drawing Tutorials Step by Step
Below are different tutorials that will show you how to create various types of leaves.
They break down what you need to do step by step, so it’s easy to follow and create your leaf doodles!
How to Draw a Horse Chestnut Leaf
Horse chestnut leaves come from the same type of trees that grow conkers in Autumn!
Its leaves have a cool shape that resemble a 5 point star.
Check out how to draw a horse chesnut leaf step by step below:
Step 1: Using a pencil, draw a dot in the middle. Then draw three lines going through the dot; make the longest one go down the middle at an almost vertical angle, and the other two closer to horizontal.
Step 2: Again using a pencil, draw 5 smooth leaf outlines around the top 5 lines. Leave the bottom line for a stalk, and draw the outlines from small at the bottom to big (with the largest outline being at the top).
Step 3: Using a fineliner, go over the pencil leaf outlines. Make the edges slightly jagged, and the tip of each leaf more pointed. You can also create an outline for the stalk; start thin, before thickening it out slightly at the end.
Step 4: Again using a fineliner, go over the pencil lines to create a middle vein for each leaf. Go right to the tip before fading the vein out.
Step 5: Use the fineliner to add smaller horizontal veins along each leaf. Take them right to the leaf outline, and try to make them evenly spaced.
Step 6: Rub out the pencil outlines you originally created.
Step 7: Add some colour, and you’re done!
Below is a visual recap on each step:
Oak Leaf Drawing Tutorial
Oak leaves are another great type of leaf to learn how to doodle, as they’re very commonly associated with the Autumn months.
Below is a step by step drawing tutorial on how to draw an oak leaf:
Step 1: Using a pencil, draw a teardrop outline at a horizontal angle.
Step 2: Split the teardrop in half by creating a smooth pencil line; start from the point, and draw right through.
Step 3: Draw a thin pencil oval shape in the top half of the teardrop.
Step 4: Draw a similar sized oval in the lower half of the teardrop (again using a pencil).
Step 5: Add a slightly smaller set of ovals above the initial two in pencil.
Step 6: Then add two smaller sets of pencil ovals below the initial ovals, making them smaller the closer to the point of the teardrop they get.
Step 7: In the remaining space in the teardrop, draw a pencil circle at the top and bottom.
Step 8: Using the pencil ovals and circles as guidelines, draw around them in fineliner to create the outline of the oak leaf. You can also add the stalk in using fineliner here.
Step 9: Rub out the pencil markings, and draw a middle vein down the center of the leaf in fineliner.
Step 10: Draw smaller veins along the center of each branch of the leaf in fineliner. Go from the middle vein up to the edge of the leaf, along the center of each oval.
Step 11: Now draw tiny lines from the middle vein in fineliner, but don’t make them as long.
Step 12: Add some colour to your leaf if you wish; I added green at the center, and then a bit of yellow at the tips and for the stem of the leaf.
And your oak leaf is finished!
Below is a summary of the steps taken to complete the oak leaf drawing:
Beech Leaf Drawing – Step by Step Tutorial
Beech trees are a popular tree in the UK (they’re considered the queen of British trees).
They typically have purple leaves, but some beech trees are called copper beech, and have deep purple leaves instead.
Below is a drawing tutorial for doodling a beech leaf:
Step 1: Using a pencil, draw an upside down teardrop (with the point at the top).
Step 2: Split the teardrop in half with a pencil line (draw from the point at the top right down the middle).
Step 3: Go over the pencil outline with a fineliner pen. Make the outline slightly jagged.
Step 4: Now go over the center line with a fineliner to create the middle vein. Draw from the very bottom of the leaf, but fade the line out just before the tip of the leaf.
Step 5: Rub out the pencil markings, and add a stalk at the bottom of the leaf with a fineliner.
Step 6: Using the fineliner, draw smaller veins on the leaf. Start at the main middle vein, and draw them at a horizontal angle out to the edge of the leaf. Try to keep these veins evenly spaced, and increase the angle so it’s closer to vertical the closer to the tip of the leaf you get.
Step 7: Add some colour; I chose green for the leaf, and a light brown for the stalk.
And you beef leaf doodle is complete!
Here is a visual summary of the steps you need to follow to complete your beech leaf drawing:
Leaf Doodle Tutorial – Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve found these drawing tutorials helpful.
If you follow along they’re really not as hard as you think, and it’s the perfect time to learn how to doodle leaves for your Autumn bullet journal spreads!
Related Easy Doodle Tutorials
If you enjoyed this post on easy doodle tutorials, check out these other how to draw posts:
- How to draw a dandelion step by step
- How to draw a book for beginners
- How to draw lavender flowers
- Christmas tree doodle tutorial
- How to draw a snowman
- How to draw a candy cane
- Easy Snowflake drawing tutorials for beginners
- How to draw a Christmas ornament
- How to draw a Santa hat
- How to draw holly leaves – step by step tutorial
- Crystal drawing tutorials – how to draw a 3D crystal and crystal cluster
- How to draw a pig – easy tutorial for beginners