Celyn Art

Drawing homes: Adding details & Character 🌸🌳🪟 (Step-by-step guide - Week 16) (Patreon)

Published:

2026-04-13 12:21:53

Imported:

2026-10

Tags:

Step-by-step illustration

Content

Hi Everyone!! 🤗

For this week, we’re focusing on adding details & character to little homes. We will start by looking closely at the reference photo and drawing the smaller elements separately. Like plants, windows, textures, and other details.

After that, we’ll bring everything together in a full illustration of the house and its surroundings ✏️

You’ll find my step-by-step process, base layers, and final illustration below, together with the materials I used 🥰

Tips for adding details & character

Start by drawing the details separately before adding them to your final illustration. This makes it easier to experiment without worrying about the full composition.

Focus on a few key elements instead of adding everything from the reference. A couple of plants, windows, and textures are often enough to create character.

Keep your lines a bit loose. Small imperfections can make your little homes feel more natural and lively.

Think about balance. Spread details around the house so one side doesn’t feel too heavy.

Detail study 🌸

Start by observing the reference carefully. Look for small elements like plants, textures, windows, and shapes that you can draw separately first. Don’t try to copy everything. Pick a few details you like.

Use the reference as inspiration, not as a rule. You can move elements around or leave things out to create your own composition 😊

I used the following Tombow brush pens as a base layer:

Tombow 126 (Light olive)

Tombow 133 (Chartreuse, Light Green)

Tombow 772 (Dusty rose)

Tombow 912 (Pale Cherry)

Tombow 020 (Peach)

For the second layer, I used the following Faber-Castell Pencils:

Faber-Castell 278 (Chrome Oxide Green)

Faber-Castell 226 (Alizarin Crimson)

Faber-Castell 283 (Burnt Siena)

Faber-Castell 108 (Dark Cadmium Yellow)

Full illustration

After studying the smaller details from the reference, I brought everything together into a full illustration of the house and its surroundings. I started with the basic shape of the home and then slowly added the elements we practiced, to build up the scene step by step.