How to Draw a Venus Fly Trap
A Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant that can catch and actually digest small insects. It's also an easy plant for beginners to draw. Its distinctive shape is ideal for serious drawings or even caricatures. You can learn to draw a Venus flytrap with just a little practice, even if you've never drawn anything before.
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Instructions
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If you don't have an actual Venus flytrap as a model, use a reference photograph. Select one that will be easy to start with. Avoid photos with a group of Venus flytraps together because it's easier to see the lines and details if you limit yourself to just one plant. Once you get the hang of drawing a Venus flytrap, you can attempt a drawing with more than one.
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Sketch with a hard pencil at first. The harder the lead, the lighter it will go onto the paper. Start at the bottom of the page and draw a line. Curve the line as the stem of the plant is curved in your reference photograph. This will be the stem of your plant.
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Draw the bulb portion of the Venus flytrap. First, draw a straight line about half an inch above where your stem line is. Then draw a half a circle, starting at one end of the straight line and coming around to meet with the opposite end of the straight line. The half circle will extend far enough down to overlap the top of your stem. It and the stem line form the basic shapes you'll use to develop your Venus flytrap drawing.
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Go back over your stem with a 2B or 3B pencil, which is softer and darker. Add color and thickness to your stem using an angled, continuous up-and-down movement. Thicken the outer edge lines of the stem and shade inside the outline, which will add dimension to the stem. Do the same with the trapping portion of the plant; then use the corner of your eraser to smudge the shading in order to bring out highlights.
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Add the teeth-like hairs to the edges of the trapping portion of the plant. Apply these hairs with short, curved pencil strokes and then shade each for thickness. Go back over the stem and trapping mechanism with your eraser to add smudged highlighting effects. Add landscaping to your sketch around the plant to balance the drawing. Draw three or four expansive leaves coming from the base of the stem and spreading out around the Venus flytrap. Be sure to add a curled effect to each leaf and shading beneath the curled edge for depth.
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