How to Draw a Palm

A palm (plant) is probably one of the only plants that most of us associate with vacationing in a warm climate. A palm is widespread in the tropics, of course, and it is extremely popular due to its attractive appearance.

This flowering plant is not just a pretty face. A palm is also important economically, as it provides food, fiber, and even oil. A palm is the fourth largest among the monocots -- plants with one seed leaf.

To draw a palm, examine the illustration of the palm before proceeding to step 1.
Learn how to draw this palm.

In this section, we'll show you how to draw the above palm. You can draw this flower freehand while looking at your computer monitor or print out this page to get a closer look at each step.

Follow the red lines in each illustration to learn exactly what to draw in that step. The lines drawn in previous steps are shown in gray. Here, we'll show you an illustration of each step and then give you a description of how to draw it.

To draw a palm, start by drawing the pot, stems and a leaf shape.

Step 1: Draw the pot shape as shown. Draw long, curving stems coming out of the pot. Make the stems thicker at the bottom. At the end of each stem, draw a leaf shape.

When drawing a palm, add leaf shapes along the stems. Add triangles near the end showing that the leaves fold.

Step 2: Draw many leaf shapes along the three stems in front. Show that the ends of some of the leaves fold over by adding a triangle shape near the end.

When drawing a palm, add more leaf shapes and folds to the ends of the leaves.

Step 3: Draw leaf shapes on the other two stems. Make sure that the lines don’t extend into shapes that are in front of these leaves.

Add triangle shapes to the ends of some of these leaves to show that they fold over.

When drawing a palm, draw a vein in each leaf.

Step 4: Show a vein in each leaf by drawing a long line through the center of each one.

To finish drawing a palm, shade the leaves, stems and the pot.

Step 5: Add shading to the leaves by drawing short lines on the bottom half of each leaf. Shade the stems with long lines and some short crisscrossed lines.

Use short vertical lines to shade inside the pot. Shade the outside of the pot with horizontal lines on each side.

Don’t start packing for that island vacation just yet, we still have more flowers and plants to draw! In the next section learn how to draw a flower that’s bursting with color and personality.

Continue to the next page to learn how to draw a lily.

Want to expand your artistic abilities? See: