The humble dandelion is often overlooked or thought of as a nuisance to gardeners, but it is a beautiful plant to draw although, it does require a steady hand and a little patience but the results can be quite beautiful when time and dedication is allowed. When pencil drawing, ensure that your pencil is sharp, and you have selected the best pencils for the task in hand. Pencils are numbered for their different hardness of lead, for example:

 

* For dark and wide lines, it is best to use pencils such as 1B-6B as they are soft grade pencils.
* If you wish to draw fine but light lines, choose H1-H6 as these are harder led pencils.
* A HB pencil is fine for sketching purposes.

 

As with any drawing project, you need to take a good look at the subject, noting the colours, the shapes, the curves etc. For better results, have the dandelion in front of you and then begin to draw the stem, notice how it curves upwards, and follow this line onto paper with your pencil. The stem needs to be thicker than one line so you repeat the process until your stem mirrors that of the stem of a dandelion.

 

Using a soft pencil, draw a circle at the top, encasing a small piece of stem within the circle. Now begin to draw the petals as if they are extended teardrops, they should start in the centre of your circle and then reach the edge of the circle. Continue going round the circle adding new petals, noticing how some will overlap. Add some smaller petals in the middle, overlapping the petals below.

 

If you are thinking of coloring the dandelion, ensure that the top petals are darker and more vivid than the ones at the back of the flower.

 

Once the flower itself is completed, take another look at the live dandelion and note the shape of its leaves. Add those serrated green leaves to the bottom of the stem. Again if you are adding colour, take time to mix the paint so that you get an accurate shade of green.

 

Once your dandelion picture is complete, then take a step back and judge how you did. When pencil drawing, reviewing our work helps us to gain additional skills and acknowledge what we have done correctly and also those areas where we need to practice more. This process helps us to become better artists.