How to Draw Bouquet Flowers

While drawing a single blossom is a straightforward task, drawing a bouquet requires more time spent in observation and in arriving at a realistic perspective. Drawing bouquets can also be rewarding, allowing you to work in the romantic Impressionist style of Claude Monet and other plein air painters, or to create a realistic depiction reminiscent of a botanical drawing.

Things You'll Need

• Drawing paper (60# or heavier) HB, 2B and 4B pencils

Instructions

1. Gain inspiration from real life flowers, artificial flowers and artwork depicting flowers. Some people famous for depicting flowers include Paul Cezanne, Georgia O'Keeffe, Odilion Redon, Paul Gauguin, Hiroshige and the cartoonist Shag. There are also depictions of flowers and bouquets on seed packets, in gardening magazines, in home design publications and in catalogs.

2. Narrow it down to a style. You can aim for realism by drawing from real life models, botanical illustrations or photographs. You can veer toward a flat, decorative style by copying commercial illustrations, packaging and even the flowers printed on fabric and Mexican vinyl table covers. Your illustration can be more fantastical, emulating the visionary landscapes painted by Henri Rousseau, the surreal symbolism of Rene Magritte or the anthropomorphic fauna of Disney's "Jungle Book" movie. You may also wish to emulate the Impressionist style by focusing on light, shadow and color.

3. Choose an arrangement. You may wish to draw a bouquet of flowers wrapped in florist paper. Or you may follow the route of Cezanne and place the bouquet amid a still life of fruits and dishes. The bouquet may also be set in a vase, bowl or even a modest tin can.

4. Use your HB pencil to sketch the overlying shapes that make up the flower bouquet. Ignore small details and focus on proportion. You may notice that the arrangement is comprised of intersecting triangles of various sizes. Use these triangles to build the angles, distances and contrasts of the bouquet one by one. Focus on the circles, cones, ovals and cylinders that comprise the flower bouquet's stems, petals and leaves.

5. Shade the prominent areas of the drawing using a 2B or 4B pencil which has a softer tip and creates an expressive line. You may choose to emphasize a couple flowers in the foreground by darkening the shading. You can also erase shaded segments to create white space. Darken the key lines in the sketch, or add finishing touches with a brush or pen and India ink.

Tips & Warnings

• You may also add color with paint, markers or colored pencil.

• Repeated erasing and redrawing tears lightweight papers.