Video

Intro

Well hello there, this is Tamil! Today I wanted to go over drawing flowers. I highly recommend watching the video because paint as I explain. Also, there is a timelapse ! :)

 

I will go over how to simplify and study flowers so you can tackle your own artwork in the future.

Iconography Vs 3D

The first thing I can say is that I will try to go over a flower that has depth to it. Some people drawing flat icon flowers, and that also can be very very cool! I love them, but I think studying normal flowers helps a lot in improving art.

Think about 3D shapes and how each big side is a plane. That will catch the light and interact with it. Cube has 6 sides, but other shapes can have a lot more. The point is to try to tackle flowers in planes.

Petals on flowers sometimes get complicated, so I suggest practicing ribbons. It starts off simple, but make sure to give it some thickness.

Add some sides to it in perspective and draw along the way to see what the shape is for it.

Using the same technique you can use lines to show depth for the petals. It is a great practice to see how the form and shape of it come around. This is not for making pretty art, but it is helpful for future growth. Do not hesitate to try and do many attempts. It takes time.

 

The hardest part is to think of lines as a 3D shape. Our brains have a hard time translating line into form, so that is why this exercise is so good.

Starting with lines that will overlap each other is a good way to train your eye.

Then you can add planes and see which way is side up or down. The main goal is to give it 3D form and follow the flow of the leaf.

You can refine the linework and add shading. The main idea is to find 3 values that will work and push it from there. Think about where the light is coming from. Think about the planes that you drew before.

Creating flower with lines

After doing lots of small drawings like that. Learning how to draw cubes and circles and cylinders, it is great to start drawing actual flowers!

I just drew a simple base and showed myself in which way the petals will start moving. This helped me to decide the shape of the flower and other things like that.

 

Find a good reference! One that has form and harsh light helps. It is a lot harder to see form if the light is even. Good angle where it is not too complicated also useful.

If this is going too fast you can always watch my video, I fail and learn a lot while drawing this one. Not every drawing is created perfect :)

 

Here I continue to add petals and think about 3D form. Just follow where it is going and how it will curve in each direction.

Making these small studies helps a lot and will improve your line understanding. I really like this approach because the results do not have to be perfect. It's just for learning.

Shading with ink

After some time you can start adding more appealing shading with your line. Using cross hatching and line weight will help you to go forward.

A simple flower sketch will help you to get started. Feel free to download it and draw on top of course.

Follow the form, but now from edges. This is the same exact thing, but you want to make the shading more fun and interesting. I just grabbed a simple G Pen and try to make the lines thicker towards darker areas.

After finishing, make lines darker where the shadow will be. Usually, it is at the side of the petal or where things meet together ( like the center of the flower for example ).

Now you can just make a new layer and create colors behind the line. It is super easy, especially if you use fill tools for CSP. I made a recent tutorial on that as well!

There is also a video inside, so should be easy to follow.

Another thing that I do is to add some color to the line. Using only black usually looks harsh. Flowers are more gentle and I feel like you can get better results with colored line art.

 

Using simple clipping mask is going to do the trick :)

Using simple grass or ground will help to bring the flower into the scene and help to blend things together.

Outro

There are 3 more flowers inside the video and more explanations ^^. If there is anything I would suggest taking from this tutorial it is:

 

• Draw from reference

• Simplify the form and show 3D

• Have fun! Pick flowers that inspire you. Draw simple ones first. No need to chase masterpieces :)

 

I hope this was useful. Thank you for taking the time. Here are my links