10 Step Drawing: Flowers

Mary Woodin is an artist and illustrator based in Suffolk, UK. She specializes in painting natural subjects and has produced artwork for everything from stationery to ceramic tiles. Mary's interest in the outdoors has inspired a number of publications, including The Painted Garden Cookbook (a collection of illustrated recipes that were produced in her own garden) and Dawn to the Country. For more information go to: www.marywoodin.com

This is the companion to Heather Kilgour’s 10 Step Drawing Animals (also found on this site).  Just like its fellow you can learn how to draw seventy-five beautiful flowers and arrangements in just ten steps with this useful primer. Each flower is shown being constructed a stage at a time on one or two pages taking you from a mere shape or line to a finished colored drawing.First the introduction explains how the process works and tells you what you need to buy and why.  Pencils or paints are the suggested mediums for adding color, and anybody who is even mildly interested in art or a keen crafter will already own most of what they will need.  The book is divided into four sections comprising blooms, blossoms, botanicals and displays.  Blooms are your basic garden favorites, blossoms can be found on trees in spring, botanicals are more unusual items (actually rather a mixed bag) and displays are bouquets and wreaths.  Even a drawing novice can easily get the line drawing right; adding color is trickier and a true beginner will probably want to purchase a basic book in their chosen medium.  This is, after all, a book about drawing not coloring and it certainly succeeds in showing how simple it is to draw a line drawing of a flower. One thing to help you with the color aspect is the row of circles at the bottom of each page showing the colors used, which is a nice touch. Choose from garden flowers like foxgloves, a water lily, rose and bluebell or depict cherry blossom, crab apple blossom or magnolias.  Draw botanicals such as aloe vera, pitcher plants and Christmas cactus or sketch a festive wreath, wild flower bouquet or a bunch of spring bulbs.   Each flower has a short piece about it and to help you choose your project there is a list of contents at the front.  If you want to learn to draw flowers from scratch this is a good place to do so.

• Prelims: 5ppIntroduction: 2ppThe Drawings: 120ppIndexes and Acknowledgments: 1pp