How to Draw a Sunflower, Realistic Sunflower

Artist: finalprodigy / April 18, 2012
How to Draw a Sunflower, Realistic Sunflower

Step 1.


Start out by picking your materials. I used this basic charcoal set plus some erasers and blending stumps for this drawing. I used 2B. HB, and white charcoal along with a carbon pencil for sketching. I also used soft willow charcoal for light shading   

Step 2.


Start out with a very simple sketch using the carbon pencil. Use basic shapes and divisions.

Step 3.


Sketch in the center of the flower.

Step 4.


sketch in the petals one quadrant at a time.

Step 5.


Keep inching along. Don't worry yourself with details yet.

Step 6.


Your basic sketch should look something like this.

Step 7.


Roughly shade in the flower and background using soft charcoal.

Step 8.


Smooth out your background using a blending stump.

Step 9.


Smooth out the flower using a blending stump. Don't worry about perfect blending just make sure that there isn't too much loose charcoal on the paper's surface.

Step 10.


Use 2B and HB charcoal to add a layer of shading to the seed section. Use a blending stump as needed.

Step 11.


Now shade in the floret section. Use an eraser to hint at the highlights.

Step 12.


Start further defining the petals. Use a 2B charcoal on the background and HB on the petals. Use a blending stump to smooth out your shading and an eraser to add highlights.

Step 13.


Continue working your way clockwise around the flower.

Step 14.


Define the next section.

Step 15.


This finished layer should look something like this.

Step 16.


If you don't have white charcoal or just don't want to use it you can still follow along by just erasing your highlights. Start out by defining the seeds. Use 2B and HB charcoal to add definition as well.

Step 17.


Draw in the florets. There are basically tiny flowers surrounding the seed are of the sunflower. You can get as detailed as you want with them but for my sanity's sake I kept them simple.

Step 18.


Use a white charcoal stick to roughly "shade in" the petals.

Step 19.


Make sure to cover as much of the blank paper as possible.

Step 20.


Start detailing the petals. Work in the same clockwise. I use a white charcoal pencil for the highlight details and an HB pencil for the edges and shadows. Use a blending stump to soften your edges. Darken your background as you move along using 2B c   

Step 21.


Finish up your petals and add finishing details. This is just one charcoal drawing technique. I will probably learn more as I practice with this medium and discover new ways of using it. Let me know what you think!

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Artist: finalprodigy
Date Added: April 18, 2012
Steps: 21
Favorited: 20 (view)
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Tags: draw realistic animals, how to draw realistic, draw realistic, how to draw flowers
Description: Finally, after hundreds of graphite tutorials I am moving on to charcoal! I consider this starting from scratch since I have never drawn a purely charcoal drawing using a set technique. Hopefully with a bit of practice I will be able to make my charcoal tuts equal to my graphite ones. For now here's a lesson on how to draw a sunflower using charcoal.

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