Behind the Floral: Part One

Do you love flowers? I know I do, so that is why I seem to always been drawing them. I have had a lot of people ask about my process on my floral drawings so I thought I’d do a blog series on the subject. For the next four weeks I am going to be posting about some of my processes when it comes to creating one of my floral images. I’m also going to give a list of references to books and tutorials to help you get started.

Here is a look at how this tutorial will be broken down so you can follow along!

• Part One: Looking for inspiration
• Part Two: Drawing
• Part Three: Getting Your Drawing on the Computer
• Part Four: Digitizing

For this tutorial you will need:

• Paper {similar sketchbook I use}
• Pencil {pencil/artist set I use}
• Pen {pen sets I use: one & two}
• Camera/Scanner
• Adobe Photoshop {Free trail here}
• Adobe Illustrator {Free trial here}
• Optional: Drawing tablet {tablet I use}

It is cold where I am and there are not a lot of flowers out, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get inspiration! This is a great excuse to cuddle up with a blanket and a mug of coffee or hot chocolate! Pull out your phone or get on your computer to start perusing the web. Jump on Pinterest. Hop on Google. These online resources are your best friends! Or, if you’re like me, you may just have already stockpiled photos of flowers from warmer days, if so, get them out!

Do you have a flower in mind? Great, go ahead and put in a search for it on your preferred search engine. Start simple. As you find images you find interesting and inspiring, save them. Start saving them wherever you’ll have easy access to them. I have a Pinterest Board I put anything floral related, so I know where to go look if I’m feeling uninspired! Also, remember to narrow down the search and try different things. Here are some ideas: “sunflowers,” try searching for: “single sunflower” “sunflower bouquet” “sunflower drawing” “sunflower tattoo” etc. You’ll want to get ideas of color, shapes, leaves, similar flowers, etc. Having this information will help the whole process but don’t save too many that you feel overwhelmed!

Remember, you will NOT be copying what you’ve found on the web! However, if you’d like to practice, you can draw these flowers you’ve found on the web. If you post on social media, make sure you give credit to the original artist!

Here are some images I’ve taken for inspiration for drawing a sunflower.  It is a good idea to have your inspiration images capture different angles and features of your flowers.

After you have some images you find inspiring and you feel ready to draw, you are all set with the inspiration stage of this tutorial. Next week I’ll discuss how to draw the flowers you have picked out!

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section!

Just a side note, this is just a written tutorial for now – depending on popularity and feedback I’ll consider filming a class for Skillshare.