3/8/21

Drawing a Cross with Easter Lilies

Just like we did during Advent, our church is doing special activities via Zoom leading up to Easter. After yesterday's church service, I taught the congregation how to draw this cross with Easter lilies.

Easter lily drawing
 
To make your own, you need white drawing paper, a pencil, a ruler, and colored pencils. I made my step-out drawings with Sharpie so they would show up on camera, but I definitely recommend using pencil and sketching lightly.  

Orient your paper vertically. Draw the two open blooms in the top-right and bottom-left quadrants, each with six petals that overlap one another. Draw the side view of a lily in the bottom-right quadrant. 

how to draw Easter lilies - first step

Draw a stem that starts at the base of the upper-right lily and continues diagonally down to the left. It should pass behind the lily at the bottom left. Add a stem connecting the lily on the right, then another stem extending to the left, with the unopened blossom at the end. 

Add stamen to each of the open blooms. 

Easter lilies with cross - stems

Draw long, narrow leaves along each of the stems. 

Easter lilies with cross leaves

Place a ruler horizontally across the paper, adjusting it so that it sits where you want the crossbar of the cross to be. Draw lines on either side of the ruler, lifting your pencil when you cross any part of the lily. Connect the two sides to complete the crossbar. 

Turn the ruler 90° to draw the main post of the cross. Again, draw lines on both sides of the ruler, lifting your pencil when you cross any part of the lily. You should be here:

Easter lilies with cross uncolored

Use a brown pencil to outline the cross, then draw grain on the wood. Color in the wood with various shades of brown. Color the stems, leaves, and stamen green and the anthers orangey-yellow. Outline the lilies (I used purple on this sample, but black, blue, and grey are all good choices). Lightly draw lines on the petals of the lilies with light grey to give dimension, then add a little bit of shadowing in the center of the open flowers. 

Easter lilies with cross

Finally, color in the sky blue background. Or....

Easter lily drawing

.... use microtip scissors to cut out your design and adhere it to a sheet of cardstock, which is what I did with the sample I made as I was teaching. We agreed that it the lilies really pop against the black and it is a great choice for Good Friday. 

learn how to draw Easter lilies on the cross

I made my drawings on 8.5x11" copy paper, but you could easily draw this much smaller to create a beautiful card to send for Easter. Either way, give it a try!


7 comments:

  1. Looks really great against that dark background!

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  2. Exactly what I was looking for for a picture I was painting and couldn't decide how to make the cross take on an Easter look. Thank you.

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  3. love the flowers in it and how it was colord

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  4. I would love to use your drawing of the cross and lilies above as part of the background for the slides I making for the Easter Sunday service at my church. The service is live-streamed. Would you be willing to let me use it?

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