To draw this beautiful floral composition, we will use colored pencils. They are a powerful artistic tool, and the great news is that pencils are very simple to use.
Ten top tips for life drawing
Life drawing is a shared experience; we’re all doing the same thing says Paul Gatenby, co-founder of the Liverpool Independent Art School and curator of the ‘The Liverpool Nude’, a showcase for life drawing practice around Merseyside.
“There’s something absorbing about the act of drawing the human body, we become involved in the process of drawing and in the act of looking at another human being, it’s both an artistic and meditative practice. It’s never boring, there’s really nothing like it!”
Here are Paul’s top ten tips for life drawing:
Time
Take your time and look at the model. Then look again. Even on a short pose, stay a few minutes, you can spend most of the time looking and a much smaller portion of the time drawing. Ask yourself ‘What can I see?’ ‘How does one part of the form line up against another?’ ‘How much space is there between those two forms?’
If we’re not looking at the model, then we’re really drawing from memory or inventing, and we won’t get accuracy that way. A friend of mine used to set an exercise for his students where he would ask them whilst in the studio to draw their room at home. No one could do it!
Be fluid
Don’t get so absorbed drawing the outline that you forget the human body is a solid, three-dimensional form. Try drawing from the centre outwards and apply tone from the outset.
Doing the outline first can make your drawing look flat, a bit like a cardboard cut-out. Remember the children’s art exercise of drawing around your hand then colouring in? Great fun for children, but if we look at a real hand it’s so full of bumps and hollows and textures.
What You Will Need
- Two sheets of paper
- A graphite pencil (I recommend an HB type)
- A sharpener
And pencils of different colors:
- Chocolate brown
- Medium grey
- Raspberry red
- Rosy
- Lilac
- Rich blue
- Emerald green
- Light green
- Yellow
- Creamy (or light beige)
- White
My colored pencils are aquarelle, but this feature doesn’t really matter. We’ll work without washing the strokes.
How to Make a Pencil Sketch of the Flowers
Step 1
I outline the composition in a general way. With a pencil, I sketch an oval shape for the peony and smaller round shapes for the cherry flowers.
Step 2
I outline the core of the peony and fill it with small circles to mark the texture.
Step 3
I draw the first central petals of the peony. I also outline them with a blue pencil; I will be applying a new color to each new group of petals so you can easily differentiate them.
The option of adding any colors to your sketch is entirely up to you.
Step 4
I draw a couple of new petals in front of the existing ones and outline them with a red pencil.
Step 5
I draw an overlapping petal and a group of several rear petals. I mark them with the green color.
Step 6
I add several foreground petals and outline them with yellow.
Step 7
I imagine that the petals arrange themselves around the core of the flower, and add another layer. Then I mark the new group with a lilac pencil.
Step 8
One more layer of petals, and this time I outline them with red.
Step 9
The peony is almost complete. I add several more petals that hide underneath and outline them with a blue pencil.
Step 10
It’s time to mark the central parts of the cherry blossoms. I draw small circles with a pencil.
It is not necessary to put these circles exactly into the geometrical centers of the flowers. The blossoms are facing in slightly different directions; moreover, they are organic objects that can’t look equal.
Step 11
Each cherry flower has five petals, and I add them with pencil lines. It is also a great trick to diversify our floral composition with a small cherry bud.
Step 12
I add new details, such as a twig line, a couple of leaves, and new flowers.
Step 13
I draw a peony leaf in the foreground. I also add stamens of the cherry blossoms; they look like small circles.
Our pencil sketch is complete. You can leave it as it is now or mark shady areas, as I did for the central part of the peony, separating the petals with shadows.
How to Apply Pencil Strokes
Step 1
Colored pencils can help you achieve amazing results. There are several principles to remember, and one of them is the importance of creating layers of color. An overlap of tints and shades creates a much more interesting, impressive result than just one color.
The first way you can apply your tool is by making lines with soft rubbing strokes, holding your pencil at an angle. The lines can be directional.
… or rounded. This kind of stroke is perfect for smooth textures and a base color layer.
Step 2
Another excellent method is hatching. It is very similar to drawing with an ordinary pencil or pen; the point of your colored pencil should be sharp.
Hatching works best for adding details and drawing refined objects or textures.
