120 ideas

Nature Drawing Ideas

Deal one specimen to draw outdoors, from a tulip tree leaf to a fallstreak hole, with the feature to look for underneath.

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Drawn: Love-in-a-mist, the flower in its lacy ruffLove-in-a-mist, the flower in its lacy ruffThe flower sits in a ring of fine, lacy bracts, the mist of the name. Draw the ruff in hairlines.

Next step Redraw the seed head as pure line

All 120 ideas

Leaves 21

A fern fiddlehead half unrolled Also called a crozier. A tight spiral unrolling into a frond, with smaller spirals down each side.
A ginkgo leaf, fan spread flat A fan on a thin stalk. The veins fork in two again and again and never cross.
A holly sprig, leaves glossy and spined Dark shining green above, lighter beneath. Leave a hard white highlight and sharpen every spine.
A horse chestnut leaf, leaflets spread like a hand Five to seven leaflets leave one point, each widest near its tip. Draw the centre one largest.
A leaf half turned, showing top and underside The midrib is the fold line. Make the underside paler and give the two faces different tones.
A leaf rotted down to a lace of veins A net inside a net. Midrib, then side veins, then the mesh, each step finer than the last.
A lime tree leaf, heart-shaped A heart on a long stalk. Draw the midrib first, then side veins curving out to the edge.
A maple leaf, veins fanning from the stalk Palmate: the main veins all start where the stalk joins. Draw veins first, then hang the lobes on them.
A nasturtium leaf, a round shield The stalk joins near the middle, not the edge, and the veins radiate from that spot like spokes.
A pair of Scots pine needles joined at the base Scots pine needles grow in bundles of two. Two long lines leaving one small sheath.
A pinnate leaf and a palmate leaf side by side Pinnate: leaflets along a stalk like a feather. Palmate: leaflets spreading from one point like fingers.
A quaking aspen leaf on its flattened stalk Nearly round with small rounded teeth. The stalk is flattened side to side, so the leaf trembles.
A silver birch leaf, a toothed triangle Roughly triangular with a double-toothed edge. Hang it point down from a thin stalk.
A sweetgum leaf pressed flat, all five points Five pointed lobes from one centre, like a star. Run one main vein down the middle of each point.
A Swiss cheese plant leaf, holes and all A Monstera. The holes are natural, hence the common name. Draw the heart outline, then cut in.
A tulip tree leaf with its cut-off top Four lobes, and the tip looks snipped straight across, so the top of the leaf reads as square.
A white clover leaf, three leaflets and a rare fourth Almost always three leaflets, occasionally four. Three rounded shapes meeting on one thin stalk.
An ash leaf, leaflets in opposite pairs Seven to thirteen leaflets, in pairs with a single one at the tip. It is one leaf, not a twig.
An elm leaf with its lopsided base One side of the base sits lower than the other. The edge has big teeth with small teeth on them.
An English oak leaf with rounded lobes Three to six rounded lobes, cut no more than halfway to the midrib, on a very short stalk.
An ivy stem with young and adult leaves together Young leaves have five lobes like a hand. Adult leaves on flowering stems are unlobed and heart-shaped.

Bark, moss and lichen 20

A birch polypore bracket on a dead birch Also called razor strop. Pale, smooth and greyish brown on top, creamy white below, nearly always on birch.
A hoof fungus on a trunk, seen from the side Also called tinder fungus. Shaped like a horse's hoof, silvery grey to almost black, usually brown.
A horse chestnut twig with a horseshoe leaf scar A fallen leaf leaves a horseshoe-shaped scar with seven dots like nails. Draw it under a fat bud.
A knot hole in an old trunk Bark ripples round the hole like water round a stone. Darkest inside, lightest on the rim.
A moss cushion with stalked capsules Each unbranched stalk carries a single capsule at its tip. Draw the cushion as one soft mound first.
A rainbow eucalyptus trunk in coloured strips Bark sheds in strips, leaving streaks of pale green, orange, red, grey and purple-brown.
Beech bark, smooth and silver-grey Smooth silvery-grey bark with hardly a crack. The drawing is soft shading and a few old scars.
Crustose lichen on a rock, flat as paint Crustose means crust: it sits flat on the stone like a splash of paint. Rough round patches that overlap.
Foliose lichen, leafy lobes on a branch Foliose means leaf-like. The flat lobes lift at the edges, so put a thin shadow under each rim.
Fruticose lichen, a branched tuft on a twig Fruticose lichen grows in branched tufts like a tiny shrub. Fork every branch, thinner each time.
Giant sequoia bark, fibrous and deeply furrowed Fibrous and furrowed, up to about 90 cm thick at the base. Long soft ridges with no sharp edges.
Growth rings on a sawn log end Each ring is one year and the outside rings are the youngest. Let them wobble; none is a true circle.
London plane bark flaking in patches The bark flakes away and leaves pale grey-green patches, like camouflage. Draw it as a map of islands.
Paperbark maple bark curling off in sheets Shiny orange-red bark that peels in thin papery layers. Draw the curls as small scrolls.
Scots pine bark, orange plates high on the trunk Flaky and orange-red on the upper trunk. Draw jigsaw plates with a line of shadow between them.
Shagbark hickory bark in long loose plates Long strips curl away from the trunk. Only mature trees are shaggy; young trunks are smooth.
Silver birch bark, white and peeling White and papery, peeling in strips that curl round the trunk. Keep the paper white, shade the splits.
Surface roots crossing a worn woodland path Roots taper and cross over each other. Draw the top ones first, then tuck the others behind.
Sweet chestnut bark spiralling up the trunk Deep furrows twist round the trunk in a net pattern. Follow one ridge the whole way up first.
Wild cherry bark with its horizontal stripes Smooth reddish-brown bark ringed by short horizontal lines called lenticels. Curve them round the trunk.

Seeds, pods and cones 20

A bare hazel twig hung with yellow catkins Pale yellow male catkins, 5 to 12 cm long, hanging straight down. Build them from dots, not outlines.
A bunch of ash keys hanging from a twig Ash keys are winged seeds called samaras. Narrow paddles, all hanging the same way.
A burdock burr, hooks all over Every bract ends in a hook. These burrs gave George de Mestral the idea for Velcro in the 1940s.
A Chinese lantern husk, orange and papery A papery orange-to-red husk shaped like a paper lantern. Draw the ribs from stalk to tip.
A conker with its pale scar facing you A shiny nut-brown with a pale scar. Leave one bright highlight and keep the scar matt.
A dandelion seed head with a bare patch Each seed hangs under a silky parachute called a pappus. Show the bare dome where seeds have gone.
A dried lotus seed head It looks like the spout of a watering can: a flat top full of round holes with a seed in each.
A hazelnut in its leafy husk The ragged husk covers some three-quarters of the nut. Draw the smooth shell poking out of the top.
A milkweed pod splitting, floss spilling out The pod splits and the seeds leave on long white floss. Keep the floss as bare paper, shade round it.
A pine cone from below, spirals running both ways The scales line up in spirals both ways, a textbook case of Fibonacci numbers. Pencil the spirals first.
A pine cone open beside the same cone closed The scales flex back to open as they dry out. Closed it is an egg; open it is a stack of ledges.
A poppy seed head with its rayed cap A round capsule under a flat cap of radiating rays, 12 to 18 on the opium poppy. Draw the cap as a star.
A sycamore seed pair, two wings joined The winged seeds grow paired and spin to the ground. Two round seeds, then the veined wings.
A teasel head, dried and spiny An egg-shaped cone of hard, spine-tipped bracts. Work round it in diagonal rows, like a pineapple.
Alder cones on a winter twig Small woody cone-like fruits that stay on the tree all winter. Dark ovals on short stalks.
An English oak acorn on its long stalk The cup is called a cupule, and on English oak the acorns sit on a stalk. Crosshatch the cup scales.
Beech nuts in their open husk Two triangular nuts sit in each cupule. Draw the husk open like a flower with the nuts inside.
Honesty seed pods, silver discs on a stem Translucent discs with a silvery sheen. Lunaria means moon-shaped. Show the seeds as faint shadows.
Love-in-a-mist, the flower in its lacy ruff The flower sits in a ring of fine, lacy bracts, the mist of the name. Draw the ruff in hairlines.
Old man's beard seed heads on a hedge A wild clematis. Each seed carries a long silky tail, so a head is a ball of curling hairs.

Feathers, nests and shells 19

A down feather, all fluff Down lacks the tiny hooks that zip barbs together, so it stays loose. Soft strands from a short quill.
A dragonfly wing, veins and all Two pairs of clear veined wings, the hind pair broader than the front. Big veins first, then the net.
A feather unzipped in two or three places Barbs carry barbules with tiny hooks that zip them shut. Show two or three gaps where the zip failed.
A flight feather, one vane narrower than the other Flight feathers are asymmetrical. Curve the shaft a little; a ruled shaft looks like a quill pen.
A garden snail shell from the side Four or five whorls with broken brown bands. Start the spiral at the centre and let it widen.
A jay's blue wing feather Bright blue with fine black bars across it. Keep the bars thin and let the blue sit between them.
A long-tailed tit's nest, a ball of moss and lichen A stretchy sac of moss and spider silk, covered in lichen flakes, with a small round hole near the top.
A mallard wing feather with its blue patch The speculum feathers are iridescent purple-blue edged with white. Leave the white as bare paper.
A peacock train feather and its eyespot The train is made of elongated upper-tail coverts, not tail feathers. Build the eye from nested ovals.
A pheasant tail feather, long and barred Long and tapering with dark bars across it. Draw the shaft first in one confident curve.
A piece of honeycomb, cells in perspective Six-sided wax cells, every wall shared by two. Draw the whole grid first, never one cell at a time.
A seven-spot ladybird walking the rim of a leaf Three spots on each wing case and one shared where they meet. That makes the seven.
A song thrush nest with blue eggs A neat cup lined with mud, holding four or five glossy blue eggs with dark spots.
A spider's orb web on a dewy morning Spokes first, then the spiral thread across them. Dew sits along the thread like beads on a string.
A swallow's mud nest under a beam A cup built from mud pellets, so the wall is a mass of small lumps. Draw it lump by lump.
A wasp nest cut open to show the comb Built from chewed wood fibre, so it is paper. Inside, the cells pack in a honeycomb pattern.
An owl's wing feather with a comb edge Tiny serrations at the front edge help an owl fly silently. Draw that edge as a fine comb.
The quill end of a feather, close up The bare hollow base is the calamus, or quill. Above it the shaft is called the rachis.
Three grove snail shells, no two banded alike Shells run from brown through pink to yellow, with no bands or up to five, and a dark brown lip.

Rocks and strata 20

A conglomerate rock, pebbles set in stone Rounded pebbles held in a finer matrix, like fruit in a cake. Vary the sizes and let some touch.
A geode broken open A hollow, roughly round rock lined with crystals. Dull rind outside, points all facing the centre.
A granite pebble, speckled Coarse grains of quartz, feldspar and mica, so it reads as speckle. Stipple it in three tones.
A lump of pumice full of holes Volcanic glass so full of gas bubbles that it can float in rafts at sea. All dots and pits.
A quartz crystal, six sides and a point A six-sided prism ending in a six-sided pyramid. Three faces show at once: light, mid and dark.
A slice of agate, banded Agate is banded chalcedony. The bands follow the outline inwards, like contour lines on a map.
A stack of split slate Slate splits into smooth flat sheets. Thin slabs with crisp edges, stepped like a pile of books.
A stalactite and a stalagmite about to meet Stalactites hang from the ceiling and stalagmites grow up from the floor. Leave a gap, and one drip.
A trilobite fossil from above The name means three-lobed: a raised centre strip with a lobe either side, running head to tail.
Amber with an insect inside Fossilised tree resin, sometimes with an insect trapped in it. Keep the insect sharp and the amber soft.
An ammonite fossil, a ribbed spiral A flat coil divided inside by walls called septa. Draw the spiral, then the ribs crossing it.
An anticline, strata bent into an arch An arch fold with the oldest beds at its core. The trough-shaped opposite is a syncline.
An obsidian flake with shell-like ripples Volcanic glass breaks with a conchoidal fracture: curved ripples like a shell. Black, with sharp lights.
Basalt columns at the Giant's Causeway, from above About 40,000 columns, mostly six-sided, some with four to eight sides. An uneven honeycomb.
Cross-bedding in a sandstone block Sets of thin layers tilted at an angle to the main beds. Rule the main beds, then slant lines between.
Limestone pavement, clints and grikes The flat slabs are clints and the deep cracks between them are grikes. Make the grikes darkest.
Mud cracks in a dried puddle Mud shrinks as it dries and cracks into plates. Draw the widest cracks first, then the fine ones.
Pyrite cubes grown into each other Fool's gold forms cubes with fine parallel lines on the faces. Boxes meeting at odd angles.
Ripple marks in wet sand Made by current or waves. Long ridges side by side; shade the same side of every one.
Rock strata in a cliff face A stratum is one layer. Vary the thickness of each band and let a few crumble back into ledges.

Clouds by type 20

A cirrocumulus sky, tiny white flakes Small flaky white patches in ripples, very high up, with no grey shading. Keep each one tiny.
A contrail crossing a clear sky A line-shaped cloud made by aircraft engine exhaust. Crisp near the plane, fading behind it.
A cumulonimbus tower flattening into an anvil A towering storm cloud whose top spreads out flat like an anvil. Draw the tower, then spread the top.
A cumulus cloud with a flat base The name means heap. Flat underneath, puffy like cotton on top. Shade the base, leave the top white.
A double rainbow with the colours reversed Red is on the outside of the main bow. The second bow sits about 10 degrees out, colours flipped.
A fallstreak hole punched in a cloud sheet A large gap, usually round or oval, in a sheet of cirrocumulus or altocumulus. Sheet first, then the hole.
A lenticular cloud over a mountain Shaped like a lens or a saucer. Give it a smooth edge and shade it like a solid object, not a puff.
A pileus cap on a rising cumulus A small cap cloud sitting above a cumulus or cumulonimbus, like a beret. One thin curved shape.
A shelf cloud on the front of a storm An arcus cloud at the front edge of a thunderstorm. One long low wedge across the page.
A stratus sky, flat grey to the horizon Low, grey and featureless. The whole exercise is laying one even tone with no streaks.
All ten basic cloud types as thumbnails There are ten basic genera, from cirrus down to stratus. One small labelled box for each.
An altocumulus sky, rows of small rolls Round masses or rolls, layered or patchy. Shrink them towards the horizon for depth.
Cirrostratus with a halo round the sun A thin transparent veil that can make a halo. Draw the ring as a faint circle, never a hard line.
Cirrus streaks high in a clear sky Wispy white strands made of ice crystals, very high up. Flick each stroke so it fades at one end.
Crepuscular rays, sunbeams through a gap in cloud The rays are nearly parallel and only seem to fan out, because of perspective. Rule them from one point.
Mammatus pouches under a storm cloud Rounded pouches hang from the base, usually of a cumulonimbus. Light them from one side, like eggs.
Noctilucent clouds after sunset The name means night shining, and they sit 76 to 85 km up. Thin pale ripples on a darkening sky.
Stratocumulus, big grey rolls with gaps Large dark rounded masses in groups, lines or waves. Let slots of bright sky show between them.
Sun dogs either side of a low sun Bright spots level with the sun, on one or both sides, sitting on the 22 degree halo.
Virga, rain that never lands Streaks of rain that dry up before they reach the ground. Trail them from the base and fade them out.

How it works

These nature drawing ideas are 120 close-up studies, things you can hold in one hand or watch from one spot: a leaf, a strip of bark, a seed pod, a feather, a pebble, a cloud. Every hint names the feature to look for, with tree, rock and cloud terms checked against Wikipedia. Press the button, then go outside.

Read the full guide

Draw the specimen, not the scenery

Everything here is one object at close range. A whole view belongs on the landscape list. A sycamore seed pair, two wings joined belongs here. Small nature things to draw have one advantage: most of them keep still. Put the find beside your sketchbook and draw it life size. The hint names the feature that makes it that species: the lopsided base on an elm, the square top on a tulip tree.

Six topics, three levels, real names

Six topic groups hold about 20 ideas each, and the levels run 37 easy, 51 medium and 32 hard. These nature art ideas use the names a field guide uses. A lichen is crustose, foliose or fruticose. A cloud is one of ten basic types, with oddities like Virga, rain that never lands added. Topic and level combine, so Clouds by type plus Easy holds five.

Draw small finds life size. Lay the leaf on the page, mark its top and bottom, then draw between the marks.
Clouds will not wait. Draw the outline in the first minute, then shade from memory.
Bark has a direction. Decide whether it runs up, across or in plates before you draw a crack.

Questions and answers

Which studies suit paint?

Clouds and rocks, since both are tone and soft edges. Among the nature painting ideas here, Silver birch bark, white and peeling is the gentlest start: mostly bare paper with a few dark splits. Paint three different barks side by side before you try a whole wood.

What works with a class or on a walk?

A ginkgo leaf, fan spread flat is one shape and a set of forking lines. Mud cracks in a dried puddle asks for nothing but looking. Both are among the 37 in Easy. With a group, give everyone the same topic group and ten minutes, then lay the pages out as one study sheet.

Do I need to find the exact species on the list?

No. Each named species shows one feature clearly, such as the horizontal lines on wild cherry bark. If your park grows something else, draw that and look for the same kind of feature. Leave wild plants and nests where they are. A fallen leaf or a photo is enough.