Now, we’re going to sketch two large petals on either side of the middle. Both of these petals have thick sides, so I’m sketching a rough guideline for the sides of each petal. Each of these petals emerges from the bottom of the center.
How To Improve at Drawing Florals!
This month I decided that I wanted to improve at drawing florals. I’m actually not very good at it. Well, I’m not very good at it if you asked me to draw a flower from my head. But if you give me a photo or a drawing I can copy from, then I do ok.
I really wish I was one of those people that can just draw. You know, they put pen to paper and something amazing appears, quickly and effortlessly. Everything I create takes time, a lot of pencil and a lot of eraser. My goal this month is to improve on that.
How to Improve at Drawing Florals
First, find inspiration!
For inspiration, I looked at flowers on Pinterest, you can check out my Flowers Pinterest board and my Floral Line Drawing board here:
I then scrolled through some of my favourite bullet journal accounts on Instagram who create beautiful floral spreads. Some of my favourite floral bullet journal accounts are:
Second, Follow Tutorials
After looking at inspiration, I settled on a specific flower I wanted to focus on. I chose the anemone, because it’s beautiful yet still looks fairly simple to draw. And lucky for me, I found a couple of tutorials that broke down the steps for me!
The first tutorial is from @bonjournal_
And the second anemone tutorial is by Kimmy from @bumblebujo
Lastly, Practise!
Really, there appears to be only one real way to get better at drawing florals. That one thing is practice. That’s what all experts in their field say. So that’s what I’ve set out to do this month in my bullet journal. Practise, practise, practise!
I don’t have a lot of extra time in my life to sit around and just draw. I have a job, and two little kids, and a big kid I call husband. So I thought I’d get my practise in by using my bullet journal. I decided to only create floral spreads this month. Two birds, one stone.
Initially, I drew the flowers by following the tutorials and then drawing them by using reference photos from Pinterest. After drawing lots of flowers with a reference to look at, I moved on to trying to just create them myself. It takes a bit of courage and a lot of mistakes, but that is what an eraser is for!
After having created six different spreads drawing over 3 dozen anemone flowers, I do actually fell like I’ve improved! And I can draw a decent flower without having to copy or look at a photo. I still need to keep practising, but I’m getting there.
Floral Bullet Journal Weekly Spread – My First YouTube Video
As well as the practising so that I could improve at drawing florals, I ignored my self doubt and created my very first bullet journal video!
I have been umming and ahhing for a long time about whether I had the time, skill and tools to create a video that was worthy of uploading, but I decided that done is better than perfect. I kid you not, this took a crap load of time to create. I find it hard to draw without moving my notebook around all over the place, and without practically kissing the paper so this was a definite challenge. Also, I had absolutely no idea how to edit, so I spent a lot of time on YouTube trying to learn all the things!
So here it is! As you can see, I took a lot of inspiration from Kimmy @bumblebujo, including colour choice!
Make sure you read on for tips on what I did in the video.
How to Draw a Rose
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One of my favorite subjects to capture in art is flowers. About six years ago, I became obsessed with drawing them. Before that, portraiture was always my calling, but suddenly everything changed. I thought it was just a phase, but I can’t get out of it. SO, I’m embracing it instead, and following what truly inspires me. Today I’ll show you how to draw a rose.
Flower drawing is also one of my most popular classes. People seem to share the same passion for them as I do. What many do not understand is that you can draw a rose or any flower just as beautifully in graphite as in color. In fact, I suggest starting out by drawing in graphite so you can learn important tricks. For example, beginning artists need to understand the necessary elements and details that must be captured, and graphite is easier to make adjustments with.
I’ve created this step by step drawing lesson for you in graphite, to teach you what to look for when drawing flowers. This will be done using my proven method, “The Hammond Blended Pencil Technique.”
How to Draw a Rose for Beginners
Step 1: This is a basic outline of a rose. I placed a one inch grid over it to help you create an accurate line drawing. This grid is 8×11. Draw a grid like this one very lightly on your paper with a mechanical pencil. (I use smooth bristol and 2B lead in my pencil.) Then, draw what you see within each square. When you’re sure you have a good drawing, carefully remove the grid from your paper with a kneaded eraser.
Step 2: Flowers are made up of many overlapping surfaces. When learning how to draw a rose, it’s important to accurately create the edges to reduce the appearance of outlining. In this example, I have careful analyzed the petals, and placed some dark tone to create the edges of each petal. This becomes a “tonal map” indicating light and dark areas. Each petal is different. Look where some petals are light, and cast a shadow below. Some are dark on the edge against the light background. By placing in the darker tones like this example, you start to develop the form.
Step 3: After all of the edges have been identified, the blending is what makes the flower look real. I worked on one rose petal at a time, and blended from dark to light, like a value scale. I like to use stumps and tortillions to blend my graphite to a very smooth finish. Each rose petal is different. Some have bright highlights, and some have deep shadows. These patterns of light and dark are what make things look dimensional.
The out-of-focus background also adds dimension. You can see how I used darkness behind some of the petals to make the light edges stand out. This can be achieved by using a very dirty stump that already has a ton of graphite on it.
How to Draw a Rose: Close Up Examples
Here are a few close-ups to show you what to look for when drawing flowers.
Some edges are “Light over Dark,” as seen in the petal with the cast shadow below it. Some edges are “Dark over Light” as seen in the folded over leaf. The light patterns on the flower petal are “lifted” out using a kneaded eraser. These delicate highlights add a lot of realism.
Above: This illustrates how different in tone each edge can be in a drawing of a rose. Some are light, and some are dark. You can also see how I used the background shading to enhance these edges.
In all my drawing books, I teach the five elements of shading on the sphere and the cylinder. You can see these shapes here, in the curves and cone-like shapes of the center of the rose. I recommend referring to one of my books on how to draw for beginners to learn more about the five elements of shading. They’re necessary for everything you draw.
All of this information, and many more similar drawing lessons can be found in my new book being released this spring. The All New Big Book of Drawing will cover both graphite AND colored pencil drawing in one fun-filled book. Packed with projects in a wide variety of subject matter, it’ll be a “go to” book for the inspiring artist.
Hope you have fun!
Lee
Lee Hammond has been called the Queen of Drawing. That may not be fair these days, since in addition to providing the best drawing lessons, she has also created fantastic books and videos filled with the same easy to follow acrylic painting techniques, colored pencil techniques and more. Click here to see all of the instructional books and DVDs that Lee Hammond has to offer!
Complete the Outline for the Middle Petals of the Rose
Next, let’s focus on developing the middle petals a bit more. Start with a diagonal line that extends from the bottom and then beyond the outer edge of our egg shape. Then loop it back around to where you began. This will represent the outer flap of a petal curling away from the center. Make sure to erase where the overlap is.
Okay, this egg shape we drew at the beginning only serves as a basic outline for what we will now fine-tune. I’m going to make these center petals a bit smaller than what my original egg shape outline was. The petals and the outer flaps get smaller and smaller as you get closer to the center of the rose.
Now we will make even smaller petals wrapped around each other. Stay aware of the larger petals in the foreground as you draw the smaller petals behind them, and make sure the edges of these inner petals are inside the edges of the larger outer petals.
Let’s next draw the pointy tips of the petals in the very center of the rose. This is also where you would find the stigma of the rose if it was opened up a bit more, but the stigma and other parts of the rose’s insides don’t seem to be apparent in our reference photograph here.
Sketch the Outline for the Rose’s Outer Petals
Draw more of the outer petals. Staying near the center, sketch two tall petals with points near the top.
Here, I’m going to make this tiny petal near the center stick out a little bit more before completing this larger petal in the rear.
There are two large petals in the very back that almost look like diamonds. For this first one, I’m sketching a light vertical guideline just so I can align the tip the way I want it with the petals below. Before I do this other one, I’m not really satisfied with the look of these tall petals I did, so I’m going to play with the shape a little. Then, connect the corners to complete the second large rear petal.
Trace along the edges of the next two petals below to make the guidelines a little sharper. Make sure to erase any guidelines that are behind an overlap or that need to be cleaned up from a sharper edge. If anything looks off in your drawing, or you feel like you want to make any part of your drawing a closer resemblance to your reference, feel free to resize, reshape, or adjust as you see fit. Although it’s not super necessary, that’s what I am doing now.
Go over the edges of the remaining petals. Sketch in bends, curves, folds, or other imperfections in the petals that will give the rose a more natural appearance.
How to Draw a Realistic Rose by Adding Shading
Now that we have completed the line drawing of the rose, the next thing to do is add some shading to make it appear more realistic.
The video at the beginning of this tutorial post will demonstrate how I apply shading to this rose. My main strategy was to focus on one petal at a time, applying a mixture of light and dark tones. Also, I was very careful near the edges of the petals to leave some reflected light to separate tones of similar value.
The image below shows a quick progression of shading steps from the outline of the rose to the final drawing.
And that is how to draw a rose!
Now that you know how to draw a rose, challenge yourself by drawing multiple roses. You might even want to try drawing an entire bouquet of flowers!
