how to draw a sun flower

Guide for Drawing Flowers with Pens

Updated: 01 Feb 2022

Guide for drawing flowers with pen and ink

In this guide, I demonstrate how to depict any flower, from simple to complex, using a pen.

Well-executed flower pen-drawing is all about accuracy of the construction (form), with attention to foreshortening and overlapping.

Concept Art

Get-go thing commencement, do non use concept images that are protected by copyright constabulary.

In case someone likes your cartoon and wants to buy information technology, it is best to use images that are free for ANY utilise.

Here are some websites that allow you download FREE stock images:

Pixabay

Unsplash

Pexels

StockSnap.io

FREEIMAGES

*Taking your own photos is the best solution to create unique drawings and compositions.

How to Create Smooth Lines with a Pen

For a pen drawing to expect nice, depict each mark with confidence. Pregnant, a shine line.

That is easier said than washed!

With time and do, the lines will menstruation. Until then, offset with a pencil.

The advantage of a pencil is that it is erasable. Therefore, yous can fix mistakes until you are happy with the result.

So grab your reference image and draw information technology with a pencil. Draw it gently, so it volition exist piece of cake to erase later.

Note:

The pencil drawing does not take to be perfect. Remember that nature is abstract. There are no two identical flowers.

Pencil sketch of a hellebore flower from reference Reference epitome & pencil sketch

Once the pencil-sketch is ready, it is easy to become over information technology with a pen. Do it in a confident and polish way, fifty-fifty if the pen marks are not exactly on top of the pencil marks.

When drawing with a pen, it is important to pay attention to overlap.

Draw the foreground parts first. In this instance, depict the stamens get-go, and only then describe the petals.

Afterwards the ink from the pen is dry (usually less than a minute, depending on the pen brand), it is condom to gently erase the pencil-drawing marks.

Pen and ink drawing of a hellebore flower Hellebore flower pen cartoon

How to Draw a Complex Flower

Some flowers or compositions are quite complex. You should pay attention to proportions, foreshortening, and perspective.

This is also much to deal with when starting to depict.

A solution to this problem is to create a filigree of guidelines. So, instead of one complex image, you have several smaller and simpler images.

To observe the heart bespeak of an paradigm, draw 2 diagonal lines from the paradigm corners.

Next, draw horizontal and vertical lines from the midpoint.

Finding the center of an image Finding the center & creating a filigree

Do the same for the drawing-newspaper. Make certain the ratio betwixt pinnacle and width is the same for both the reference image and the drawing-paper.

You lot can crop the reference epitome to become the same ratio.

Now it is easier to depict with a pencil.

Note:

If the image is still complex for you, you can proceed adding filigree lines for each rectangle.

Pencil drawing of a lily flower Drawing with a pencil

Remember to use the pencil gently. It volition exist easier to erase after y'all describe with a pen.

Pen and ink lily flower drawing Lily flower pen cartoon

Good to know:

If you practise not fully understand terms like overlapping, perspective, and foreshortening, I highly recommend reading my guide on cartoon the illusion of depth.

Which Pen to Use for Drawing Flowers

While it is possible to depict or sketch with a regular pen, there are many advantages for using pens for artists.

These pens are called fineliners or technical pens, and their ink is normally black, though some brands offer additional colors (more on that later).

Fineliner pens for drawing flowers Fineliners

Pens for artists create lines of compatible thickness, and they come in different sizes, therefore enabling to draw thick contour lines, or thin lines for details.

The ink for these pens is fabricated of pigments and therefore very durable.

To larn more than about which pen to use, visit my review for recommended pen brands for cartoon.

Line Width & Size

When drawing with a pencil, yous tin draw soft edges for far away objects.

Pens accept i brightness value, and therefore cannot produce soft edges.

Instead, yous can use a pen with a smaller nib size to create thinner lines for background objects, and bigger neb size to create thicker lines for foreground objects.

Using different nib sizes to draw flowers Unlike neb sizes

Using lines with different thickness to add together depth:

Pen and ink tulip flowers drawing Tulip flowers

Another way to add depth is with size.

When drawing in perspective, the farther abroad an object is, the smaller it looks.

For that reason, depict bigger flowers in the foreground, and smaller flowers in the background.

Sunflower pen and ink drawing Sunflowers

Tip:

To add depth, describe the background flower smaller, utilise a pen with smaller nib size for it, and make the foreground flower overlap it.

Hatching and Crosshatching

Hatching is a drawing technique that uses parallel lines.

A pen produces lines with one effulgence value (commonly nighttime).

In club to create the illusion of unlike brightness values, meaning areas that expect lighter and areas that wait darker, use different types of hatching.

Hatching and crosshatching types Hatching types

Use thin hatching lines for low-cal areas.

Past using different degrees of crosshatching, yous tin create the illusion of different brightness values:

Hibiscus flower pen drawing using hatching Hibiscus flower

Line Types with Pens

Equally mentioned above, a pen has a single brightness value, merely when holding a pen in a abrupt angle, it can produce a less defined line, and therefore create a second brightness value, which is lighter.

This does not piece of work with all pen brands, or on super polish paper.

For this to work, draw swift nonetheless gentle strokes (do not press hard).

Holding a pen in different angle Pen holding angle

Case:

Pen and ink drawing of a rose flower Rose flower

How to Add together Insects

Cartoon takes fourth dimension.

Trying a new thing, like calculation insects or other objects, can be risky.

A practical way to deal with this state of affairs is to beginning by drawing the new object.

Pen drawing of a ladybug Drawing a ladybug

When the effect is successful, yous can continue cartoon.

Pen drawing of narcissus flowers & a ladybug Narcissus flowers

To draw insects, visit my insect drawing guide.

Keeping it Elementary

Sometimes, only a few lines tin can be more than enough.

It is possible to draw lines with a brusque line or a dot at the end, suggesting a line that gradually disappears.

Types of lines with pen Dots and brusque lines

The middle function of a flower may seem complicated to draw.

The way to draw it, is to look at the basic shapes it is made of, and their direction.

How to draw the middle of a flower Paying attention to shapes and direction

After drawing the basic shapes, information technology is important to look at brightness values.

For areas that look darker, describe more lines to create the illusion of darker brightness values.

Common daisy flower pen drawing Common daisy

The next example is a step-by-step drawing for a Muscari plant (grape hyacinth).

It usually has some closed flowers and some open flowers, so exercise both:

Step-by-step drawing for muscari flower Flowers step-past-step

Now you can depict the whole plant.

Muscari pen drawing, aka grape hyacinth Muscari pen drawing

Ink Color

Pen drawing is not limited to black ink. Equally mentioned above, some brands offer additional colors.

Still, the drawing process is similar.

Kickoff, focus on accurate drawing. Pay attending to foreshortening and overlapping.

Then, get the brightness values right. Recall, draw more lines to create the illusion of darker values.

Lastly, some artistic license is more than than welcome.

Blue ink example:

Drawing of an anemone blanda flower with blue pen Anemone blanda blossom

Cerise ink example:

Anthurium flower drawing with a red pen Anthurium flower

Remember, try to be as authentic as possible and and so focus on effulgence values.

Brand sure there is enough contrast between lite and dark areas. That manner, the cartoon will stand out.

Sepia ink example:

Argyranthemum, margerite with sepia pen drawing Marguerite flower

Foreshortening

The object in front of y'all looks smaller when it is far, but it keeps the ratio between height and width.

Foreshortening is a distortion that occurs when looking at an object (or a airplane) along the line of sight.

In this example, you can see how a remote control looks shorter in height than in width, as you look at it along your line of sight:

Distortion of a remote control by foreshortening Foreshortened remote control

When cartoon flowers, pay attention to foreshortening in order for the cartoon to await realistic, and interesting!

Side view flower pen drawing Foreshortened blossom

In many cases, some petals are foreshortened, while others are less foreshortened.

Pen drawing of a Gazania flower Gazania blossom

Contrast & Image Editing

Dissimilarity is essential for an appealing drawing or painting.

The blackness of a technical pen on the whiteness of a drawing-paper volition produce contrast.

The problem lies when taking a photo.

For me, the best time to take a photograph is at daylight. Only, when completing a drawing at evening or night, I am eager to upload it to my website or to social networks.

My apartment lighting is less than ideal, and it produces a warm, weak light, resulting in a yellowish flat photo.

To gear up that, I use an image graphic editor (ANY epitome editing software will piece of work) to decrease saturation and increment contrast. Trouble solved!

Lotus flower pen and ink drawing Lotus flower

Killing it on Social Media

To succeed on social media, you have to consider many factors. For example, good content or SEO.

After analyzing successful flower-drawing Instagram accounts, I found a few tips and techniques that work.

1. Draw bold!

Meaning, draw thick, noticeable profile lines:

Poppy flower pen and ink drawing Poppy bloom

2. Minor images

A pen drawing has its limitation. A small pen-cartoon image looks ameliorate than a close-upwardly.

To exercise that, accept a photo of your flower drawing (or sketch), including its surrounding.

For example, the actual blossom you used as reference, a footstep-by-step procedure, pens y'all used, so on.

In addition, call up that about people use their smartphone for social networks, so a tall image occupies more screen space, and therefore has more presence.

Snowdrop flowers pen and ink drawing Snowdrop flowers (Galanthus)

iii. Draw big

Drawing on a large paper sheet, like size A4, allows you to add together more details and so, the small photo for your drawing volition wait more refined.

That said, simple drawings with little detail-work, do well too.

Keep in mind:

Complex flowers or compositions are challenging and time-consuming, even for experienced artists.

Carnation flower pen drawing Carnation

four. Floral fine art

Once you lot are comfy drawing a specific flower, yous can describe a full paper canvass of that flower. (Another selection is to draw several types of flowers).

Pen and ink drawing for cosmos flowers Cosmos floral art