How to Draw Nature: Structure, Gesture & Texture Explained

One of the most incredible things about drawing is how it connects us to the physical world and one of the connections that people most want to make is with nature. Today we are going to explore botanical drawing. Botanical drawing is the drawing of plants. This can include trees, flowers, moss, sticks, anything that grows Now this experience is not just for artists. If you are interested in drawing, fantastic, in the natural world. but even if you're just interested in nature, then try this project out. Explore, experiment, see what you get out of it. Botanical drawing can be profound. In order to draw something, we can't merely glance at it. We need to investigate, we need to observe deeply, and in doing so, we can often find an intimate connection with the objects that we draw. Natural botanical objects offer an incredible experience to those of us who really want to connect deeply with the natural world. So now I'd like to go over what you're going to experience in this video. First I'm going to introduce three essential botanical drawing concepts, structure, gesture and texture. Then we're going to go into some longer drawing demonstrations. Let's explore structure. Now a botanical drawing subject, just like any other subject, begins by simplifying it into its most basic shapes. So the most simple form of this tulip is going to be an ovoid. At the bottom it's more rounded and it narrows slightly toward the top. One thing I'm trying to pay attention to is the tilt or axis of this basic shape. But once we've captured the basic shapes, we need to go further. We need to understand the three-dimensional geometry that makes up our botanical subjects. To help do this, we can imagine cross contour lines. We can start them at the bottom, they curve up, straighten out a bit over the broad shaft of the ovoid, and then curve back into the top. The three-dimensional form is going to show us how the overall light and shadow patterns are going to work on the more complex subject. Now, the structure of different kinds of botanical objects can range dramatically. For example, the trunk of a tree might be a simple cylinder. Its branches, however, might be a complex collection of very small cylinders all connected together. But it is an incredibly useful concept, particularly when we get to shading botanical objects. Now, gesture drawing is usually associated with figure drawing. In figure drawing, a good gesture aims to capture the action of a pose in a simple but dynamic way. Now, just like the figure, botanical objects are living things, so I think it's completely appropriate to pull a method from figure drawing into botanical drawing. The goal with this kind of drawing is not to draw the object itself. I'm attempting to capture the direction the object is traveling. So this larger, more bulbous part of the seed pod appears to be curving downward. When I'm ready, I can use gestural lines to shape the rest of the three-dimensional form. Every part of this drawing is about dynamic curves. This is how you make drawings of objects appear to be alive. And when gesture drawing is combined with structure, the results can be stunning. Structure will help your drawings appear realistic and three-dimensional, while gesture will allow them to appear alive. Now one of the most common issues I see with drawings by beginners is they tend to use the same kind of mark making over and over in their drawings. It doesn't matter whether they're drawing a very soft flower petal or a very sharp thorn, they tend to use the same kinds of strokes. I want you to be able to use your pencil to create a wide range of textures. It will tell the viewer not only what the object looks like, but what it might feel like to the touch. But in order to make different kinds of textures, we need to learn how to use our pencil to create a wide range of different lines and marks. While holding the pencil vertically, if I make lines that go side to side horizontally, I can create thick, Soft edged lines. But if I move the pencil vertically, I tend to create thinner, sharper, hard edged lines. A line can change as it travels. So here is a calligraphic line. This kind of line starts thin and hard and then opens up and becomes softer. Here I'm grinding the pencil into the page while changing its direction. Watch the way my hand moves. I'm shifting the direction of the pencil continually as I grind it into the page. Both of these examples use thin hard lines and thicker soft lines, but they apply them in very different ways. Next I'll try a series of vertical lines. This tends to create a fuzzy or even grass-like effect. Here I'm going to switch to a different grip. I'm holding the pencil back and I'm creating a series of squiggles. I'm just exploring mark making. We can always add value to these different kinds of mark making to create another layer. There are so many different ways we can use lines and marks. What we're doing when we explore like this is developing our vocabulary. So at this point you've been introduced to structure, gesture, and texture. These three ideas are at the core of botanical drawing. Now hopefully you already have some solid fundamental drawing skills that you can add these additional concepts on top of. If for any reason you don't already have some fundamental drawing skills then I recommend checking out my drawing laboratory series. If you're completely new to drawing I recommend How to Draw a Beginner's Guide. This is an introduction to the most basic elements of drawing. So now let's head to the drawing board where I'm going to show you how to apply these concepts to one of the most popular botanical subjects, a flower. So to begin, I just want to block in these simple shapes, these basic two-dimensional shapes that make up the flower. I'm making sure that the size and placement of these basic shapes are working. And once I'm sure, then I can go back in and start to add detail. So you can see here that I'm now starting to break up these simpler shapes. I also want to start paying attention to how the petals fold. Now if you properly depict the contours, these illusions of petals starting to fold over will occur naturally. Now this flower on my left is going to be my primary focus. I'm going to let the flower on the right fade a little bit into the background. So this is a very nice gestural moment. We have the stem of this flower come up, and then it changes directions as the flower erupts. Next, I'm going to go into the center of the flowers to detail what I'm seeing there. There are these gorgeous cylindrical forms that are erupting out, and they have these dark balls at their end. So now I'm going to shift my mind over to texture and mark-making. From the center of the flower, I'm going to use soft marks that are coming out from the flower. Notice these lines are drawn quickly, and I'm using mostly the broad side of the pencil, and that gives them a softness. Now let's contrast those kinds of lines with perhaps some darker, harder lines that I can use near the stem. We can start to sense the softness of the petals and how it is different from the harder areas of the stem. Now this petal here I'm going to use a darker contour for the edge because I want to pull that petal forward to some degree. Next I'm going to go in and I'm going to darken these fuzzy balls. Now these balls appear to be made of hundreds of these smaller Circular areas. So I am going to use these small circular marks. Again, these marks are completely different from the marks we've used in other areas of this drawing. And look how much it makes them stand out. So far we've been talking a lot about texture, but I also want to talk about value. So in this drawing the light is coming from the upper left. This means that most of the shadows are going to be on the lower right. Now in addition to laying down a wash of value, I am also going to add some directional marks. These are going to help give the to petal a bit of texture while creating value at the same time. This petal is interesting because part of it is in the light and part of it is in the shadow. To create this effect, I'm going to make the texture lines down here darker. Add a little more value to this leaf and then I'm going to step back. Just like most other subjects, you're starting with basic shapes, then looking at structure, and finally adding detail, texture, and value. So hopefully this gives you a sense of the entire process of botanical drawing, from basic shapes all the way to detail, texture, and value. But because there are so many different kinds of botanical objects, I want to show you a bit more. So now I'm going to take you through three additional demonstrations. These demonstrations aren't going to be as long as the flower demonstration, but I do want to show you how to handle completely different kinds of botanical specimens. These are Devil's Claw seed pods. The flowers were all about softness and suppleness. These are all about hardness and sharpness. Now these three drawings are in different states of completion. This one is the closest to being finished. This one here is just at the beginning. I want you to note that you can still see some of my initial attempts that weren't exactly accurate, but they are fluid and gestural. One of the most notable attributes of these seed pods is their sharp, almost needle-like ends. Here I can use incredibly thin, sharp lines. I also want to be very careful with these graceful curves. Now many people will be tempted to draw incredibly slowly as they travel around these curves, but I find that a more medium pace works best. And it is okay if a line occasionally careens out of control. I think it adds some beauty and texture to the drawing. We can see that the seed pod appears to have these small dark holes. Now inside these holes, we can see the left wall of these bowl shaped depressions is in shadow, while the right side is rising up back into the light. So now I can add some value across this entire area of the seed pod. Once again, I wanted to make sure that you saw the creation of some of these textures and forms. Here we have the beginnings of a drawing of a pinecone. This drawing began with the simple egg-like shape or an ovoid. Now the other notable thing about this drawing are the lines that crisscross. If you take a look at a pinecone, all of these small spikes on them line up on these very predictable trajectories. So this is made up of two sets of lines. We have lines that travel this way, that curve over the surface, and then we have lines that travel this way. And as you're about to see, all of the smaller forms of the pine cone start to line up on these lines. And once these larger shapes and larger geometries are handled, I can feel much more confident about focusing on these smaller details and really bringing these to life. So at every step of the way, these smaller details fit so nicely in the crook of these initial geometric lines that I just showed you. In this final demonstration I wanted to show you how to draw on colored paper. Now on colored paper we need to use a dark pencil for the shadows and the light pencil for the brightest lights. This is a drawing of propeller seed pods. I'm going to start by defining the contour on the underside. I'm going to use hard edged thin strokes that start to curve. You'll note that I'm not constructing the contour in a single stroke. On this section here, closest to the center of the seed pod, I'm going to use soft edged lines made with the broader side of my pencil. These types of lines are going to help depict the shadows on these curved areas. Now you'll note that I'm also following their direction. There is a big There's a lump right here, almost like a speed bump if we were traveling this direction. So once again, we know the light is coming from the upper left. So the right side of this lump is going to be primarily in shadow. But the upper left section is getting hit by light. When I'm ready, I'm going to apply the white pencil using the overhand grip. We have this darker shadow side on the lower left and this lighter side on the upper right. We have these beautiful veins that run across the surface. Even though these veins are small, they are still going to be impacted by light and shadow. So here you can see I have drawn the lit area, but watch what happens when I add just a small amount of darker value on the underside of these veins. This gives the distinct impression that they are tube-like forms. Now of course to complete a drawing like this could take many hours and we're not going to do that here, but as far as your drawing education goes we don't need to. Once you have a sense of how to apply these principles then drawing any botanical subject becomes much more accessible. Now there is a nearly infinite number of different kinds of botanical objects we could draw, so of course in a single video I can't give you every answer to every possible botanical scenario, but my hope is that with the demos you've just seen you feel confident to go out and start drawing. As you create your drawings remember these three essential drawing principles. Structure, gesture, and texture. Those three ideas combined with whatever fundamental skills you have will take you incredibly far at capturing both the reality of botanical subjects and their beauty. This botanical drawing video that you just watched is a shortened version for YouTube. If you want the complete experience, the full demonstrations, the full project, follow the link in the description and head over to brenteviston.com and sign up for the free full length botanicals drawing course. I hope you understand how seriously I take drawing and how much I want you to be able to participate and thrive in your own drawing experiences. Well, thank you so much for spending this time with me, and I sincerely hope to see you again for other videos and possibly in other courses.