How To Draw Floral Designs

Florals illustrations and botanical line art never go out of style, and why would they? They are beautiful and elegant, and can add a whimsical feel to any artwork. In today's tutorial, I will be walking you through how to create a floral frame that you can incorporate into your artwork. You will use only two types of flowers and three types of leaves to create it - it is not as difficult as you think!

Hello, everyone! I'm Makiko from @makiko_j. Let's get started!

Supplies:

Paper (I used watercolour paper that's half size of a postcard)
Drawing pen 0.05mm
Pencil
Eraser
Ruler

Step 1: Sketch a frame

First, lightly draw a frame with a pencil. You can do this free hand or with a ruler, depends on how perfect you want the frame to be.

Then, redraw the upper left and lower right into a slightly rolled shape of paper. This will give your frame more of an interesting look.

Step 2: Draw flowers

Draw some flowers (a and b). If you're afraid of making mistakes, sketch with a pencil first. You can experiment with different clusters and combinations of the florals until you're happy with how they're starting to come together.

Need some nature inspiration? Grab yourself a copy of the best-selling Botanical Line Drawing or venture into the world of watercolor with Peggy Dean's Guide to Nature Drawing & Watercolor.

Step 3: Draw leaves

Add leaves (c, d and e) with good balance. Then, trace the pencil sketch of the frame with a drawing pen and erase your sketch. You will see your design starting to come alive with all the little touches you're adding and the tiny leaves will make a big difference in the final result.

Step 4: Add shading lines

Take your time with this step because any detail you add, even if it's really small, will make an impact on how your frame turns out. As you start adding little shading lines, you will notice the depth your frame is starting to have.

Once you're done with this process, you will see the difference compared to the picture in step 3.

You can also try out making some abstract floral art and incorporating it into your design or mixing in some floral lettering. Don't forget that experimenting is key to a creative process.

Step 5: Add some more flowers and leaves

For a better balance, add some more flowers and leaves. In this process, I tend to add too much and regret it later. So, to avoid it, sketch with a pencil before using a drawing pen.

Step 6: Finish with a drawing pen

If you had any sketch lines left over, this is when you finish everything off with a drawing pen and erase your pencil lines to reveal the beautiful frame you created. You can keep it as is or add a drawing or lettering inside of the frame, depending on how you want to use it.

And you're done!

Pro tip: Keep the original and make a copy with your printer so that you can use this design for various occasions repeatedly.

As you can see from the photo above, I also drew this frame on a beautiful handmade paper and added "Thank you" with Procreate. There are so many ways to experiment with this project and make your final outcome better!

Thank you for drawing with me today, I hope you enjoyed it and that you found this tutorial was helpful! I'd love to see your work using your favourite flowers and greenery. So, please share your work using a hashtag #drawingwithmakiko on Instagram.

Hi, I'm Makiko living in Japan with my husband, two children and my dog.

My dog Sherry always stays with me and heals me - she is very special.

I love calligraphy and drawing. I practice calligraphy every day and enjoy creating floral designs to match it. I want to make you happy with my artwork. So, I'll keep learning calligraphy and keep creating floral designs inspired by nature.

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