Free Art For All - Geranium Planter Study in Pen and Ink

Click here for the free art tutorial

We have done a study on a single geranium flower.  This lesson will take you further into the world of geraniums by sketching a pot of geraniums first in pencil then in ink.  

Click here for the reference photo

Supplies

  1. Strathmore Sketchpad
  2. Pentel Mechnical Pencil
  3. Sakura Gelly Roll Gel pen in white
  4. Staedtler Pigment Liner Sketch Pens
  5. General kneaded eraser
  6. Fine mist water spray bottle
  7. Ziploc plastic sandwich bag
  8. Arteza Water based Real Brush Pen Set
  9. Real geranium bloom (provided in video but helpful to have your own to study)
  10. Real geranium leaf (provided in video but helpful to have your own to study)
  11. Black and white photocopy of the reference photo for a tonal study

Instructions

  1. We start by getting a black and white photo copy of our pot of geraniums.  Feel free to draw your own pot or just use my photo as your template.  When drawing a more complex item start looking for your simple shapes.  (Lines, squares, triangles, circles  for more information on this subject click here)
  2. Next comes the flower within the pot.  Once again we are doing simple shapes for the flowers and leaves.
  3. I started drawing a couple of leaves and the puff of geraniums ABOVE the pot.  Then add the ink to the very limited amount of greenery and flowers we have added.  Be careful to leave enough space between the flowers and the leaves to allow the “air” to flow through the plant.  
  4. When you have the basic planter set up with leaves and flowers done in ink you are ready to think about the “negative” space. (Lesson 18 ).  We will use the hash marks with the pen to fill in this area.  Remember hash marks does NOT mean coloring it inside the lines. 
  5. Next get your ziploc bag and your Arteza water based brush markers and apply the color.  Have fun with it but try to stay with 3 reds and 3 greens.  You might add a yellow but do not put any other colors in it.

We have now taken a simple study and expanded on it.  We might not have needed to know exactly how a geranium flower is put together because we had 6-7 of them in the pot.  But we were all more comfortable with the idea of having to draw these flowers since we had studied them last lesson.  So now get ready because we have worked up to draw the door next lesson!