Flowers and foliage are fun to draw.
Flowers, with their delicate and intricate forms, are excellent subjects for drawings. They look good drawn as single blooms in a botanical style, or arranged in a still life. Tree and bush foliage are common compositional elements used in landscapes. Drawings featuring flowers with foliage function as stand alone works of art or they can be used as preparatory drawings for paintings. Foliage is often used in the background or middle ground of landscape paintings. It must be drawn correctly for a successful painting. Drawing flowers and tree foliage is a fun and relaxing pastime.
Instructions
1. Visit botanical gardens, greenhouses or people you know who have flower beds. Make quick sketches of their flowers and foliage in your sketchbook. Photograph them to consult later. Buy several kinds of fresh flowers at the local florist shop. Sketch them singly, in bouquets or as part of a still-life arrangement. Look at seed catalogs, pictures in books and on the Internet for reference photos of flowers.
2. Tape a sheet of drawing paper to your drawing board and sharpen your pencils. Look very closely at the flowers, your level of drawing reflects your level of observation. Focus on the outline of the flowers and try to draw them in correct proportion. Observe the flowers' structure and try to reduce it to basic geometric shapes. Combine the shapes to capture the overall forms of the flowers.
3. Start your drawing by sketching the main stems and branches of the flowers. Use the structure of the plant as a framework to place the flowers. Arrange the flowers and foliage in a balanced composition. Draw the flower starting from the center area and working your way out. Use a constant light source and keep it consistent throughout the drawing for the proper placement of shadows under the leaves and petals.
4. Use negative space, or the area around and behind the the foliage as a compositional element. Pay attention to the space between the leaves. Draw patterns suggested by the negative space and balance it with the positive shapes of the leaves. Suggest the texture and movement of the masses of foliage using broad pencil strokes without drawing in every single leaf.
5. Finish your drawing by adding in all the details. Make your pencil strokes follow the forms of the flowers and foliage. Use chiaroscuro (the contrast between the lightest and darkest areas) to give a volumetric three-dimensional look to your flowers and foliage. Vary the length of your strokes while establishing rhythms and patterns in your drawing. Use crosshatching, with short crisscrossed fine lines, to suggest the shadows. Draw in the smallest leaf and flower veins last.
