How to Draw a Cool Leaf Background Easy

When you wait at a magnificent tree, it'south easy to appreciate its beauty.

But this beauty stems from the thousands upon thousands of individual leaves which form the whole.

Different types of leaves come up in every shape, course, and color imaginable, and this versatility makes them perfect for nature studies or practicing your vector line work. They are too cracking for fully-fledged printable projects like patterns and logos.

How to Draw a Leaf With Vectors

Some leaves have simple shapes that are like shooting fish in a barrel to describe, while others demonstrate a beautiful complication. And this is how nosotros approached this cartoon tutorial. We're going to first with a elementary leaf, inspired by a Pilea constitute, and move on to the infamous Monstera.

This guide was developed in collaboration with the talented Soodabeh Daramvani; an Iranian illustrator and icon designer and a frequent tutor on our YouTube channel. She breaks down the whole process below in a stride-past-stride tutorial.

Permit's follow along! You can lookout man the video above or use the tutorial steps in the rest of this article. ‍

What You'll Need
‍• iPad
• Apple Pencil
• Latest Version of Vectornator
• A few references from Pinterest

What You'll Learn
‍• Pen Tool
• Shape Tool
• Node Tool
• Choice Tool (Indistinguishable and Multi-Select)
• Color Picker
• Boolean Operations (Unite and Subtract)
• Other Style Tab functions (Flip)

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Practice Research and Get Inspired

It's wise to written report your topic before you kickoff drawing.

That'southward why information technology'south unremarkably the first step in the creative process! Soodabeh recommends using Pinterest to gather inspiration, but Google image search volition also serve you well. It besides might exist worth it to read up a little on the anatomy of leaves, just so you understand how they work structurally. It's a lot easier to draw something if you sympathise how it works under the surface.

Wait for some photos of your favorite leaves to apply every bit a reference later in this tutorial.

But, of course, as well look around y'all! You can accept inspiration from your house plants, from your garden, or the trees in your local park. It'southward a lot more than fun than just surfing the internet, and it's bound to go your artistic juices flowing.

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Place the Basic Shapes

Here'southward a drawing secret: Yous can deconstruct anything you want to illustrate (in the whole world!) into basic shapes. This trick volition make your life so much easier. Then endeavor to be belittling here and discover the basic shapes that form your main object.

For example, the first leaf has a simple, round shape; while the maple leaf has a lot of angles; and the third leaf blade is made upward of 2 triangles joined together.

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Showtime Sketching

Take these principal shapes every bit the starting indicate of your sketch.

Use your notebook, or any sketching software that you adopt and simply build on the bones shapes that you identified in the previous footstep.

Keep in mind that these sketches don't have to be perfect, as they aren't the final artworks. We are going to refine them later in Vectornator.

The easiest bending to draw a leaf in is past viewing it straight-on. And if you lot are a beginner, we suggest you outset drawing in this view and then motion on to other angles.

Leaves are relatively piece of cake to describe, since you lot don't need to call up too much near proportions while sketching. But 1 important factor to go along in heed is the foliage's symmetry. Then it might help if you first describe a line in the center and use that as a guide to draw the rest of the foliage.

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Create a New Canvas

As you open up the Vectornator app, you'll be greeted past the Gallery and all the functions yous need to get started.

Just tap or click on the plus sign to create a new canvas.

Soodabeh prefers to work with a canvas that is the exact size of her iPad, since information technology easily fits her unabridged screen. We've got a lot of templates to choose from, so option whichever size sheet works all-time for your project.

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Import Your Sketch

Side by side, nosotros'll need to import your leafage sketch into Vectornator.

You can practice this in a few means: If you have an image of your sketch from a different sketching software already saved to your device, yous can import it direct into Vectornator through the Gallery, or by dragging and dropping it from your camera roll into Vectornator in Separate Screen manner.

Alternatively, if yous've fabricated a physical sketch of your leaf first, you tin can utilise the Camera Import option in Vectornator to accept a photo of the sketch and automatically import information technology into your canvas.

At present that you've got your leafage sketch in your certificate, add it to your background layer.

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Adapt Your Layer Settings

Next, lower the opacity of your background layer then that you lot can barely see your sketch.

Then, go to the Style Tab and change the Alloy Mode from Normal to Multiply. This will help you lot to better sympathise what you're drawing during the vectorizing process.

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Create 1 More Layer

To add a new layer, just tap the plus push button in the Layers Tab, and place the newly created layer under the sketch layer.

This manner, everything yous depict is going to be underneath your transparent layer.

Try incorporating multiple layers into your workflow when calculation any dimension to your leaves, similar shadows, details, and so on. It will help go on everything bully and organized, and it's a great habit to learn early in your illustration journeying!

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Gear up Your Colour Palette

The next matter you should consider is your color palette.

Information technology's of import to think well-nigh your project'south colors before starting your vector illustration. Of course, you lot can change it whenever you desire, but information technology's much easier to take them in listen in advance.

The easiest way to select your colors is by using the Eyedropper Tool which allows yous to pick colors directly from your reference images. But yous can also play around with dissimilar shades of green for fresh leaves, or various hues of chocolate-brown, yellowish, or cherry-red if you are drawing autumn leaves.

The colors Soodabeh used in this video are:
• 107C7C for the leafage body
• 0F4848 for the stalk and veins
• 0A4343 for the shadow

If you want to acquire how to create a color palette from scratch, nosotros recommend you read this guide.

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Draw the Leaf Outline

Adjacent, pick up the Shape Tool and simply tap and elevate an oval until it matches your sketch. Y'all can agree one finger on the tablet to create a perfect circle, but Soodabeh chose to draw information technology freehand. It doesn't have to be too perfect, after all.

Check in the Fashion Tab that the Fill toggle is on (with the color 107C7C) and that the Stroke is turned off.

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Draw the Leaf Stalk

Did y'all brush up on all the new improvements to our Castor Tool? Read our blog about it to get filled in on all the latest iv.iv updates.

Working with Brushes in Vectornator is as easy equally using any other freehand tool. Simply select it from the Toolbar and create the brushstrokes y'all demand.

In this case, Soodabeh drew a slightly curved line that goes from the middle of the leaf, downwards. She adjusts the stroke with the slider to 22 pts and darkens upward the color to 0F4848.

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Identify Stalk Behind the Leafage

The easiest fashion to correct the stalk beingness on top of the leaf is to identify it underneath. Go to the Quick Deportment menu, tap the offset button, and change the lodge of your layers.

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Draw the Leaf Veins

Dorsum to the Brush Tool. For the smaller veins in the leaves, brand sure y'all reduce the thickness to about 8 pts (using the slider on the left side) and freehand a few straight lines on the foliage itself.

A similar outcome can be accomplished by drawing pencil lines with the Pencil Tool, but for this, nosotros adopt the Brush Tool.

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Duplicate the Main Shape

Let's requite our leaf some more than dimension. Apply the Indistinguishable part in the Option Tool to make a copy of your leaf shape. And and so motion it slightly upward and at an bending to create the shadow shape.

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Subtract

Time to apply boolean operations!

Select both shapes and use the Subtract functioning from the Quick Deportment menu. The mechanism behind this operation is that the duplicated copy of your leaf object is now reduced to the small semi-crescent shape created by the overlapping original circumvolve and its duplicate.

Boolean operations are fantastic tools for creating logos and unique vector shapes—y'all can read more most them here.

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Darken

Next, darken the shadow shape in order to make it await more realistic. The color Soodabeh uses is 0A4343. There you have information technology. These are the 15 steps needed to create a simple vector leaf with a shadow.

At present, it'southward fourth dimension to level upward the complexity and describe another example that'due south a niggling bit more than complicated—a Monstera Albo leaf! To practise this, the first part of our process volition be the same. So let's jump dorsum to Stride 8 and run into how this procedure inverse.

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Draw a One-half of a Heart Shape

Every bit opposed to the Pilea leaf, the Monstera leaf has a heart-shaped contour. Merely don't be scared, it'south super like shooting fish in a barrel to depict with vectors!

Commencement, create one side of the leaf past cartoon one-half of the eye shape with the Pen Tool. Watching the video is the quickest way to learn, just basically, you demand to tap at the very meridian of the leaf to get-go your shape, then tap and drag two quarters in, and and then again at the halfway signal.

Make certain your Pen Tool has the Fill up set to on in gild to achieve this shape faster.

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Make Adjustments

The Node Tool is your best friend when adjusting paths. Move around any nodes or drag on the handles to bring your vector illustration closer to your sketch.

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Duplicate

Next, use the Duplicate office of the Selection Tool. Tap and drag to create the second half of your centre shape.

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Flip It

Then flip it and so it matches sides, past tapping on the Flip Horizontally push button in then Arrange Tab (2nd tab in the Inspector).

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Combine

Let's make the heart complete! Select both shapes and Unite them using the Quick Actions menu. The 2 parts of the leaf accept at present go ane!

Now let's create Monstera's unique splits.

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Create the Splits Shapes

This is where the Pen Tool comes in handy once more. Pick it up and tap and drag on your canvas to create your desired shape.

Then tap on the last node you merely created to change it from round to angular. If you do this, you lot tin dispense the vector path to take a abrupt plough. Repeat and close the shape.

Next, make the ovals with the Shape Tool.

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Indistinguishable Them

To brand the splits symmetrical, simply select your shapes with the Multi-Select Tool and Indistinguishable them.

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Flip Them

Now flip your splits using the buttons in the Adjust Tab. Then position them however y'all want on your leaf.

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Subtract

Now, select all your splits and Subtract them past using the Quick Actions menu shortcut.

And now nosotros're left with the beautiful Monstera leaf shape! The rest of the steps you can just repeat from before.

We hope y'all had fun following along with this step-by-footstep tutorial of how to draw a leaf!

Don't forget to download Vectornator so you tin recreate Soodabeh'due south leaf drawing and follow along for our upcoming tutorials!

Share your vector foliage drawings on social media with the states, nosotros love seeing what you're creating!

If you take whatever questions about this tutorial, or any requests for drawing tutorials you'd like to see in the futurity, please annotate them below!

toutchertakedent.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.vectornator.io/blog/how-to-draw-a-leaf

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