Exercise 🎨 - Simplifying Flowers, Create a whimsical flower sketchbook page (Patreon)

Good morning everyone!! 🤗

For this month’s drawing exercise, we’ll focus on simplifying Flowers. You will learn how to fill a whole page with flowers from references you picked yourself! With an example of my approach to fill a whimsical sketchbook page (from base layer to final illustration) 😊

1. Gather your references

Find a variety of whimsical flowers by searching on Pinterest or google. You can use the following searching terms

Whimsical Flowers

Blooming Flowers

Spring Flowers

Save them and choose which flowers from the references you will use for your sketchbook page.

Note: If you found some other perfect searching terms, please share them in the comments to help and inspire others!

2. Create a Base Layer 🌸

Create a full sketchbook page using a selection of flowers from your references. Try to keep a similar amount of space between each flower so the spread feels balanced.

Keep it simple:

Draw the essence of the flower, not every tiny detail.

Break the flower down into basic shapes (circles, ovals, simple petals).

Color guidelines:

Use only 2-3 colors per flower.

Keep your palette soft and cohesive across the whole page.

Don’t blend too much, flat color works beautifully in whimsical illustrations.

The colors I used for this spread are:

Tombow 451 (Sky Blue)

Tombow 553 (Mist purple)

Tombow 772 (Dusty rose)

Tombow 991 (Light Ocre)

Tombow 126 (Light olive)

Tombow 020 (Peach) NEW

3. Finish them with colored pencils

Last but not least, finish with a pencil layer, to add details, shading and depth to your illustrations. The same tips for the base layer also counts for the pencil layer.

For pencils I used the following colors:

Faber-Castell 157 (Dark Indigo)

Faber-Castell 165 (Juniper Green)

Faber-Castell 188 (Sanguine)

Faber-Castell 226 (Alizarin Crimson)

Faber-Castell 108 (Dark Cadmium Yellow) NEW

Faber-Castell 133 (Magenta) NEW

Sharing

As always, I’d love to see your results! Post your sketches in our group chat or in the comments below. I can’t wait to see what you create! 🤗

Happy drawing!

Celyn 🌸