Flowers
Flowers are the showiest part of a botanical painting. They come in many shapes—and even more color variations than leaves. It’s easiest to break down flowers into two categories: monocotyledons and dicotyledons.
Monocotyledons
Mono is Latin for “one.” Cotyledon pertains to the part of the seed where the plant sprouts its leaves. All flowers in this category have parts in multiples of three. Leaves are usually long and narrow, with parallel venation. Common monocots are lilies, tulips, and orchids.
Dicotyledons
Di means two and, when combined with cotyledon, it means there are two parts of the seed that sprout leaves. All flowers in this category can have multiple flower parts ranging from four, five, or more. Dicot leaves have many different types of patterns, such as pinnate, venulate, or palmate. Geraniums, pansies, and roses are all examples of dicots.
Basic Flower Anatomy
A single flower starts at a stalk, the pedicel. The base of the pedicel is where all parts of the flower originate. This is called the receptacle, and the sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels all grow from it.
The sepals come first, followed by the petals, the stamens, and finally the carpels. If you examine a flower in its immature stage—as a bud—you can peel off each layer of the receptacle to reveal the underlying layers.
Together, sepals and petals are called the perianth. As a group, the petals are called the corolla. The stamens are the male reproductive parts of the flower and consist of a stalk (the filament) and an anther, which holds the pollen. The carpel is the female reproductive part and consists of one or more egg cells, which are enclosed within an ovary. The outside of the carpel consists of a style, and at the end of the style is the stigma. This is the general vocabulary of the various parts; the configuration or arrangement of these parts varies from species to species.
Anatomy of a Flower
Some flowers have fused sepals and/or petals, such as daffodils. To prepare for drawing, collect several flowers of the same species. Use a craft knife to cut through the receptacle, starting at the pedicel, to see how the parts come together. I recommend starting out dissecting larger flowers. To avoid injury, always cut away from your body and not near other people.
Basic Flower Shapes
There are many shapes and sizes of flowers. The easiest way to understand them is to break them down into the basic shapes. Below is a sample of common flower shapes.
Common Flower Shapes
a. Funnelform - funnel
b. Salverform - tube
c. Campanulate - bell
d. Urceolate - urn
e. Cruciform - cross
f. Coroniform - crown
g. Alate - wing
h. Tubular - disc
i. Ligulate - ray
Once you begin to see different flower shapes, it’s important to keep in mind the angle or view-point from which you are looking. In this example, I’ve placed a tulip at three different viewpoints. The flower can be described as a basic teacup shape. As the viewpoint gets lower, the interior of the flower becomes more visible.
Flower Arrangements
Just as you have seen patterns of venation on a leaf and how leaves are arranged on a stem, flowers are arranged systematically on the plant. They can be arranged as a single flower at the end of a stalk, like a tulip, or they can be arranged in a cluster, like a lilac. Inflorescence is a general term that describes how flowers are grouped or arranged on a plant.
For my sketchbook page, I did a series of drawings and color notations in watercolor of different parts of an orchid. Orchids are zygomorphic, which means that they are bilaterally symmetrical. When drawing the flower head on, the left and right sides are mirror images of one another.
When getting ready to paint a subject, I often go to my sketchbook and draw multiple images of the same flower from bud, to slightly open, to fully open, and then dead. By recording the information at different stages, I can reconstruct the composition and decide which components I want to work with. The color notes help in remembering the colors and how to mix them later. Photographs can be used for backup, but sometimes the color is off in the photo or on a device’s screen. It’s best to make good color notes while the flower is alive and fresh.
Drawing a Composite Flower
The Asteraceae, or Compositae, family is one of the biggest and most common flower families, with approximately 23,000 species worldwide. A composite flower is actually one flower comprised of hundreds of flowers. The center of the flower is called the disc, and it’s where the disc flowers are found. The ray flowers surround the disc flowers and are often mistaken for petals. The sunflower is the most common and recognizable composite flower. No matter where you live, you should be able to find a composite flower.
It’s beneficial to draw a composite flower systematically. Because there are many components, it’s easy to get lost. To fully understand the mechanics, follow the easy steps outlined here.
Measure the inside of the disc flowers and the outside of the ray flowers, and draw two circles.
Use a permanent marker to place four dots on four ray flowers, separating the flower into four quadrants. Mark them 1, 2, 3, and 4. Draw the ray flowers in the first quadrant, counting them as you go if you want. Draw only the foreground flowers until you have gone all around the outside circle. Make sure all the flowers converge at the circle’s center.
Draw the ray flowers behind the front row, but don’t add any detail yet.
Place a piece of tracing paper over the drawing, and begin to draw the details. Now you can customize and have the ray flowers undulate, twist, and turn. Notice that the flowers turn just like the leaves you studied on pages 55-56. The disc flowers in the interior are too small to put into the preliminary drawing and will not transfer easily. Add the detail after the drawing is transferred onto good paper.
Patterns in Nature
The inside of a composite flower can be intimidating, but once you can identify the patterns, it becomes easier to replicate. Here are some examples of how to break down complicated patterns.
The easiest pattern to understand is one that starts at the base and makes its way to the center of the plant in the form of a spiral. Cacti, roses, and many other plants grow this way. The oldest growth is found at the base and, as the plant grows, the youngest growth is found in the center.
With more elements, the plant pattern becomes more complex. Breaking down simple lines and curves makes it much easier to understand and draw. The underside of a pinecone can be simplified into a pinwheel of swirls that originate from the center. This also is how the center of a composite flower works.
As the spirals turn from head-on to a side view, follow them by looking for rows that intersect and create diamond patterns, as in the side view of the pinecone.
Once the patterns are identified, the drawing can be transferred and details can be rendered. I took my simple drawing and transferred it onto good paper. Once the basic structure was transferred, I added the detail. Here is the pinecone in progress.
The Habit
A plant consists of many parts: roots, leaves, branching system, and sometimes a flower. All the parts together are referred to as the “habit.” In this illustration, I chose rudbeckia, commonly known as black-eyed Susan. I started by working with multiple stalks at varying degrees of growth. I wanted to produce a habit drawing that showed the life cycle of the plant, as well as the whole habit. The challenge was to get the whole plant and all its components into the composition. This process can be done on multiple pieces of tracing paper or in a sketchbook.
Once you have all the components you want for the composition, you can either retrace them or transfer the components onto final good drawing paper. Redraw and add more details. Work in graphite from the background to the foreground, and establish any elements that might work as an atmospheric fade. You can see my final drawing on the next page.
Look for ellipses, basic shapes, and patterns to simplify the process.
