Tag: Tips
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The Secret to Watercolor Techniques
The secret to producing the watercolor painting of your dreams is… patience! Wait for it to dry completely between layers. Keep reading for more helpful watercolor tips from our instructors. Go with the flow “Working in watercolor requires not only patience, but also the willingness to relinquish control. With colored pencils, we are mostly … Continued
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How to Draw Flowers That Feel Real
How to Draw Flowers That Feel Real Practical Tips for Painting Beautiful Blooms Realistic flower drawing tips and techniques for adding depth, dimension, and clarity to your botanical art We’ve all seen stunning snapdragons, radiant roses or fascinating foxgloves that made us think, “Wow, I want to stare at this for hours and … Continued
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The Art of Drawing Leaves
A Botanical Artists’ Guide to a Realistic Leaf Illustrations Each leaf, with its unique shape, vein pattern, texture, and color, offers a new opportunity to observe and admire beauty in nature. Whether you’re sketching in a garden or from a specimen on your desk, embrace the joy of the drawing process over the pursuit of … Continued
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How To Draw a Tulip in 12 Easy Steps
Scroll through this post for many techniques and step-by-step instructions you can try to improve your tulip drawings. Flowers are notoriously tricky subjects to capture realistically because of their curling petals, tiny reproductive parts, and short life spans. If you feel like flowers are too difficult to draw or too complex for you to … Continued
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4 Tips for Drawing Twists, Rolls, & Folds
To capture 3D forms on a 2D surface, we use light and shadows to create the illusion of depth. This can be tricky, but never fear! We are here to help. Learn how to draw elegant twists, flowing rolls, and delicate folds with confidence! Explore the graceful movement of strappy botanical leaves (like those … Continued
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10 Questions Every Artist Should Ask While Drawing
Whether you’re just getting started with botanical drawing or you’re a seasoned illustrator, make sure you are set for success and ask yourself these 10 questions to produce realistic botanical illustrations. Beginner Artists, Don’t Miss! Everything you need to know to get started on your botanical art journey is as easy as 1-2-3! … Continued
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The Basics of Color Theory: A Guide for Botanical Artists
Learn more about the fascinating world of color theory! Scroll through this post for some free tips to help you achieve realistic colors in your botanical illustrations. Before we begin, we need to have a shared basic vocabulary for describing color. Visualizing a color using these definitions can make it easier to … Continued
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The Magic of Light
Highlights, Shadows, and Continuous Toning Learn to Create the Illusion of 3D Form Creating a detailed, three-dimensional plant painting feels like magic to me. I stumbled through the process of uncovering the lesser-known “secrets” behind these botanical drawings. But light source shouldn’t be a mystery to solve! It’s just a visualization exercise that becomes … Continued
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Creating Compositions: Holiday Cards
Using the art skills learned throughout our course, The Practice of Botanical Drawing, create a finished composition suitable for printing on holiday or harvest greeting cards to send to your friends and family. To create a finished seasonal drawing, focus on complex compositions and seasonal color combinations. If you want guidance through every step … Continued
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Practice Promises Progress
If you learned to ride a bike, you most likely didn’t learn it all at once. You probably struggled to maintain balance and survived a few falls along the way, but after getting back on your bike again and again, you were ultimately able to ride! You may not have *perfected* bike riding; you … Continued