More on painting:

Flowers and leaves

Continued from last week

Painting flowers is much harder than drawing. Many colours are needed with different tones. Before painting do a simple pencil sketch with a soft pencil preferably HB2.

Study the formation of the flower paying great attention to the initial drawing, proportions, measurements, shadows and highlights before applying the first coat of colour.

The illustration on Figure 4 shows the outline sketch on the left Rose flower and below the completed Rose flower with leaves. A pale pink is put on and the leaves are painted in lemon green. The shades are shown with thin lines. Notice the thin outlines drawn on top of the leaves and petals.

Figure 5 shows a simple structure of the flower shown in line above and complete painting of the flower on the left. Observe the thin dotted spots that show the shading to make it more natural.

Figure 6 shows Ivy leaves which are nice to draw. They make a pretty composition. You come across this plant very often on buildings, trees and old fences.

Start painting with a pale flat colour of green and then put in the details.

Keep practising until you become a competent painter.