Using Inspiration Photos to Sketch Floral Arrangements

So, I wanna give you an idea of how I use my inspiration photos in my sketchbook. So, something that I really like to do is these floral bunches, so I'll have a lot of florals, a lot of plants and flowers sort of mixed in in a clump together, and I find that it's just a great way to warm up before a painting or I work on a final sketch. So, when I'm working from my inspiration photos, I like to just get the idea and the shapes of the different plants and flowers. I'm not trying to get it perfect or look exactly like the photograph, I want the essence, I want the idea. So, I might start by looking at one of these flowers, this one is really drawing me.

And I notice the center, it's a very circular center, and then I also notice the unique petal shape. So, in my sketchbook, I'm using a fine line pen, that's what I like to sketch with a lot of the time. And in my sketchbook, what I might do is pick a spot and then I will get those very noticeable characteristics just quickly. I might even just not be looking at the paper, might just be looking at the picture that I'm drawing from. And remember, it doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to look just like the photograph.

I just want the idea, so that when I look back on it, I can see really the essence of the flower or the plant. And then from here I might choose another kind of plant. Let me look through my photos. I'm really liking these leaves right here, I like the different lines in them. So from there, I might go and add some leaves sort of behind and just sorta working off of my first flower.

Yeah, and this is loose, this is rough, it doesn't have to be super neat. And I'll just keep adding on. Sometimes it's nice to draw even the same flower, if you can kinda imagine what it'd look like from a different angle if you have a photo, that's great, or you can just imagine it, so I might take this flower that I already drew and imagine what it looks like from the side. So, it's got that same petal shape as the first one, just at a little bit of a different angle. And being able to draw a flower that's different angles like this, is something you'll definitely get better at the more you practice it and the more you sort of have a visual vocabulary of all the different kinds of plants and flowers.

And then from here, I think I wanna work on this area, so I might choose a different flower. You know what, let's go over here. So I really like this kind of flower that has some bigger petals and it has a little bit of a smaller center. So I might do a really just rough center and then add in some of the bigger rounder overlapping petals that I'm noticing. And when things overlap, I just skip over, jump over it, and then continue my lines.

Take a second, take a look at how it's looking. Looks good to me, and I might add just a couple more things, and then that's a pretty good sketch. So, I really like the linear quality of these flowers, so I might have those going right up here 'cause they have this big open space. So, let's see, I'm drawing in pen, so I have to think a little bit before I srart. So I think I might actually draw the flower shape first and then draw the stem.

And this is why it's great to have such a variety of different kinds of plants and flowers because as you're working, and you have different spaces to fill, you can sorta fit and see which piece will go where. So I'm just noticing the flower shape, it's almost like this bell kind of shape with a little circle on the bottom. And I'll add in the stem. Can add some quick little line details that I'm noticing in there. And I think I might add one more flower, I'm gonna add a couple a leaves too, I see some big leaves.

I might add one more flower to the bottom and then I think my sketch will be feeling pretty good. Maybe add a little stem there. Okay. And then I think I like the shape of these petals right here. So, I notice that there's lots of little petals in the center of this flower and then it has almost more like transinsular shaped petals going outwards.

So, I start from the center, sometimes I just kinda scribble just 'cause this is just a little sketch, a little warm up. So, I might draw some sort of pointy lines and then go out from there. So I'm noticing the petals in the center a little bit smaller, and I'm just sort of jumping around until things fit in, and I'll just keep going. Actually I like flowers like this, I find them to be kinda meditative when I work on them 'cause I just keep adding petals until it looks good. I wanna make sure it feels even, let's see, no little empty gaps.

This is feeling pretty good to me. You know what, maybe one more leaf. That space is a little bit empty. I like this big leaf right here. So, I notice that this leaf has a really big sorta wavy shape and has all these lines, all these veins.

So add those in. Take one last look, see if I need anything. Maybe one more leaf. And I think that that is good for a warm-up. So that's just one way that I use the, my pictures of plants and flowers as a jumping off point.

I'll just do a quick sketch and then from here, I would take this and I would refine it more before I would go onto a final painting.