How to Draw a Calla Lily

Step 1. Guideline Circle

Draw a large circle that defines the large form of the flower. We use guidelines to help define the size of the flower and get good placement early in the drawing. My lily will have a very short stem on this page so there isn’t a lot of room at the bottom, if you would like a longer stem, feel free to use a bigger paper or draw the circle smaller.

Note that the circle isnt perfectly round, its slightly taller than wide and also leaning slightly to the right. Make sure to capture this in your drawing. Dont be shy about erasing mistakes and trying things over! getting into the habit of correcting lines that you aren’t satisfied with will be a great habit for faster improvement.

Step 2. Inner Line

Draw a horizontal line that is about 1/3rd of the way up the circle and not very wide.

Step 3. Petal Curve

Starting at the left side of the guideline, draw a curving line that comes into the circle and curls upwards, this line comes close to the previous line without touching it. Drawing this line will take a few tries so keep your eraser handy. Calla lilies have a lot of curves which can be challenging but the end result will be beautiful if we put in the right effort!

Step 4. Core Stem

Draw a tiny tower coming up from the base line we drew earlier. This will be the inner stem of the flower. Notice how the stem is wider towards the bottom and thinner towards the top.

Step 5. Left Curve

Draw a line that curves in and then diagonally down from the petal curve down to the bottom of the big circle. Make sure to use the diagram to help you see which line was added. Make sure the line isnt too close to the center and is further to the left.

Step 6. Erase

Erase away the bottom left portion of the guideline circle where the petal curve comes in. See how we are starting to see the flower come together? We are getting close to a finished lily drawing :D.

Step 7. Right Petal Curve

Add a diagonal curve from the bottom left intersection up towards the right. This line should intersect with the base line of the flower that we drew in Step 2 and also the curved line. Feel free to add length to these lines so they intersect nicely if you didn’t draw them long enough earlier.

Step 8. Left Behind

Draw a curving line from the base circle that will go around the back of the flower.

Step 9. Backside

Complete this curve around the back by tilting it downwards and intersecting with the vertical line we drew earlier.

Step 10. Left Edge

Draw a line that moves diagonally towards the center point from the left-bottom side of the flower. This line defined the outer edge of our lily.

Step 11. Right Edge

Repeat the last step but this time on the right side of the flower.

Step 12. Bottom Curve

Complete the shape of the flow by connecting the two edge lines with a curve that dips downwards. One of the key characteristics of a calla lily is that its proportions make it looks like an upside down bell, make sure it feels thinner towards its base and wide towards its top.

Step 13. Stem

Draw two vertical lines that connect at the base. Feel free to play around with the length of the stem if you have the room, I decided that I wanted to focus on the shape of the flower for my example drawing and left the stem short.

Step 14. Center Shading

Draw vertical lines coming down from the petal curve to give the flower some depth. Adding these lines will help us describe that this lower region is further behind the top portion of the petal.

Step 15. Base Shading

Add similar shading to the bottom portion of the flower. Notice how I am not adding any shading lines to the top portions of the petals where they face the sun.

Step 16. Core Shading

Add similar shading lines to the core area to add dimension to the backside of this petal. Compare the drawing above to the one below and see how these small lines help us sell that there is depth behind the core stem.

Step 17. Point Tip

Add a pointed tip to the top right portion of the lily, think of it as a tiny sharp hat at the top.

Step 18. Erase & Cleanup

Erase away the guideline circle below the hat so it feels connected. Feel free to correct any mistakes and clean up any lines you dont feel happy with. If you feel unhappy with your results, remember that you can try this as many times as it takes. Drawing can be very challenging but that is also why its so fulfilling once you get better.

The amount of pride you take in a skill is directly proportional to the amount of effort it took to learn, so keep pushing through and trust that practicing regularly will make you better. I have seen tons of people pick up drawing just by using simple tutorials, so dont worry if you dont see any short term results. You will get better with practice!

Final Step

Celebrate your drawing!

Yaay finished the drawing! Thank you so much for letting me share my love for drawing flowers with you! I really hope this was fun for you and maybe (just maybe) this tutorial has helped you realize that you can totally learn how to draw. I learned drawing at a later age so I know that this is a learnable skill that anyone can pick up at any time (with effort, of course).

Check out more of the tutorial on the site! I've put lots of effort into creating these free resources because I want more people to fall in love with drawing. So feel free to share the link to this tutorial with friends :D That would be tremendously helpful to me on this mission to spread the love for drawing.

I have created a 20 page Printable Workbook (PDF) that will teach you how to draw different floral arrangements. I wanted to create something that could really speed up someone's learning and actually get them drawing. I poured tons of time into it to make it as useful as possible to someone who wants to capture the elegance and beauty of flowers, I would looove it if you grabbed your copy and drew with me some more!