Draw Illuminated Flowers
Illuminated flowers are the latest decorating rage. They are made from solar cells, fiber optics and LED technology and add glow to your garden after the sun sets. Drawing these luminous floral beauties will be a challenge to your drawing skills. Traditionally, you would draw flowers in daylight with light falling on the petals and casting shadows you could clearly see and draw with black charcoal or pastel. But with illuminated flowers, the light glows from the inside of the flower. To achieve the full effect of this glowing light, you will have to use a reverse drawing technique, in which you add white and colors on black paper, instead of black and colors on white paper.
Instructions
1. Create an arrangement of your illuminated flowers on a table against a wall in a darkened room except for a spotlight on your drawing paper. Design an interesting composition with varying heights and sizes of flowers, pleasing color combinations and a focal point of interest. When you are done composing, tape the 20 by 24-inch piece of black paper on the wall behind the still life to serve as the backdrop.
2. Tape the 12 by 18-inch piece of black paper to the drawing board and begin sketching in the general shapes of the floral composition you have created with the dark gray conte crayon. Vary your lines--long and slender, jagged tooth or delicate--to represent the characteristics of each flower and leaf. When you are finished drawing, these gray lines will represent the structural blueprint for adding color to your drawing.
3. Begin adding color to the leaves with the light blue and light green pastel sticks. Keep in mind as you develop the drawing that you want the illuminated flowers to be the brightest colors and tones in the drawing. So as you color in the leaves, press down gently, adding a light shade of each color. You will not need to use a black pastel (except for touch-ups), so be sure to use the black part of the paper for your shadows in the drawing, adding color around them.
4. Finish filling in the leaf shapes, stems, vase and table with various colors of your choice. Overlap pastel colors in some areas to create layered color effects. Don't cover the black part of the paper completely; you want to keep much of the darkest black so you have optimum contrast when you add the bright colors that represent the illuminated light of the flowers.
5. Look closely at the still-life now and determine where the absolute brightest lights are coming from in the illuminated flowers. Choose pastel sticks that match those bright lights. Take one of the pastel sticks and fill in the brightest spot of that color on the flower it matches, pressing down hard on the pastel stick. Let up on the pastel stick as your hand moves away from the brightest area of light on the flower in the drawing, and allow the pastel color to graduate into softer tones the farther it gets away from the brightest light. Repeat this process with each of the other colored illuminated flowers.
6. As a final touch to the drawing, take the white conte crayon and add bright highlights to the illuminated flowers to make them stand out even more. Use the black conte crayon to add black detail that may have been lost when you applied color. To soften any areas of color, use the stomp and the facial tissue to blend colors. Erase any distracting dark gray conte crayon lines that remain from your original blueprint sketch.
