Fearless Friday, Botanical Drawing
Several years ago I bought an adult coloring book
full of beautiful drawings of flowers
I didn’t buy it to color,
I bought it to use to practice my drawing skills
of my favorite subject, flowers
I highly recommend using a book like this to help you learn to draw
or to improve your drawing
There are many to choose from on Amazon here
There are a lot of colored pencil sets available too
You could also trace the outline of the flowers
if drawing the whole thing scares you,
and then fill in the details yourself
to get a better feel for how to draw them
This is the page I chose and as you can see in the photo below,
I drew only part of the page,
the 2 main flowers and some leaves
As I am always preaching, pick a start point
and start building your subject shape by shape
Once you are satisfied with your pencil drawing,
go over it with a waterproof liner pen and add details,
erasing the pencil when you’re finished
Various lengths of small lines add shading
to make the flower look dramatic and 3 dimentional
You can color this with colored pencils, markers, or watercolor
{if you drew on mixed media paper}
or you can use a combination
For today’s drawing I used colored pencils
I used a photo to reference the varying shades of the flower petals
as they overlap and capture highlights
For the pink flower I began with coloring in the lightest areas first,
then the medium shades, then the darkest
For the yellow flower I colored one petal from lightest to dark
Then I jumped to the center darks
Then I worked backwards from the darks to the lightest areas
There’s no right or wrong way, just whatever suits you
Once the 2 main flowers were finished I did the stems and leaves
And it was done!
“Botanical Flowers” colored pencil and ink on mixed media paper
Have some drawing and coloring fun
Be Fearless!
I will be joining these fabulous parties and blogs:
Sundays on Silverado/ Love Your Creativity
What’s for Dinner/ Between Naps on the Porch
All About Home/ Common Ground & Follow the Yellow Brick Home
Turn About Tuesday / Our Tiny Nest
Creative Crafts / Crafty Creators / Full Plate Thursday
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I’ve bought adult coloring books to practice, too. They come in very handy!
Yes, I’ve really enjoyed getting ideas from mine!
That’s very beautiful!
Thank you Angie!
Well, yours are much prettier!
Thanks Dorothy 🙂
I had an adult coloring book I’d use when stressed out – used pretty colored pencils. I was 80% finished with the entire book, then a little girl came to my house and her mother let her scribble all over my pictures on each page. I felt like a 5th grade girl who wanted to put a frog down the mother’s shirt. I like your book. Good idea to use it for practice. We should color together one day. I won’t bring a frog.
The ending of a friendship I would guess!
That’s terrible! I can’t stand it when oblivious mom’s think everything their child does is cute and acceptable! I like to relax with colored pencils too, coloring has always been a favorite activity…
LOVE your tutorials Jenna! I’m totally not artistic in this way, but you make it seem like I could do it! Plus your pictures are so pretty to look at! Thanks for the inspiration and the entertainment! 😊
Thank you Barbara, I am so happy to be an inspiration!
Thanks for the idea on using an adult coloring book as a support tool. It may seem obvious, but I had never thought of doing that.
Copying other artists is a great way to learn 🎨
You always make this look so effortless. It’s not. I’ve tried. I did get a book for beginners on botanical sketches. They are very simple, but it’s a start, right?
Yes! Great way to start! The more you do it, the better and easier it will be!
Jenna, wonderful tutorial that I am going to share with EM. She is taking art and is loving it. Have a wonderful weekend!
Oh good, so glad she’s loving it!
A very creative adventure to start the month of April – so lovely!
Thank you Mary, we’re having April showers this morning, hoping for May flowers 🌷
I really do enjoy the adult coloring books. I love coloring flowers and your post is very inspiring.Always looks easy when you do it.
Coloring is so relaxing, enjoy!
Beautiful Jenna!! What a great idea to use the coloring book to practice. I have an adult coloring book around here somewhere but haven’t opened it yet – another one of the crafts for when I retire lol. Hopefully next year. Have a lovely week!
I hope you get to play with it soon Kim!
So smart to use a botanical coloring book for your artistic inspiration Jenna! A fun way to enjoy some flower therapy too. ♥
Thanks Mary, I love to draw from it, so relaxing!
This is beautiful, Jenna! What a great idea to learn from the coloring book. I’ll be featuring this today at Thursday Favorite Things. 🙂
Thank you so much Pam!!