Sketching Floral Subjects

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Inject some fresh excitement into your floral sketches with Suhita Shirodkar’s fun ideas for capturing this endlessly captivating subject.

Who doesn’t love to paint flowers? While a vase of blooms is a gorgeous subject, floral sketches can go far beyond still lifes and bouquets.

Your depictions of flowers can take the form of botanical studies or become a record of the seasons. They might take on a starring role in your urban sketches or offer the perfect incentive for trying out some experimental techniques. The possibilities are endless!

Capture a Lifecycle

Instead of capturing flowers only at the height of their bloom, record a flower throughout various stages. Challenge yourself to capture a range of textures in the process—from the soft, fuzzy feel of new growth to the crumpled, translucent petals of withered blooms.

A Record of Your Ever-changing Surroundings

Paint the flowering trees and plants in your neighborhood to capture the ever-changing world around you. When that nondescript tree suddenly bursts into bloom, be there with your sketchbook to record its new, showy avatar. Over time, you’ll find yourself becoming more keenly aware of the cycle of subtle changes taking place in the natural world around your own neighborhood.

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Suhita Shirodkar — Wherever they’re found—in a vase or bouquet, a formal public garden or backyard—flowers offer enough variation as a subject to keep creativity humming happily for ages.

A City in Bloom

Don’t think urban sketching and flowers go together? Think again. Flowers are a much bigger part of urban settings than you might imagine. You can sketch the places that supply flowers—whether it’s a neighborhood florist, market stand or the local grocery store—or observe them in a city garden. Add people to your sketch as they stop to smell the roses or pause to enjoy a tree in full bloom.

Experiment Wildly

Flowers are a truly fun and forgiving muse, which makes them perfect for experimentation. The next time you sketch them, try using a new medium or technique. If you always use watercolor, try rendering your subject in dry media, or put away your color and surprise yourself by creating floral art in monochrome. You might also want to bring out all those supplies you’ve been hoard- ing and try them out in floral sketches.

Inspiring Subject, Guaranteed

With so many ways to look at flowers—and myriad ways of rendering them—you can be sure this is a subject you can explore in new and different ways every time you crack open your sketchbook.

Suhita Shirodkar (sketchaway.wordpress.com) is a visual journalist and an urban sketcher. She also teaches sketching workshops around the world and online.