Preamble
Let me start this post by saying that I am not at all qualified to teach people how to draw - anything really. I'm an amateur at best with only a minor skill when it comes to drawing. My artwork is the type that generally looks decent from afar but when to stop and look closely at it you can see that I really have no idea about lighting or how to shade properly. I don't know how to properly create depth either or even how to make a thing look real. My strategy is basically to hide the flaws under copious amounts of detail and improper shading.
That being said, I like to make my own cards for people on occasion and they tend to like my drawings when I do so they generally get the job done in that regard.
Perhaps everyone has an inner artist in them, so why not share it with others?
Inspiration
Here is a photo of my inspiration flower. I believe it's a type of lily. I bought these for my wife for Valentines day last week so they are getting a bit old now and the petals are starting to wilt and bend. I actually think it gives them character though and helps in drawing them. They are less perfect, which makes them look more realistic in the drawing somehow.
First things First
Start by sharpening your pencil. There is nothing more satisfying than a really sharp pencil. I guess I sort of have a thing for them. I don't know exactly what it is but I think it's because I imagine how much detail I could create with it. It's a weird thought, I know.
Anyway, I use a knife to sharpen, mostly because I can never find a proper pencil sharpener and a knife works just as well, if not better.
Okay, now that our pencil is sharp, let's begin.
Step by Step Guide
Start by drawing a wonky circle on the paper to give yourself a general idea of the size of your flower. Put a small circle in the middle somewhere, slightly offset from the center. I imagine that I'm looking at the flower from a perspective slightly towards the left so I offset my small circle in that direction.
Draw in the petals with some in front and some behind the others. The center is a bit chaotic looking here but I plan to hide what's actually going on there with some random shading. Basically, I'm just going to bury the truth under copious amounts of graphite and ink.
Next, erase your circle and any other flaws that you see.
Draw in the stamen thingy's or whatever they are called. Tell me in the comments if you're a flower expert and want to inform me on the proper terminology.
Add in some extra detail - some lines and crap. It doesn't have to be perfect either, just follow the direction and curve of the petals.
Outline the flower and the details using a darker tool. I used a thick Sharpe marker and a gel pen which is not at all ideal. I don’t like using either of them but they're all I have. Normally I would use a fine tip felt pen or maybe some artist pencils - the kind with varying degrees of hardness.
To me the Sharpe made the flower look sort of comic book like, but oh well.
Next add in some shading using a dark pencil or black pencil crayon. I'm using the latter.
Ideally you want to imagine a light source shining on the object and how the light would actually interact with it. I'm probably much more random about it than I should be though. I use big shadows to hide the flaws, especially in the center of the flower where all the petals meet.
Draw a stem and do the same as above. Add in detail, outline it and throw on some shadowing.
The last thing that I did was add in a bit of color using a pencil crayon. I didn't add in much, just a little give give it a tinted look.
Looking at the image on here I can see a few things that I would change right away, like adding some additional shadow to the center, especially on the petal with the stamen thingy's. But all in all I'm satisfied with how it turned out.
Practice Practice
Generally when I get on a drawing kick I tend to draw the same thing over and over again until I get bored of it. This isn't all that surprising, but I find that the image tends to get a little better each time that I attempt it as well. I would recommend drawing the same thing over again a few times until you are satisfied with what you come up with.
Here is a previous attempt at the flower so you can see what I mean. Personally, I don't think it is as good as the subject of the main post. There is no center to the flower and the petals are way out of proportion. After this one I started drawing a circle in step one above, and I found that that really helped to make things appear more natural.
Let me know what you think in the comments and please feel free to share any tips you have for me on how to improve the drawing. I'm open to criticism as well, so don't feel like you can't point out my drawings flaws.
