How to draw acanthus leaves

That other question is the one I am asked most often, and it is fair: there are a lot of acanthus courses here, and it is not obvious from the titles which one you need. So here is how I would take them, and what you would be able to draw at the end of each stage.

Begin with How to Draw an Acanthus Leaf: Beginner Course (1h 33m). It builds the leaf out of a framework rather than teaching you to copy an outline, which is the difference between drawing one leaf and being able to draw any leaf. By the end you can set down a straight one, a curved one and one seen from the side without a reference propped up in front of you. Ordinary pencil control is enough to start.

Then the four that give a leaf its character, one subject each and none of them dependent on the others. Refining Acanthus (1h 22m) is edges and cuts, and why one leaf reads as graceful and another reads as machine made. Shading Acanthus (1h 17m) is light: where a form shadow belongs and where a cast shadow does. Layering Acanthus (1h 2m) is deciding which leaf sits in front, and the four kinds of overlap that make the decision visible. Acanthus in Motion (1h 26m) is why one leaf looks alive and another looks pinned to a board. Take whichever is annoying you most.

After that it stops being about a leaf and becomes about a design.Acanthus Design Course: Leaves, Lobes and Curves (2h 26m) attaches the leaf to scrolling stems and arranges several of them into something balanced, which is the ground every border and flourish is built on. Advanced Acanthus Scrollwork and Composition (5h 35m) is the long one: folded leaves, ornamental knots, and full vertical and horizontal panels. It assumes you already have curves behind you, so do not make it your first.

Three more sit slightly apart and can be taken whenever you fancy them. Acanthus Rosette (1h 28m) builds a symmetrical rosette on simple geometry, and it is the one here that asks for a compass. Colouring Acanthus (2h 5m) reads a reference, finds the light and paints an acanthus scroll in acrylics. Watercolour Acanthus Motif (1h 34m) does that work in watercolour instead, with washes and soft edges.

What you need to own is short. A pencil, a soft eraser, a fineliner, a ruler and smooth paper will carry you through every drawing course on this page. Add a compass for the rosette, acrylics and brushes for the colouring one, and watercolours and watercolour paper for the last. No tablet, no software, nothing to subscribe to.

And the honest difference between the free guide and a course: the guide is the method in writing, and it really is enough to draw a leaf with. The courses are me drawing, at the speed I actually draw, with the hesitations and corrections left in, and each one carries files to download and work over, a manual or practice sheets or the reference I painted from. All of them together come to 19h 48m, which is not a weekend. Take one, use it, come back for the next when a drawing tells you what is missing.