How to Draw Leaf Vines

Welcome to this drawing tutorial! Thank you for letting me share my love for drawing with you :D Feel free to use whatever tools and materials you like the most, I highly recommend drawing with a pencil when you first start so you can make mistakes without stressing about it! Never be shy about erasing ^.^

Step 1. First Curve

Lets start by drawing a curve on the left side of the page close to the bottom that curves towards the right. The key to drawing leafy vines is getting the curves to feel organic so as you go through the tutorial dont feel shy about erasing and fixing lines. Drawing curved lines that feel organic can be a bit challenging at first but with practice you will get the hang of it pretty quickly! 

Here is a video version of the tutorial if you want to see it drawn in real-time
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Step 2. Top Curve

Add a line that curves upwards from the last curve. These two lines will be the central stem of the vine.

Step 3. Right Stem

Add a curved line from the first line that curves further right. Notice how it feels like this line is splitting off from the stem. Pay attention to the slight difference between the two lines we just drew.

Step 4. Split

Add another splitting line higher up on the middle line.

Step 5. Lower Split

Add a curved line towards the bottom of the central line that curves towards the top left. This line is longer than the line we drew in the previous step.

Step 6. Small Split

Add another splitting line to the right line that is tilted towards the bottom. Make sure to use the diagram to help you see which line was added (in blue).

Step 7. Leaf Top

Lets add some structure to the top leaf, start by drawing a steep curve (almost like a semi circle) to the line at the top.

Step 8. Complete Leaf

Finish this leaf by drawing a line that cuts right (in pink) and then a line that connects back to the central stem line (in blue). We will use this technique of drawing leaves throughout this tutorial.

Step 9. Right Leaf

Add a line to the split line underneath the leaf we finished, draw this line coming down towards the middle. Notice how this leaf has a sharp tip while the previous one has a round tip. These small variations help make the drawing feel more organic. Learning how to do this will improve your plant and flower drawings by a tremendous amount :D

Step 10. Complete Leaf

Finish this leaf by drawing a line that returns back to the stem line.

Step 11. Round Tip

Add a rounded tip to the leaf in the lower left using a similar method as the last rounded leaf. I have shown the line split into two in the diagram to help you see the anatomy of the line. Breaking down curves into portions of more straight lines will help you see them more clearly. Beginners tend to make curved lines way too round and symmetrical, what you really want are areas of very round lines contrasted by lines that are more straight or only have a slight curve to them.

Step 12. Complete Leaf

Finish up the bottom left leaf by adding the lower edge lines.

Step 13. Right Leaf

Add a rounded tip to the line that is furthest to the right.

Step 14. Bottom Edge

Add two lines that define the bottom edge of the leaf, notice how I am using the contrast between fairly round (in pink) with a more straight line (in blue).

Step 15. Tiny Line

Add a small line coming from the central stem outwards, make sure its below the last leaf line on the page.

Step 16. Edge Line

Finish the leaf by drawing the edge line and giving this leaf a sharp tip. You can see that I have added just a tiny curve towards the tip so it feels like its pointed downwards.

Step 17. Balance

The vine looks slightly off balance right now because its very heavy towards the right, lets fix this by adding a leaf above the large leaf to the left. Draw a curved line that is pointed upwards, leave room to the left of it so it wont be touching the other leaf.

Step 18. Curved Tip

Lets give this leaf a curved tip, you can see in the diagram how I have approach the shape of this line.

Step 19. Complete Leaf

Finish up the leaf by drawing a line that returns back to the stem.

Step 20. Right Leaf

Lets add another leaf to the right by drawing a curved line that starts at almost the same height as our big leaf.

Step 21. Top Edge

Draw the top edge of this leaf coming from the stem. I hope that drawing these leaves is starting to feel a little easier, I highly recommend playing around with different leaf shapes in your sketchbook to see what you come up with. You might discover that you like a certain design of leaves that is different from my approach, but do keep in mind that learning from others first and building on top of that knowledge is the quickest way to finding your own creative voice.

Step 22. Sharp Tip

Add a sharp tip to this leaf by drawing two lines that meet at a point. Notice how I drew these two lines tilted downwards while the initial two lines are tilted up. This give us the sense that the leaf is curved and gives it a lot of character.

Step 23. More Stem

Lets give this vine a bit more life by lengthening the stem at the bottom and giving it a slight ‘S’ Curve (check the diagram).

Step 24. Big Leaf

Lets add a big leaf towards the bottom of the vine, you will find that leaves usually grow bigger at the base and smaller towards the ends because the plant starts its growth at the base. This means that the leaf at the bottom is older and has grown more than the leaf at the top. Draw a curved line on the right side of the newly added stem extension.

Step 25. Curved Tip

Draw a curved tip for this leaf like we did earlier in the tutorial.

Step 26. Complete Leaf

Finish the leaf by adding its bottom edge lines, notice how I have used two opposing curves to give this leaf more dimension.

Step 27. Central line

Now that we have all the leaves constructed and in place, lets add a central line to the big leaf on the left. Notice how this line connects to the stem but doesnt go all the way to the tip and also pay attention to the curved nature of the line. The curvature of the line follows along the shape of the leaf, it feels like it belongs on the leaf.

Step 28. Central Lines

Add central lines to all the leaves using the same method as the previous one. See how they all curve differently depending on the movement of the leaf.

Step 29. Shading

Add shading towards the base of each leaf where they connect to the stem.

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 learn-able 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!