Tips for Drawing Great Flowers

       1.   Think About Composition

I’m a big fan of drawing flowers as you find them when there’s something that just strikes you. However, before you invest too much time in the drawing or painting, look at your flowers from a few different angles to make sure you have the best one. 

With arranged flowers, thinks about which flowers you want to stand out. These will be your focal points. Try and balance these out so they are not all in the same place (more of this soon in Composition).

       2. Draw the Big Shapes, Not the Small Details

Always try and reduce the complexity of your subject matter – it makes it much easier to draw and is less overwhelming.

  3. Let Negative Space Define the Details

Once you have the big shapes, use negative space (the shape around the object) to cut out the details. This will help ensure you draw what you really see and again, reduces complexity.

You will build up the positive spaces naturally as you go. For more information on Negative Space and Positive Space, keep an eye out for a Negative Space lesson coming up on Blueberry Beetle.

4. Always Extend from the Base

You want your flowers to feel elongated and delicately extended, not clumpy or squashed. Make sure you leave plenty of room for stems.

 Much of this will come from your original composition.

Once you have your outline right, then you can more on to more details or to painting.

       5. Keep Your Colours Fresh

 Avoid  using black to darken your flowers - this just makes everything seem grey! Try using supplementary and complementary colours, or similar secondary and tertiary mixes instead to keep eye-popping colours (more of this in our colour workshops!).

Sometimes adding fresh colour towards the end of the work is enough to freshen everything up.

If you found this helpful, please favourite this page – there are more step-by-step tutorials on drawing flowers coming soon at Blueberry Beetle.