Do you love plants and drawing??
I've always loved drawing and sketching things but plants weren't really the things that I drew often. I would say it's easier than drawing faces, people or animal so maybe this will be a good daily quick task for you to do if you just started getting in to drawing or doing croquis. I'll be sharing how I practice drawing plants and this tutorial is more about for you to see how you improve on drawing plants as you practice more, rather than making a perfect drawing.
You will need:
1. Paper (I used A4 ivory paper)
2. A sharp pencil or a mechanical pencil
3. A ruler
4. A craft knife
5. An rraser
6. Tape
7. A compass or a circular object
8. A plant you want to draw
Steps:
1. Cut your paper into 4~6 square pieces.
2. Use a compass or a circle edge object to draw a big enough circle on the paper. You will be drawing plants in the centre of the circle. Put a plant you found next to your paper and observe the where light and shadows are formed on the plant (the plant that I chose is bit more difficult than other plants. So choose a simpler plant for your first drawing.)
3. Very lightly draw a general structure of the plant in the center of the circle. In my case I drew the stem of the plant in the center and built on the leaves as I went on. For drawing stem, I studied how it curves and how each leaves starts from the stem.
4. My tip would be keep your pencil sharp and as well as your eraser. You can always cut your eraser for more fine edges.
5. Draw the rest of the parts lightly (be careful not to draw them too dark). In this case it's not really about whether your drawing looks the same as the real thing but it's more about learning. So don't worry about drawing exactly the same number of leaves or branches be quick and move on.
6. Start shading the darkest parts of the plant. See how I shaded the roots of the each branches first.
7. Keep working from darkest to lightest. See how leaves overlap each other but they have different opacity of darkness. Draw in the darker laves first then draw the lighther leaves next.
8. Use the eraser to clear the edges. See the drawing as a whole and add the shading where you think needs more.
9. Don't spend too much time on drawing one plant, move on after 10mins. It will train you to spot the details faster. Repeat this as many times as you want. Number your drawings and also write down the date of the day you drew the plants. It will show you how much you improved since you started and you can also compare your drawings.
10. Use a tape to stick the drawing on your wall. You can decorate one side of your wall with plants and your drawings.
You can do this everyday if you really want to see yourself improving. Remember, it's not about drawing it perfectly, but it's more about learning and improving. Even though you are not happy with your result, be patient and keep practicing!
