Learn to draw flowers using pen with these step by step illustrated tutorials. Drawing flowers is a very relaxing and fun activity but it is perceived to be difficult to do with pen. This is because soft and delicate nature of flowers is though to be difficult to portray with pen. This is not the case and in these tutorials you will learn to bring out soft and delicate nature of flowers and be able to draw beautiful flowers using pen. If you are interested in learning to draw pen and ink landscapes, then I invite you to also check out extensive collection of free tutorials and my pen and ink drawing workbooks.
Drawing Flowers: Key Points
Following are key points to keep in mind when learning to draw flowers with pen.
- Create a ‘soft’ and ‘delicate’ outline by using broken dotted line
Study the dotted and dashed broken line that is used to create outline of Calla lily below. This gives a feeling of softness and is ideal for drawing outline of flowers. Click on the image to see detail. Use of a ‘hard’ line will destroy that effect.
- Use dots and small ticks to texture petals
Small dots and ticks are ideal to texture flowers. They convey delicate nature of petals as seen in drawing of tulip below.
- Use soft contour lines to give form to petals
Contour lines are curved lines where the curvature of lines expresses shape of the underlying object. Since petals usually have curved interesting shapes, using contour lines on them really helps to bring out their form. But it is also important to use ‘soft’ contour lines (broken dotted/dashed lines) just like with outline discussed before. Study the use of soft contour lines on top view of Calla lily below to give it form.
- Add tonal variations to give flower its form
Surface of a curved object receives light differently from a light source. Part that is facing the light source is lit brightest while the part that is curved away from the light source receives less light and hence is darker. Same holds true for petals of a flower. Parts of a petal that are facing the ‘assumed’ light source in a drawing should be indicated brightly lit (using less stroke) while parts of petal that are curved away from light source should be indicated as darker using more dots and ticks.
Following is a ‘light study’ of Calla lily where light and dark areas are indicated using assumed direction of light. By using appropriate tones, curved form of the flower is brought out. For a different assumed direction of light, light study will be different.
Following are step by step tutorials on drawing flowers as indicated. Points discussed above are used to draw them. Every tutorial is accompanied by template to help you practice drawing the flower. Outline is provided in the template and I would suggest starting by printing template and attempting to texture flower per accompanied instructions and illustrations. Once you are comfortable with it, you can attempt to draw your own outline as well. An ordinary fine tip gel pen is all you need to get started.
Click on a drawing to view its tutorial. Feel free to reach out to me for any help and suggestion for a tutorial on your favourite flower. I will be adding more flowers soon and so be sure to subscribe to receive notification of new additions.
Have fun drawing these flowers. You can also check out other flowers I have drawn in my flower gallery.
Happy Drawing,
Rahul