Drawing Winter Flowers - How to Draw Winter Flowers For the Beginner
You need to establish the size of your flower first before you define its shape. You can easily do this by using basic shapes first; these basic shapes would serve as a base for establishing the actual form your flower. For this example, I would show how to draw an ornamental kale.
Draw a swirl with at least three to four layers. Start at the center and then gradually increase the space or gap between each row as you reach the last layer. Now use the swirl to easily distribute each leaves. Start at the center and gradually increase the size of the leaves until you draw the last one.
Re-define each leaf. Apply more visible and smooth outlines while creating some minor ruffles on the edges of the leaves, and then erase the base (swirl) and the other sketch lines to prepare it for coloring.
Draw some veins on each leaf to convey the kale's texture. The veins should be coming from the center then crawling/spreading outwards on the leaf. Apply some shades to establish the dimension of the kale's shape. Darken the portions right below each row to create some shadows cast by the overlapping row of leaves.
Color the veins with dark violet. Overlap the pencil details you applied earlier and use strong heavy hand strokes on the center veins, and then use thinner line strokes on the spreading veins.
Apply some highlights on the edges of the leaves before applying its primary color. Then make few more details (veins) on the leaves using white color, this would create a faint vein details with brighter value of violet later.
Use small scribbling (circular) hand strokes when applying the color to avoid producing visible line marks even if the pressure on your hand strokes is fairly heavy (for the dark spots). Apply some green tones on the few leaves to convey the natural color of a kale. Use fairly heavy hand strokes.
Follow the shades and shadows you applied earlier, darken it with the brighter violet and gradually lighten you hand strokes as you get to the brighter areas.
Amplify the dark areas with black color pencil. Only use strong strokes of black color on the areas with most depth, like the center of the kale and the heavily ruffled portions. Use light hand strokes on the shadows.
Redefine the dents and ruffles of the leaves by applying another layer of violet. Darken the corners of the thick veins with strong strokes of violet. And then re-darken the far sides of the leaves.
Darken the ends of the green portion to depict its texture/surface. Darken the ruffles with green of a darker value. Just like what you did with the dents and prominent veins on the violet leaves, darken the corners and sides of the thick veins and obvious dents.
More examples of how to draw winter flowers are available in "Drawing Winter Flowers - How to Draw Winter Flowers For the Beginner". Steps are discussed in details to guide a beginner how to start and finish each drawing.
