Google+ House Revivals: How to Draw a Floral Wreath {a beginner's guide}

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

How to Draw a Floral Wreath {a beginner's guide}

You don't need an expensive inventory of stamps and tools to create pretty cards and scrapbooks and art journals. There's nothing wrong with using stamps and other products -- there are some beautiful products out there; but sometimes, you just don't have what you need in your stash, or you don't have room in your budget, or you don't have space in your home to store lots of supplies, etc. Also, it's really relaxing to pick up a pen and draw something pretty.


This simple floral wreath would make a darling card front, or could look sweet framing a picture in a scrapbook.
For art journalers and Bible art journalers, this is a technique that you may find useful, as well.

To start, trace a circle on a piece of paper that has some "tooth". I like to use old book pages that have some texture. The texture is important, because that texture or "tooth" is what is going to hold your colored pencil medium. Of course, you can use whatever paper you happen to have on hand. Experiment with your papers to see what works best for you.


I used a permanent pen to trace my circle, but it's best to lightly trace using a pencil. I left gaps in my circle where I planned to put flowers, but if you use pencil, you won't need to do that, as you can erase extra lines later.


On the upper right side, draw a cluster of simple, five petal flowers, and some leaves. Keep it simple, and try to channel your inner fifth grader -- that's the maximum level of skill you need.


On the lower left side, draw a slightly smaller cluster. Before you start to panic about drawing flowers, just practice on a piece of scratch paper. Five petal flowers are basically just a small circle surrounded by imperfect petals. Leaves and buds are shaped like ovals or eyes. Add squiggles to the sides of leaves to make the edges look more jagged. "Side views" of flowers can be made by first lightly sketching a bowl shape, then adding lines to indicate petals.


At the upper left, draw one five-petal flower and some leaves or buds. Keep this cluster small.


Add some simple daisies, if desired. You can also add tendrils and buds.


Now, grab those Crayola pencils and markers (you can, of course, use a better grade of product if you have it, but it's not necessary to spend lots of money to create pretty things). Using colored pencil, lightly scribble in a little base color.


Keep adding light layers of color, using the pencils. Don't press too hard, or you will gunk up the tooth of the paper. Next, grab your (water based) markers and color over the flowers. The waxy coating from the colored pencil will allow you to move the color around a bit and blend colors.Take care not to overwork the paper when using markers, as wet paper can become fragile.


Use a white pen, or White-Out, etc., to add highlights, if desired. Use a dark colored pencil to add shadows.

For a very detailed tutorial on how to draw a tulip, see this post.



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