Today I am going to show you the developement of ‘Pansies’
This is the Reference Picture I got by Sally Ford.
the beginning
Step 1:
I am not always using my own Photo or still for reference, but I still want to make the final drawing MY own artwork. I sketch some Thumbnails with Ideas or open the picture with Photoshop and play around until I am satisfied. I do love the colors in this picture, so this time I am not going to change those. If you look closer you can see that the Petals are dusted with yellow pollen. As cute as it looks in a Photo, it would look disturbing on a drawing. And than there is too much going on in this Picture. I am going to ignore most of the flowers and concentrate on just a few.
Here are some Parts of the Picture that are interesting for me. I really like the Pansy that is shown from the side but in the end the 2 Pansies won. I just need to clean the Background from some half Petals and make it my Composition (you can see that I did some quick brushstrokes in Photoshop to mark what is going to be ignored in the Drawing)
Now that I have decided how the Drawing of my Pansies will look like, lets start drawing!
I start with a light outline and start blocking in the Colors for the pinkish undertones I can see in the Picture.
-
- Step 1
-
- Step 2
-
- Step 3
After the first very light layers I use a blending Stump to work the pigments into the tooth of the paper. It is important to use a very light Hand, because I don’t want to damage the Paper. I add more Colors and the blending Stump until I am satisfied with the Values.
-
- Step 4
-
- Step 5
-
- Closeup Petals
It is about time to start on the Details. With medium pressure I apply my Purples and burnish them with my White Prismacolor Pencil. The Priscmacolor is a wax based Pencil and I like the effect it makes on the Petals when I burnish with this Pencil. This will also lighten the whole drawing a Little bit. So once it is burnished I go back over it with my Dark Purples and a very Sharp Point to correct the Values and bring back all the Detials.
-
- Step 6
-
- Step 7
-
- Step 8
I had only finished a handfull of Drawings when I drew this one.
I must say I was still unsecure about the Background. The object itself was inportant but the Background only a pesky burden. So I usually just rushed through it, to be done. And I really hated the outcome in most of the cases.
(First when I started to see the Background as an essential part of the Drawing and Spending much more time on it I started to like the Process but this all happened about when I drew this)
My first thought was to leave the Background White. So the Viewer could concentrate on the Petals and their Beauty but than I liked the idea of a light green Background. But finally I came to the Poingt where I wanted it to be full of green leafs. I used the same technique with the leafs as I used with the Petals (so I am not going to repeat myself here.
-
- Close-up Leafs
-
- Close-up Petals
-
- Close-up Leafs
I really love how this Drawing turned out. I hope you like it too.
Thanks for this tutorial with beautiful finished drawing. I love pansies for cold weather flowers and purple combined with yellow is my go to combination!
I love this. Are we allowed to use the pic to paint/draw
Thanks Bille
Hej Bille, thanks for asking. Not from here. You can get the Reference picture from http://coloredpencilmag.com/challenge/
This is a gorgeous drawing but I am a bit biased since purple is my favorite color! 😉
Pansies are actually pretty tough little flowers and I love how you showed your technique on finding that perfect composition. Happy drawing and coloring from Texas!
– Sarah
Happy drawing & Coloring to you too Sarah.
I am glad that this this little step-by-step helped you. I am planning more of these in the Future. And yes they are tough little flowers, the only ones that I could plant in my garden (It’s still freezing in the nights, and I am in desperate need of color in my garden 🙂 )