How to Draw Flowers in a Vase

Flowers in a vase is a classic drawing subject. Though it seems simplistic, it actually includes several drawing techniques that must be incorporated in the artwork to accomplish a correct and realistic rendering. The concepts used are perspective, optical illusion and overlapping. Here are tips on how to use these techniques in drawing flowers in vases.

Draw ellipses for the mouth and bottom of the vase instead of circles. Since you are not viewing the vase from directly above, the top and bottom are distorted to the eye. This perspective is drawn as an ellipse. If you are facing the vase from straight-on, the ellipse will be thinner and more stretched out than if you were looking at the vase from above.

Draw the water in the vase in the same shape as the mouth of the vase. A wider or narrower ellipse for the water will make the vase seem twisted or lopsided. The edges of the ellipse should touch each side of the vase.

The flower stems should be drawn distorted. In real life, water creates an optical illusion that makes stems look broken. You can achieve this by drawing a stem above the water and then drawing a stem that touches one side of the upper stem below the water.

Create depth by overlapping the stems of your flowers. Make the stems in the back smaller than the stems closer to the viewer. The stems should be drawn in an hourglass formation. At the mouth of the vase, splay the stems far apart. Next, bunch together toward the center of the vase and then splay outward again at the bottom of the vase.