Drawing Flowers

Drawing flowers requires some detail, the careful positioning of tone and balance.

In order to practice these elements with guidance I take a photograph of the flower I wish to draw.

Identifying where the shades and tones are is important. To a aid this exercise I take the photograph and manipulate on the computer.

Can you see the number of styles that you could use, even from the subset created here. You will however see consistency in the areas that require tone.

Consider each of the technique areas

compositions

proportions

perspective

tone

negative space

Print out the outline of the flower.

In order to get good composition and proportions for our drawing we are going to put a grid over the printed picture. Take a ruler and draw the lines.

Take the paper you are going to draw on and mark the grid on to it in the same proportions as you have placed on the printed picture. I have folded my page, you may wish to pencil gently on to the paper instead.

Draw the outline of the picture.

The flower outline could, at this point, have been drawn using the negative space technique.

Add tone to the petals by shading. Check the computer manipulated picture to see where tone should be added.

Add detail to the flower by completing the centre. Use different shades to show tone.

If you are comfortable with going straight to a flower from the initial picture, do this. However, check with the other pictures to see if you're interpretation is in line with the technique guidelines.

Drawing flowers needs practice - see what else you would like to draw

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