How to Draw Chinese Flowers

Flowers are a common motif in a great deal of Chinese art. These decorative flowers appear on ceramics, paper fans and even clothing. The beauty of these flower motifs is that they are often highly stylized, giving the flower a simple but compelling appearance. Drawing this style of flower can be done very simply with a few basic shapes. Once you have mastered drawing Chinese flowers you can use them as decoration on furniture or even customize your own stationery or envelopes in your personal office.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper Pencil Black ink pen Red marker (or colored pencil) Green marker (or colored pencil)

1. 
    

   Draw the main flower by drawing 8 petals. The petals should be ovals that are small at the bottom and wide at the top. Arrange these so that they are slightly overlapping one another and spreading out in a circular pattern. The smaller ends should be in the center of the flower and the wider ends on the outside. Add the side flower with three slightly overlapping petals to the left of the main flower.

2. 
    

   Create the leaves with oval shapes that start wide and circular and come to a triangular point. Place a leaf on the bottom right side of the main flower and two on the left middle side of the main flower. The top leaf on the left side should point up and the lower leaf should point to the top left hand corner of the pages. Add another leaf to the bottom of the second flower. This leaf should point to the bottom right corner of the page. Add a small triangle to the left side of this leaf. Draw a line starting at the base of each leaf and continuing to the middle of each leaf.

3. 
    

   Draw the stylized stem with a diagonal line extending from the bottom of the main flower. Turn this line sharply in on itself so that it resembles a "maze"-like shape.

4. 
    

   Erase the overlapping lines on the right side of each petal so that it looks like the petals are resting one on top of the other. Add parallel lines that match the curve of the petals, leaves and stems to give the flower some depth.

5. 
    

   Ink the entire drawing. Let the ink dry and erase the pencil. Color inside the lines of the flower with the red marker. Color inside the lines of the leaves with the green marker.

Tips & Warnings

• Place a sheet of paper under the picture when you are coloring with marker so that it will not bleed through.

Resources

• Tips on hand painting Oriental designs on furniture.
• How to draw Manga style flowers.
• How to paint roses with acrylics.