How to Draw a Flower Basket

This flower basket is more like a bowl in terms of shape. By sketching shapes instead of the actual basket itself, drawing will come easier to you. Drawing half the basket to begin with will allow you to make your design the same on both sides. As you proceed, you will reshape the edges somewhat to make the basket more rounded. This is normal, so don't worry about perfection. You can always reshape the overall design before you are finished.

Things You'll Need

• 8½-by-11-inch plain paper
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Light table (optional)
• Basket (or photo of one)

Instructions

1. Fold the paper evenly in half. Study the contours of the basket, thinking in terms of a bowl shape. Draw the outline of half of the basket onto the paper, starting at the folded side. Click on the photos included to help you draw the outlines. The basket slopes on a curve just as a bowl would.

2. Hold the illustrated side of the paper against a window where daylight is coming through, and trace the drawn outline onto the other folded half of the paper. If you have a light table, that is fine, but a window works just as well.

3. Unfold the paper and lay it flat on your drawing surface. Begin the details by using elongated horizontal "S" curves that can go in either a forward or backward direction for the braided handle, base and rim on the basket.

4. Draw in the basket weave with sloping horizontal lines and by placing a curved spine in between the weave. This is what holds a basket together when it is woven. Spines in each row are opposite in position to the one above it. As you start to define the basket and reshape it more, erase any unwanted lines.

5. Add more details in the weave by shading it with the side edge of the pencil, and add a few lines horizontally to each slat where it fits beneath a spine. Use the same technique on the handle and base of the basket.

Tips & Warnings

• Soft lead pencils such as #2 or B lead allow for better shading than hard leads do.

• By folding the paper and tracing the second half of any pattern, the overall design will be balanced.