Now, using your black ink pen, outline the leaves and the stem of the flower.
How to Draw Flowers Part 3: Sunflower
Hi everybody — it’s Ana! Welcome to the final installment of my floral tutorial series! Last week I showed you how to draw poppies in How to Draw Flowers Part 2. In the spirit of autumn’s imminent arrival, today I will teach you how to illustrate a sunflower. You’ll need a pencil, black pen, gold…
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I’ll admit it: I felt a bit intimidated by drawing this flower when it was requested by TPK readers via Instagram. However, the demand for a sunflower illustration tutorial was undeniable, so I put the pencil to paper and began! Let’s dive into how you, too, can create a floral masterpiece!
Supplies
- Handmade paper
- Pencil of your choice (be sure you can use it to blend!)
- Black Muji pen (size 0.38mm)
- Size 0 watercolor brush
- Gold sumi ink (or any gold watercolor)
Begin with the Center of the Sunflower
The first element of the sunflower you’ll want to start with is the center. Begin by drawing an organic, loose circle about an inch and a half in diameter with a pencil.
Next, draw a smaller circle within the first circle.
Begin adding little circles to represent the seeds in the sunflower’s center. I found that a more oblong shape gives the center the look of starburst-like seed structure.
Once the true center of the sunflower is filled with seeds, add some shading to the circle that you drew in the first step.
Add some dashed lines in the outer ring and then shade them with your finger to smudge the graphite!
Add some larger seeds extending to the outermost circle.
Pencil in some of that empty space in the center to create more shadow and depth in the center! Sunflowers have rich, dark centers; and the shaded graphite around the seeds gives us that effect.
Next trace over most — but not all! — of those seeds with your black ink pen.
Add stippling (remember, “stippling” means adding little dots with your pen) to the areas we previously shaded with pencil. This adds even more dimension to the darker areas!
Then, add some little lines extending out from the border of the larger circle for a little extra detail!
And you’ve done it! You should take a moment to congratulate yourself because the sunflower’s center is the most intricate part of the tutorial. It’s all gravy from here!
How to Draw a Sunflower
Sunflowers are cheerful, sunny and summery. These yellow blooms are sure to brighten your day, so grab your pencil, permanent marker, watercolor pencils and a brush. Let’s get started!.
Now let’s get started with the How to draw a sunflower
step by step drawing tutorial.
Draw a Sunflower Tutorial Part 1:
Scroll down to check out the complete lesson before you begin to be sure you leave enough room on your paper for the complete sunflower.
With a pencil, draw an oval with a smaller oval inside of it. In the middle of the small
oval, draw an even smaller oval. Now go over those lines with your permanent marker, making them squiggly.
Draw a Sunflower Tutorial Part 2:
Around the outside of the largest oval, start drawing petals. Don’t worry about making
them the exact same size or shape because sunflower petals can be somewhat irregular.
Draw a Sunflower Tutorial Part 3:
Go over your pencil lines with a permanent marker and then add a second and third row of petals behind the first row.
Draw a Sunflower Tutorial Part 4:
Go over your pencil lines with ink and then add a stem to your flower.
Draw a Sunflower Tutorial Part 5:
Add leaves to your stem. The leaves at this angle will appear to be a cross between
a heart and a triangle. Draw a few of these and connect them to the main stem with a
rectangular shape.
Draw a Sunflower Tutorial Part 6:
Ink your pencil lines and color your sunflower. The middle oval in the bloom is light green, the second inner oval is dark green and the outer oval has speckles of black and brown. Color the base of each petal orange and the main part of the petal yellow. Color the tops of the leaves light green and color the stem and undersides of leaves dark green.
Draw a Sunflower Tutorial Part 7:
Add shadows between the petals with purple. Add shadows on the stem and leaves with red. Using your permanent marker, make more speckles on the outer oval of the bloom center. Color your background with the colors of your choice.
Draw a Sunflower Tutorial Part 8:
Dip your brush in clear water and blend your colors. Do touch ups with your permanent
marker once dry.
Congratulations you have finished this online art lesson,
“How to draw a Sunflower!”
Please leave a comment below to let Starr Weems know how you liked her sunflower drawing lesson!
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