Art embodies limitless human imagination. Within the realm of what constitutes art, nature is an integral part. While considering nature, florals are the immediate reminiscence. Florals or flower illustrations offer so much comfort and meditative peace to the artist and the viewer.

Floral illustrations when drawn using fine-liner or micron pen can be termed fine-liner florals. Micron pens are available in black and color and in different pen-tip sizes ranging from 003 to 08 and 10. Micron pen size 003 has a very pointed and fine felt tip and is used to draw very fine and thin lines. Micron size pen 08 has a fairly thick felt tip and is used to create thick outlines with more contour definition. The varying sizes that are numbered from 005 to 05 have incremental fine tip sizes.

In this blog we give you a sneak peek into the various steps we follow to create a fine-liner floral illustration.

The Process

Before we begin to create a fine-liner floral artwork, let us understand the basic shapes and patterns that are required.

The different steps of drafting an artwork for fine-liner floral are listed below:

1. Outline the basic shape
2. Define the grooves
3. Study the patterns
4. Fix the light source
5. Inking
6. Layer elements

For ease of understanding please refer to the corresponding stage of illustration along with the text.

The first step is to create the basic shape that outlines the flower of your choice. For the sake of an example let us consider a pansy flower.

Now that we have the basic outline, we can move towards the central region or the core of the flower from where the petals arise and bloom.

Pansy flower has a small soft fold from where the petals arise.

Now we can define the individual petals. The petals can either be adjacent to each other or overlapping with one another. In order to create this overlapping feature, we can create the first layer of petals in front followed by the second layer of petals at the back. The petals that form the second layer are visible only at the top end corners and not at the base (their origin from the core is hidden from view).

The next step is to understand a flower in the 3-dimensional space and to create a closer resemblance to reality. For this we need to understand the position of the light source.

Once you have fixed the position of the light source, we can differentiate the sun-lit and brighter regions from the shadowed darker regions.

Shadowed dark regions are those where the light source cannot reach. Shadow can also be created by creases or folds on a single petal or by subjective positioning of one petal over another.

Now that we have drafted the basic outline in pencil and studied the natural patterns, we can proceed with inking.

This is where we begin to use our micron pens.

Representation of the brighter regions of the flower from the darker regions using a micron pen is extremely easy. Bright regions are depicted by open, white space without any pen markings. In order to depict the darker regions, we can use the micron pens by creating straight and curved lines.

It is advisable to use 02 to outline the florals in the beginning (petals and other elements), 003 for the core region, 005 to create the shades and patterns for the petals and 05 to create the final outline.

Florals on their own stand incomplete. To make the artwork more accommodative and natural, accessories or accompaniments are crucial. These could be 2 or more flowers arranged together with leaves, fronds and buds.

And for each element, the same steps as discussed until now hold relevant.

Voila! The complete illustration is ready! This can be used alone or on your greeting cards, as border designs and much more. Where would you like to use this? Do let us know in the comments section below!

To buy these fine-liner pens, you can use the link below:

https://www.creativehands.in/product/brustro-professional-pigment-based-fineliner-set-of-10-black/?ref=13360

Hope this blog gave you an introductory insight into creating black and white illustration using micron pens. If you have any questions or feedback on this blog, do let us know in the comments section below.

Happy Holidays!!