Transcripts
1. Welcome! :D: The exciting thing about
plants is that you can easily describe their
beauty through illustrations. Their shapes and lines are
easy to understand and that makes them a perfect
subject to draw in Procreate. Hi, my name is Christine, and I'm a visual artist
and plant enthusiast. After finishing a bachelor's and master's degree
in fine arts, I have learned a lot of
illustration techniques that greatly expanded my desire
to explore many art skills. I've always enjoyed
surrounding myself with beautiful things that revive my creativity and
boost my well-being. In time, I've become very passionate about
caring for plants, and I've discovered how they
can be very beautifully captured into gorgeous
botanical illustrations. This class will show
you how to create the digital botanical
composition on your iPad using the Procreate
app and the Apple pencil. You will better understand key composition elements
like direction, weight, balance, and harmony. This will visibly influence the way you create your artwork. You will simplify your process by using only two brushes, an inking brush for drawing and the textured brush for creating smooth and sweet gradients. This class will
feel like a breeze, as all the tools and commands will be explained
before using them. By focusing on useful habits, you will transform your
creative process into a more relaxing
and easygoing one. If you want to create this
stunning botanical composition while building core skills
and good illustrating habits, let's get into the class.
2. Bird of Paradise First Leaves : For the first layer
of this illustration, we will play with
some big leaf shapes that will be visible in the background of
the composition. The bird of paradise
plant is known for its big dimension and
very exotic look. As you can see, the plant
grows from one single place, and its stems are long
and elegant and they bend very graciously down as they
get older and more mature. The overall display of the stems are in a fan
shape and usually, its flower pops out from
the top of the plant. Of course, there are many photos of this plant in a better state. But this one is particularly
interesting because of the aesthetic look created by those splits from the leaves. This gives the plant a much more
interesting structure and can be used as a
decorative element. Of course, there are
many more plants with similar features that you
can take as reference, like the peace lily that has beautiful wide and waxy leaves. Now let's get into this step and recreate these beautiful leaves. The first thing you will
need to do to start your project is to
create a new canvas. This time, you will
position it on portrait. Let's press the plus button
from the top right side of the Procreate gallery
and create a new canvas that has 4,000 by 5,000 pixels. This will give you nine
layers on which you can build your
floral composition. Now that the canvas is created, let's see the beautiful
color palette. Pressing the color circle
from the top right. This color palette consists
of two main color nuances. The blue ones for the leaves and the orange ones for
the beautiful flowers, and the one nuance of
white for the background. The two brushes used
in this class are the inking almond brush and
the textured kiwi brush. The two brushes and
the color palette can be found in the resource
page of the class. For the beginning, you will use the unknown brush
for the drawing. Let's go to the brushes
and grab the almond brush. Now, before drawing
let's transform the background color into
a much more pleasing one. Let's go to the layers and clicking on the
background color layer, you will select the cream
white from the right side. This is a much more pleasing
color to start with, which will beautifully contrast with the light nuances of blue. Now let's make sure
the first layer is selected and the size of
the brush is at maximum. Now the first layer
of this composition will be the most
lightly blue colored. But if you want to make
your drawing more visible, you can start with
the darkest one and later fill it with
the lightest color. Now you are ready
to start drawing. You will start by drawing the first frame of
the first layer. Let us go to the bottom of the canvas and draw
a horizontal line. As you can see, on the top side, there has been created a square from which
you will continue pinching off until you arrive at a more
circular white shape. Now let's grab the color from the top right side and drag
it below the line created. Let's now draw two more lines on the right and the left side, creating two more
triangle shapes and fill them with a
dark color like before. Breaking the 90 degrees angle will help them manage
the conflict between shapes and we'll focus
our attention in the circle-like shape
created in the middle. Let's now cut with
two more lines, the top left and right corners. As you can see,
the shape created in the middle is
quite irregular. Which is a good thing
because we don't want this composition to be
perfectly symmetrical. After the two corners
are filled with color, you will want to link them with one more line to create
a bridge between the two shapes and now it is time to create the shapes
of the first leaves. For this step, for the big
leaves from the background, we will use the bird
of paradise leaves, which are very
elegant and exotic with their long stems
and oval shape. You will leave from
the bottom middle with two curved lines, the one from the middle
being a bit longer. Let's now create the next stem from the right
side of the first, a bit shorter and following the same direction
as the first one. Now that the two stems are done, it is time for the two leaves. Let's start with the big one, creating an oval shape on
the left side of the stem, meeting the top of it. Make sure you close
the shapes and there are no gaps
left between lines. Now let's create the
right side of the leaf. After this, you can do the
same for the second one, making the lift a bit smaller and maybe a tiny bit thinner. Even though the shape
of them looks pretty bland and boring for the moment, don't rush to finish the
leaf from the beginning. Keep the shapes simple
so you can later add delicate and
beautiful details. After the second leaf is created and you have filled
with the same color, each of the halves, it is time for the
second pair of leaves.
3. Bird of Paradise Second Pair of Leaves: Let's take a little
break and see how we will use the
selection tool, combine with the move tool. For example, let's
say we want to pick from this layer an element like this top side of the plant and modify its shape or move
it in another place. The first thing you
will want to do is to select from the top of the
screen the Selection tool. Now you have two options
displayed on the bottom panel. Either to use the
freehand option or the automatic option
to select the element. In this case, it's easier
to use the freehand as the element is attached
to the rest of the layer. Using the free hand, you will draw with your pen, align around the element
you want to modify. When doing this, try to be careful not to
cut through the element or include in the circle
other elements of the layer. When you want to
end the selection, press on the little circle, and now the element
is ready to move. Let's pick from the
top the Move tool. As you can see on the new
panel from the bottom, the move tool is set on warp. This allows you to
play with the shape of the element however you like, in order to make it
look different from another one or to make
it smaller or bigger. Of course, if you want
to relocate the element, you can use the move tool on the uniform to move it
without changing its shape. As you can see, it's
very easy to use these tools in your
creative process. Now let's see how we can
use the selection tool to create more elements
for our composition. Let's say that we
want to have more of these flowers without
drawing each of them. The first thing you
will have to do is to click on the Selection
tool from the top. Now you can select the
flower that you want to recreate using the automatic
or the Freehand option. In this case, we will use the automatic option
to select the flower. By dragging the pencil to
the right or to the left, you will increase or decrease
the size of your selection. After the top side of our
flower is selected entirely, you will want to go
to the bottom of the panel and click the
Copy and Paste button. As you will see,
this will create a new layer from the
selection you made. Now having this layer selected, you will click on the move
through from the top. As you can see, the move
tool is set on uniform so you can now drag the flower
away from the first one. You can tilt it as
well by dragging the green button to the sides or make it
smaller or bigger, by dragging the blue ones. Click outside the
rectangle to move it where you want to place it
and after you are done, make sure you click once more on the move
tool from the top. Now, let's get back to our illustration to use
this wonderful tools. After the second leaf is created and you have filled
with the same color, each of the halves, it is time for the
second pair of leaves. For this one, you will duplicate the first
and you will use your modeling skills
to move them to the left side and make them
look much more unique. Let us go to the selection
tool from the top-left side, looking at the new panel that
has appeared on the bottom, the Freehand option should
be selected so you can hand draw around the elements
you want to duplicate. Now that the two
leaves are selected, you can go back to the panel and press the Copy and Paste
button from the bottom. Now the two pairs of leaves
are one on top of the other. Let's press the Move
button from the top. Let's press on the
Flip Horizontal button from the bottom and now
that they are flipped, you can press the uniform option and move the two leaves to the left side so they make a beautiful fan shape
with the other leaves. Now switching to
the warp option, let's play a bit with the
shape of the two leaves so they can appear different
from the first ones. Try to keep the overall
look of the leaves. The beautiful oval shape. As you can see, the two
groups of leaves have a space between them where you will later place the flower. Let's unselect the Move tool and see how our composition looks. It seems like the leaves
are occupying enough of the space and they form
a beautiful fan shape. If you are pleased with how the two pairs of
leaves are positioned, you can now go to the layers and having the layer of the
second leaves selected, you can press on the Layers and choose the merged
down option from the panel and now the two pairs of leaves are
placed on the same layer. Before moving further,
it is time to pay a little bit of attention on
the contour of the frame. Here, now you can create some beautiful shapes coming
from the smooth counter. They seem like some
rocks and grass blades. You can shape the rocks with straight edges or smooth curves. It doesn't really matter. The idea is to create a natural atmosphere
for the composition. It may seem like the plants
are placed in nature. You can take a step
back and look how you may want to improve the
look of the composition. Maybe you can add other
small details like some little flowers or
vines coming from the top. This is up to you but
keep in mind to let the composition breathe and
that make it too crowded. Now it seems like the counter of the first layer is ready
for some beautiful shadows. Before that it is time to change the color with the
lightest one so the gradient can
start from light to dark to create that
beautiful sense of depth. Let's go to the
color palette and click on the
lightest blue color. Now let's drag the color to the top side of
the canvas and on the bottom side as well and now the leaves are ready for
some delicate details.
4. Bird of Paradise Building The Details: Now let's take a little
break and see how we can create some gorgeous textures over the shape of the plant. Let's say we want to create on the bottom left
side of this flower a beautiful and delicate shadow without messing up the
contour or the background. To do that, firstly, you will want to select the
element that interests you. Let's go to the top and click
on the "Selection Tool". Now, as you can see
on the bottom panel, the Selection Tool is
already set on automatic. Let's press on the plant. In this case, we
have to drag the pen to the right to
increase the threshold. As you can see, the left side of the plant has been selected and now all you need to do is to grab the
brush from the top. In this case, we will use the Kiwi
brush for the textures. Of course, it's easier to
work with smaller brushes, so make sure you adjust
the size of your brush and the opacity by sliding up or down the two buttons
from the left side. Now just gently sliding your pen around the edge
that you want to color, you have created a
delicate shadow. After this is done, make sure you undo
the selection by pressing once more on
the tool from the top. Now you know how to
use the Selection Tool on automatic to create
volume for your shapes. Now let's get back
to our project. Now the leaves are ready
for some delicate details. For that, you will need to set apart the leaves
from the background. Let's go to the
Selection Tool and using the automatic setting, let's select the bottom
of the composition. After all the leaves
are selected, let's pick the brush so you can create some beautiful textures. The textures will have to be a bit darker than this blue color, so they can make the
leaves a bit more visible and contrasting
with the background. Now using the medium flow and the medium
size of the brush, let's start from
the first pair of leaves and create a
shadow between them. These shadows are placed in order to break
a little bit of that flat filling
of the layer that necessarily to create
volume for the leaves. You can place these texture
wherever you feel like. You can place them on rocks or grass plates
in the same manner. After the small color
adjustments are made, it is time for some delicate
details for the leaves. For that, let's grab once more the lightest blue color and using the Almond
brush once more, let's place across the leaves one line that stands for
the top of the stem. Now let's move to the
second group of leaves and create across these two
as well two more lines. As you can see, those lines
are very discreet but they offer just enough to suggest
some of the leaf anatomy. Now let's undo the
Selection Tool from the top to remove
the selection made. Once that is done, you will be able to use the eraser to create some
splits on the leaves. These splits leave
from near the stem at 45 degrees to the
outside of the leaves. You can make as
many as you want. If you wonder why these plants create these cuts in the leaves, the answer is because they prevent breaking
from the high winds. After these splits are done, the bud of paradise leaves are ready to welcome
the flowers. Let's move to the next
step and create them.
5. Bird of Paradise Flower : Now for the big and beautiful
flowers of our composition, you will continue with the
bird of paradise flower. As you can notice, this flower is very
elegant and unique. It has these beautiful
green leaf that's shelters the orange ones until the
flower is ready to bloom. Then it has a number of
petals displayed as a fan. Of course, in detail, the flower looks rather
strange and over-complicated, but it can be easily
simplified and recreated in a more
abstract form. Let's get into the step
and recreate this flower. Now that the leaves are done, you are ready to
create the bird of paradise flowers placed just in between the two leaf groups. To create the flowers, you will firstly need
to go to the layers and create a new one on
top of the other ones. Now for the flower, you will only use the
warm orange nuances from the bottom to keep the
colors clean and beautiful. But before starting
to create the flower, let's place its beautiful stem in between the two leaf groups. Let's pick the
lightest shade of blue and make sure that amoil
brush it's selected. Let's draw a vertical curve
that leaves from near the half of the leaf and goes to the bottom till
it meets the frame. Now, it is time for the flower. Because this flower needs a little bit more focus
and attention on it, you will use a bigger
variety of orange nuances, starting with the
most intense orange, this dark red orange. The flower will start from
near the top of the stem and it will go to the right horizontally with a simple oval. Let's decrease the size
of the brush and now, as for the leaves, let's create this petal and fill it with the same
color from the corner. Now let's get closer and
adjust the shape of the oval. As you can see, until now, the oval shape was very useful to describe
different natural shape, which is very nice because
if you were to think about how those plans
look in real life, they would seem much more
complicated than that. Now, it is time for
the next petal. Let's grab from
the color palette, the middle nuance of orange and now let's shade
the second oval at 45 degrees and make it twice as big the first one and now
let's fill it with color. After that, let's move even more to the left side and create the last oval shape bigger than the orange one and now
let's fill it with color. As you can see, these
three beautiful ovals are displaced as a fan. Now you can finish the
bottom of this flower with some delicate little leaflets
on the bottom of it, covering a little bit of the
yellow side of the flower. Look at the wonderful contrast created between the
blue and the yellow. You can add more of these
leaflets in order to make the flower a bit more interesting on it's bottom side. With this, the
shape of the flower is finished and now it is time for some beautiful textures to break the flat look
of the flower. For that, you will have to
use the selection tool once more and select the stem of
the flower on automatic. After this is done, you can go to the
brushes and grab the beautifully
textured Kiwi brush. As for the leaves,
you will create some delicate
textures on the top of these little leaflets to bring them a bit
more to the front. Try to use a slightly
darker color to create these details. Let's make them even
more intense so the color can hold the
flower from the top. Now that the stem is done, it is time for some textured
highlights on the flower. For that, you will
need to firstly unmake the selection of the
stem and then once more, make a selection of the
three petals of the flower. Wrapping back the brush, let's go to the color palette
and grab the brownie, orange from the bottom. Let's apply this
orange on the side of the yellow petal to suggest
a little textured shadow. Now, if you want to
create some highlights, you can use the color of the background and by lowering
the size of the brush, you can place some of these delicate highlight on
the middle of the petal. Now, let's move on
to the next petal, but this time let's use the yellow from the
bottom left side. Now, using a low flow and size, let's place this light tone
of highlight on this petal to make the flowers seem bit more bound together by
this common color. Now, let's do the same for
the most intense color petal. Applying this highlight and suggesting the round
shape of it by applying this texture just at the top and the avoid going too near
to the other petal. Take your time to make
these beautiful patches of light a little
bit more uniform and delicate so the petals seem smoother in texture
and not that rough. Let's get rid of this
cream color from the yellow petal because it
makes it look transparent. Take your time to make any more adjustments
that you feel like. In this case, it
seems like the bottom of this petal got a
little too lighted. After this is done, the flower is ready
to be multiplied. Let's deselect the selection
made of the flower. Having selected the layer of
the bird of paradise flower, you can drag it to
the left side and then press the duplicate button. Now having selected the newly created
layer with the flower, you can grab the Move
tool from the top, and now moving to the
panel from the bottom, you can press the Flip
Horizontal button from the left side. As you can see, now the
flowers still overlap. You will have to use the
Move tool on the uniform to move the entire flower
to the left and make it quite smaller than the first
so their shapes do not compete and they create a beautiful relation
between shapes. Now let's grab the flower by pressing the
green button from the top and tilt it to the left until it overlaps
one of the leaves. After the overall position
of the plant is established, it is time to play
with its shape. Let's use the Warp
tool to make it slightly more different
than the first one. You can play with its shape, maybe making the flower slightly wider and the stem
slightly curved. With this, the two bird of
paradise flowers are finished. Look at those beautiful flowers. How nicely they look
together grouped like that. Let's now go to the layers, and having selected the
layer of the second flower, you can click on it and then
press the Merge Down option. Now the two flowers are
placed together on one layer. Let's move to the next
beautiful step and recreate some amazing and elegant
Monstera leaves.
6. Monstera Leaves: For this layer of
the composition, you will create two beautiful
and big Monstera leaves. As you can see, this plan has some
very unique features. Just like the bird
of paradise plant, the Monstera leaves can grow to some very impressive dimensions, that's why it adapted to
strong winds and designed for itself these beautiful
and interesting features. The holes from the
leaves occur naturally as the plant matures
and the splits as well. When creating this leaf, try to remember these
emblematic features. They can be done in a very simple way and don't
forget that these leaves are held by some very
strong and trusty stems that emerge from the plant. Now let's go into the step and create two beauties
of this kind. Let's begin this
wonderful step by creating a new layer on
top of the other ones. As before, you will firstly use a darker shade of blue to create the main
shapes of this layer. Let's grab the darker
shade of blue. Now let's go to the
brushes to make sure the inking almond
brush is selected. After this, let's move to the
bottom of the composition and create another layer
of this beautiful frame, still letting some of
the ones from before, visible on the top. As you can remember, you can add small
details like rocks and little grass blades to enhance the natural look
of the composition. You can make smaller
or bigger details. It doesn't really matter, but make sure you group them in small numbers to not overcrowd the bottom of the
illustration and make it look much more airy and fluent. Now let's move to
the top as well and recreate that
frame from before, cutting the corners at different angles to let some of the color from before,
still visible. Let's add one more
cut on the top and another one just pinching a little bit of that
edge of the canvas. You can take your
time and add more of these details until you
feel like the frame is ready for the
beautiful Monstera leaves or any other leaf you
choose for this step. After these details,
you are ready for the first leaf that you
will later get to multiply. Let's start from the middle of the composition and move to the top right side at
almost 45 degrees. A beautiful and big leaf, formed as before by
two curved lines. As you can see, it covers just a little bit of the
leaf from underneath, but mainly it covers a big part of the blank space from the
bottom of the background. Notice how the leaf
is still following the fan position of the
leaves from the first layer. Now before getting further
integrating more leaves, let's add more details on
this one so let's go to the color palette and grab the most light color
from the left. After that, you can use the selection tool on
automatic to select the leaf. Now, let's create a beautiful
line across its middle, starting from the
top and going down. Make sure your hand, stands in a comfortable
position when creating these lines in order to make
them cursive and elegant. After adding the middle line, you can as well add
more on the sides, but don't overdo it. Now, let's create some
light on this layer as well using the same light color
neurons from the first layer. Let's go to the brushes and grab the kiwi brush
from textures. Using a low opacity
and a smaller size, you will apply some
of these color on the top side of this leaf. Try to leave some of the
darker color from before, on the bottom side of the leaf. By borrowing the colors
from around the leaf, you will integrate this one into the composition and create a connection with the
rest of the elements. Now let's create some splits on the sides of
this leaf as well. As you know, Monstera leaves are particularly
famous for the splits. That's why they are sometimes
called Swiss cheese plants. You can make these splits
as big as you want. As you may see, you can create this split from just one stroke by
pressing lightly at the beginning and
then progressively pressing harder as you
reach the edge of the leaf. After you have finished creating the splits on the
sides of this leaf, you can prepare to create the second leaf with
the help of the first. Let's firstly use the
selection tool on freehand to grab only the
leaf from this layer, avoiding to grab
any grass plates or other elements
from this layer. At the end of the selection, press the white button
to finish the selection. Now to create the second leaf, you will want to press the
copy and paste button from the bottom middle
of the panel to create this leaf on a new layer. Now, you will want to use
the move tool to move the second leaf from
the top of the first. Let's press the flip
horizontal button. Of course, this is not the place where we want these
leaves to space so let's press the
uniform option from the bottom to move the
leaf to the left side. As you can see, all the leaves are directed to the top so it's time
for a little change. You will incline this
leaf to the left to disrupt that dynamic
just a little bit. Now because these two leaves
are too much the same, you will want to
use the warp option from the bottom panel
to distort its shape, maybe making the sides
of the leaf wider. Now let's use once more the uniform option to
make the leaf smaller. With this, the two Monstera
leaves are finished. Surely you've done a better job creating these leaves
like in real life. Now you will want to
go to the layers and having the layer of the
second leaf selected, you will want to press
on it and select the merge down option from
the bottom of the panel. This will bring together the
two leaves on one layer. Now to create the two stems
for the beautiful leaves, let's grab the inking
almond brush and drag to beautiful stems going to the bottom middle
of the frame. With this, you have finished creating the two
Monstera leaves. Take your time to make any more corrections
before moving to the next step and create the flower for this
beautiful layer.
7. Monstera Flower : Now you could say, well, this is an unusual flower. Yes, it's not a Monstera flower, it's a Flamingo Flower, better known as the
painter's palette flower. This flower is
very easy to read. It has a long and
vertical spadix that is surrounded by a spathe. These flowers usually
have stunning colors and some of them are very well-known
for their alien look. As you may remember, the peace lily mentioned previously has a very
similar flower look. But the spathe is
rather soft and silky. Now let's go into the step and recreate this very
special-looking flower. Now that the two monstera
leaves are done, it is time for the beautiful Monstera flower of this layer. For the beginning, you will
want to bring the layer to the color that is
needed for this layer. Let's select the second color
from the color palette, and before everything else, let's alpha lock the
layer so you can separate the empty space from the
field with color space. Now let's make sure
the light color doesn't get into the two leaves, by tracing a straight line
on the bottom of them. Now you can drop the
light-blue color on the top, and the bottom
side of the frame. Now, as you can see, a grass blade permits the color to reach
the top of the leaf. Let's get closer to that tip, and correct with color, the bottom side of
the leaf by grabbing the darker blue and filling
back the bottom of the leaf. These kinds of accidents happen and in a way they
are inevitable. Mistakes are very good
as they show us from where we can start
improving our skills. Let's get this leaf nice
and dark on the bottom. Of course, this could have been done with a lower
flow of the texture, kiwi brush as well. Maybe it will have
looked even better. Now you will want
to fade that line between the two colors from
the bottom of the leaves. Let's select the
textured kiwi brush and the light color of this
layer, the second blue. Now, let's go up on the tilt
stands until all that line disappears and there
has been created a smoother transition
between the colors. After this is done, you are ready to create the
beautiful Monstera flower. You will need to go to the brushes and select
the almond brush. After that, in order to be able to draw on the layer freely, you will need to click once more on the layer
of the last leaves, and you will want to
undo the alpha lock. Now, let's create a
beautiful and simple stem between the two leaves. As you can see, the bird
of paradise flowers, are somehow placed on
the top left side. This flower will stand closer to the bottom right side so it can beautifully create balance
for this composition. Now, is the time for the flower. Let's go to the layers and add one more layer for this flower. Of course, the colors
you will use are the warm neurons colors from the bottom of
the color palette. Let's pick the
lightest orange color, this beautiful yellow. To create the main
shape of the flower, it is better to take
a bit of distance to have more control over the
shape you are creating. Take your time to find the
right shape for your flower. Don't rush the process. If you don't like
the shape of it, just pause this step and
make it as you please. Let's make this shape a
bit wider on the bottom, and add a little more
to the thickness so we can create a beautiful entrance
into the middle of it. After the yellow
outside is done, you will create the inside
part of the flower. Before everything else, you will need to use
the selection tool on automatic to make a
selection of the flower. Now let's grab the third nuance
of orange from the left, and using the almond
brush, of course, you will fill the middle of
the flower with this color living two yellow edges on each of the margins
of the flower. Take your time to make
any more adjustments, making the contours from
between the colors smooth. Now, is the time for the last
element for this flower, the fruit from the middle. For that, you will
need to choose the darkest nuance of orange. Now, let's move to
the top of the stem, and make it a tiny bit
longer so you can add on top of it something that
looks like a corndog, and with this, the main shapes
of the flower are done. Now, like for the
flowers from before, you will need to add some beautiful and
delicate textures. Let's start by unmaking the
selection of the flower and making another selection of
the corndog from the middle. Of course, let's not forget
to go to the brushes and select the textured kiwi
brush and from the colors, the lightest shade of yellow. Now you can start
applying these textures on the top-left side
of the oval shape, gradually fading the color as you move further
from the top-left side. The contrast between
the red from the bottom and the
light texture from the top will very delicately create volume for
this needle shape. Now it's time for the
second textured color, this time creating shadow. This shadow will be placed in
the back of the oval shape. Let's unmake the selection of the oval shape
from the middle and make a selection of the
orange shape from around it. Now going to the color palette, you will want to pick the most intense orange color
from the middle. You will want to apply
it on the top side of the shape so it can create a beautiful contrast
with the yellow, which will also look much
more bright and luminous. Of course, you can take a step further and grab
the darkest nuance. Lowering the size of the brush, let's add this
texture just on top. Don't go too low with it. This will create a great
focal point for the eye. The contrast between the light yellow and the dark orange. With this, the beautiful
Monstera flower is finished as well. Let's finish this step
by going to the layers, press on this layer, and select from the panel
merge down so you can now have just two layers and plenty
of space for more others. Now, is the time to move to another layer and a
smaller leaf size.
8. Small Leaves and Flower Buds: For the next layer, our subject does not
actually exist in nature, but it's a hybrid between different plant
shapes seen before. In this case, the leaves of Zanzibar gem also
known as ZZ plant. The elongated and fixed
stem specked with beautiful and sharp
leaves on each side of it are very decorative
and beautiful. It's so inspiring to see such
a great variety in nature. Now as you can see, these leaves point outward
from near the stem, having almost no petiole. At the end, the leaf
has a short pointed tip and the middle vein is quite
visible and pronounced. Another feature is that the distance between
each of the leaf is the same and they mirror each other on the other
side of the stem. Now you don't have to make
this plant like in the image. You can play with the
shape of its stem to maybe make it more
fluid or interesting, or you want to make
the leaves longer, but make sure that the plants
leave from the same spot in a fan shape and maybe make the ones from the
sides quite smaller. For the flower buds, let's look at these small
bundles of cuteness. As you can notice, we have a strong and thick stem, just like our reference
plant has and some thick petioles with some
round buds on their ends. Unlike the leaves,
the flowers are of different sizes and
distance between them. They will bring a more organic
and fun look to the plant. As you can see, the
buds are very cute because they have a
round and nice shape, but they don't stand
out because of that but the color
nuances found on them. On the left side of
each flower bud, there is a strong
light followed by a middle-intensity
color and then a dark contrasting
color on the right. We will apply this color play in our illustration to make it more interesting and decorative. Now let's get into
the step and create this beautiful imaginary plant. In this step, we will move
to another type of plant, leaf shape, and size. As you will see,
you don't have to perfectly describe
a type of plant, but rather following the way
nature is creating itself, get inspired, and make your own. Let's start this
step by creating a beautiful and long stem with many elegant small leaves
and small flower buds. The first thing you will
want to do is to go to the layers and add one more layer on top
of the other ones. After that, let's make sure
the inking Amon brush is selected as this brush is very useful and beautiful
for drawing. Then you can go to the
color palette and pick the next neons of
blue, the third one. Now you're ready to
create the stem. This stem with the small leaves will be found in multiple places in the illustration
and will help bind even better
the composition. Let's firstly create
the frame for these layers starting
from the bottom. As before, let's start cutting the corners and filling
the shape created. Let's cut this bottom as well, making the bottom layers
look less symmetrical. Now you can start to add small details like
stones and grass blades. If you've used other elements, repeat them in
this step as well. When doing this, try to not
cover the ones made before. This time you will make the grass blades quite
smaller than before. It seems like the
right side is done. Let's move to the left and
cut this corner made with the composition so it doesn't
attract too much attention. Now let's go over and
add small details. Look how beautifully those
layers blend together. A couple of more details
on the right side as well. Now let's raise the
frame a bit once more, adding one more rock-like shape in this layer and
fill a shape created. As you can see,
there has been made the beautiful rhythm
of rocky bumps and grass blades that greatly
decorate the bottom of the composition while keeping
it quite simple to do. Now let's move to the
top of the composition and add a little bit
of frame here as well. Starting from the left side, let's cut some of this side to narrow down the frame
and fill the shape. Try to not cover the interesting angles created between the layers
from underneath, and change that angle used previously to avoid a
visible repetition. Now let's cut the right
side as well to make the walls of our composition
seem a bit higher. Now, this frame is ready for this layer of foliage as well. You want to place this first stem in a place
where it can stand out. In this case, it will
look perfectly on the top left side
descending to the middle. Try to give the stem a
nice and relaxed curve so it doesn't look like a stick
coming out of the ground. Now starting from the
top middle of the stem, you will create the first set of small leaflets coming
perpendicularly from the stem. This leaf shape is not
very different from the others but it's
considerably smaller. Let's create one
more leaf on top and then mirror the two
leaves on the right side of the stem filling the
shape by dragging the color from the corner
inside the leaf shape. The next coming pair of leaves will be smaller than the first in order to create a beautiful arrow
shape for the plants. You can as well change the angle of the
leaf and place them at 45-degree angle to make
them look more dynamic. Of course, you may want to add smaller leaves going down from the middle of the stem if you like to make the plant
look much more rich. Now, for these type of leaves, the proper size of flowers would be much smaller and delicate. Let's create some small petioles leaving from the top of the
stem going to the sides. With this, you have
finished creating the shape of this plant as well. Now is the time to play with some light and dark textures. For that once again, you will want to make sure the textures will be
applied only on the plant. You will first need to go to
the layers and alpha lock this layer by pressing on it
and selecting the option. Now you're ready to create some beautiful blue nuances on the stem and the
leaves of this plant. Let's start by going
to the color palette and picking up the
lightest shade of blue. Of course, let's not forget to pick the texture
to give the brush. With this light nuance of blue, you will hover over the ends of the leaves in order to make those tips look a bit softer and much, much more delicate. Just a little bit
of this texture is enough to reduce the
feeling of spikiness. Of course, let's move
over the right side as well to make those
ends much more soft. Now for the stem, you will want to pick the
second blue from the right. Not the darkest as it
looks a bit too harsh. Now let's make the base of the leaves and the
stem a tiny bit darker than the rest of the plant so it don't
look so fragile. You can go towards the
bottom of the stem as well to make it seem
even more sturdy. After you are done applying this delicate textured shadow over the middle of the stem, grab once more the inking on
one brush for the drawing, and the lightest nuance of
blue from the color palette. Now let's create a simple
line across each leaf. Keep in mind that in order to have cursive and
easy flowing lines, your hand must sit in a
comfortable position. You don't want to make
these details too obvious, make them rather
delicate and subtle. After these elements of
design are finished, your plant is ready for
some delicate flower buds. You will need to make some
preparations for that. The first thing you will
want to do is to go to the layers and clicking
on the selected layer, you will want to
deactivate the alpha lock. After that, you
are free to create the flower buds at
the end of the stem. Let's go to the
color palette and pick the yellow
from the left side. Now, it's time for
a new flower shape. This time, you will play with some simple circles
of different sizes. Again, you can create your
own design for the flowers. You can give your plants many
other interesting looks. But for this time, let's take this on
simple circles. As you can see,
they vary in size. Two are a bit
bigger at the base, two are smaller next to them. Of course, try not to make
them perfectly round. They look much more interesting when they
have a peculiar look. Let's make sure all of these little circles are
nice and full of color. Look at how beautiful
they look together with the smaller leaves on this
long and elegant stem. Now, of course, the flowers look
rather flat right now. You will use the
selection tool on automatic to select
each of the flowers. After each flower
bud is selected, you have to pick up the
brush and of course, change the color to another one. Let's pick this bright
orange from the middle. Now using the Amon brush, you will color with this
orange about half of the circle so it looks like
a shadow or a bottom leaf. This is not too complicated, but make sure you color them
one by one and not move the color from one to another
so it don't look messy. Now the final touch
for these flowers. Let's grab the darkest
shade of orange, and apply this color on the
opposite side of the orange. Now, it looks like the
yellow flower bud sits nice and it's now between
two bottom petals. Let's climb higher. Enter the same for
the next flowers being careful not to
color the wrong buds. This look of the buds
may seem a bit too geometrical for the main
look of the illustration, but a little bit of sharpness
will not ruin the look of these flowers as
these flowers are actually quite small
compared to the other ones. Let's undo this action
made on the flowers, and now let's go into
the next step to make this layer in no time much
more rich and decorative.
9. More is Better: This step is super
simple and rewarding, so let's get into it. The first thing you will
want to do is make sure the layer with the last
plant is selected. Now as before, you will use the selection
toolset on free hand to draw around the plant you want to duplicate
a beautiful line. Be careful not to cut the
plant you want to duplicate, and at the end, press the dot from
where you started. Now going back to
the bottom panel, let's press the "Copy and
Paste" button from the bottom. Now, as you can see, the new plant is placed on a new layer on top
of the first one. You will now want to position the second one in another place. Let's use the Move tool and flip horizontally the
layer by pressing the button from the
bottom and move it to the left side where
this plant is missing. After that, Let's
change the Warp tool to play with its shape and make
it different from the first. Click in the inside part
of the square to drag different parts of the
plant in another direction. Of course, don't let it
cover elements you find pretty like the bird of
paradise flower from the back. Now, you will create
the third plant, and it's going to be even easier than the
first duplication. For this, let us go
to the layers and having selected the layer
of the second plant, slide the layer to the left and press the duplicate
button revealed. There you go, another
beautiful plant to play with. Let's use the Move tool
on this one as well. Flip it horizontal once more, and now let's press
the uniform option so you can safely drag it
underneath the first one. Let's make sure the two
plants don't overlay. Now, you will use the Work tool to reposition the bottom end of the stem more to
the right so it may seem like they emerge
from the same spot. Now, let's drag the flower
more to the bottom and try to drag it away from the first
so it can seem smaller, and that covers so much
those beautiful splits of the Monstera leaf. With this, the third layer of the illustration is finished. Before moving to the last layer, let's make sure our layers
are beautifully organized. Let's go to the layers and
starting from the last plant, click on this layer and press the "Merge Down" button from
the bottom of the panel. Now, do it once more to have all the free
plants on one layer. It seems like the
bottom of the frame. Let's a little bit
of retouching. Let's grab the
color of the frame. This beautiful intense
blue end color over those beautiful dark stems. After this, you have finished another beautiful milestone of this gorgeous illustration. Let's move further to introduce some deeper, darker
blue nuances.
10. Heart Shape Leaves: For the last layer
of our illustration, we will choose some lovely heart-shaped leaves
as reference, as they can bring a
sense of diversity in shape and size for
our composition. Of course, you can
take as reference your own plant images to
represent your favorites. As you can see in this photo, the shape of these leaves are
very full and delightful. The shape can vary
from being almost round with some radiant
veins leaving from the middle of the leaf
or it can go towards an arrow shape and have some more thin and
straight veins. Of course, these are
details that are up to you if you feel like
representing them or not. The shape of the leaves
can be enough to bring a wonderful sense of balance and weight
to the composition. Of course, if you don't feel like creating these
leaf patterns, you can always up to either play with some
textured shadows, or textured highlights
in order to integrate the clean shapes of the edges more into the whole composition. Now let's get into
this last layer and begin by creating
our beautiful frame. With this last layer, you will take further your
composition by introducing darker nuances of
blue and you will close the circle of
color intensities. Let's start this by
going to the layer and creating a new layer on
top of the other ones. Let's not forget to grab from the color palette
the darkest shade of blue and make sure the inking
almond brush is selected. Now you will want to create the last frame of
this illustration. As before, make sure
you don't completely cover the interesting
gradient from the back. This layer will be the most
contrasting and visible. Make sure you give the frame
a nice and interesting look. Now let's move to the
bottom of the composition and close it by cutting
some bold shapes. As you remember from
the previous steps, an easy way of creating
a focus point in your composition is to eliminate the sharp
angles from the sides. This will let the
center of it be the one that attracts
the attention. As you can see, after getting rid of the two bottom corners, we've lifted the
level of the soil. Now, as for the other layers, let's add some small details on the bottom of
this frame as well. Let's add a small rock shape
right over that angle. Don't forget about
the small details you used before and make them smaller so they don't overlap too much with the
ones from the background. As you can see, these details
are very easy to make, but they really add up to the density and depth
of the composition. It's really not so much
about how complex the shapes are or how much work
you've put in the details. After the frame of this
last layer is finished, it is time for some gorgeous
middle-sized leaves that will be placed on the lower side of the
composition and will bring a bit more weight
to the whole image. First of all, you will
add one more layer to the illustration so you can then duplicate the
layer of the leaf. Let's start from one side of the composition with a
beautiful heart-shaped leaf. As you can see, its shape is
somewhere between the size of the Monstera leaf and the small leaves from
the previous step. After creating this heart shape, let's fill it and adjust
its shape so it can look a bit more like
a regular leaf. Of course, if you choose
another leaf shape, try to keep its size different
from the other ones. If you'd like the shape
you've created but you feel like it doesn't
have the right size, this is the perfect moment
to use the Move tool on the uniform to make it larger
or smaller if you want. As you can see right now, the leaf has the same angle
as the leaf from underneath. Let's lift the bit, the tip of this one in
order to change its angle. The majority of the leaf tips created previously
are placed upward. These leaves will
beautifully create a radiant look for the bottom
of the composition as well. Now, as for the other leaves, this one needs a little
bit of detailing. As you may remember, you can use the Selection
tool on Automatic to select only the leaf in order to create the
features of this leaf. After the selection is done, let's now go to the
color palette and grab a color nuance lighter
than this one. Don't go too light
with this one so you don't create too much
contrast between colors, thus breaking the
shape of the leaf. You can add those side's line created for the
leaves from before, but trying not to add
too many details. Now it's time for a little bit of light on this delicate leaf. Let's go to the brushes and pick the textured
[inaudible] brush. Using the same couple of
brushes for your illustration really brings a
beautiful feeling of unity between the elements. Now with this lighter shade of blue and a slightly lower size, let's go over the top of the leaf and over the
right middle of the leaf. As you can see now
the leaf looks much more integrated into
the composition. It's time for the
next beautiful leaf. Let's go to the layers. Having selected the
layer of the leaf, slide it to the left to reveal the buttons and then
press "Duplicate". Now as before, there has been created the second
heart-shaped leaf. Let's use the Move tool to move it from the top
of the first one. As you can see, now the moving
tool is set on uniform. You can use the
green button from the top of the leaf to tilt it down and make it quite smaller so it can look
different than the first. Of course, you can
use the Warp tool as well to modify it's shape. Now having selected the last
layer with a small leaf, let's go to the Selection tool and press "Copy and
Paste" from the bottom. As you may remember,
by doing this, a new leaf is created
on a new layer. Now, you will use the Move tool to grab this leaf and flip it horizontal to move
it to the right having the uniform
option selected. Because you are moving to the right side of
the composition, it is best to change the
direction of the leaf. By doing this, the perspective
will be much more obvious. You can choose to make the
leaves smaller or bigger. But to create some diversity, be sure to use the
Move tool on warp as well in order to change
the shape of the leaf. For the last beautiful
heart-shaped leaf, you will want to repeat the
same actions from before. Let's once more click
on the Selection tool. Now I'm going to the
bottom of the panel, click on "Copy and
Paste" button. Automatically, the
next leaf is graded. You can use the Move tool set on uniform to move with
higher on the right side. As before, you can
use the Move tool on the uniform to
change its position, its angle, and size. Then using the Warp tool, you can bring a stronger
note of personality by dragging its edges in
directions you desire. With this, the last layer
of foliage is done, and your composition
is almost finished. Before moving to the last step, let's go to the layer
to bring together on one layer all these
beautiful leaves. Let's start from the top
and click on each layer. Select the Merge Down
option from the panel. Keep repeating this process until all the leaves
are on the same layer. Now let's go into
the next step to connect these gorgeous leaves
with a frame of this layer.
11. Final Details : This step is very easy
to do and will be very important as it will bring together the entire composition. For this, let's select
from the color palette, the beautiful dark blue used
previously for this layer. Now, as for the other
beautiful leaves, let's create some
simple petioles. You will live with a curved line from
between each side of the leaf and go down until you reach the
bottom of the frame. Let's do the same for
the one from the right, crossing over the leaf
from the left side. Now, let's do the same for the leaves from
the other side. Now, as you can see, the composition feels a bit empty and unprotected
on the bottom. This is why here you will place some thick and beautiful
curved grass blades. Try not to rush this process, create each grasp
leap carefully, making the ones from the
left inclined to the left. The ones from the
middle going upward, and the ones from the right
curved to the right as well. At the end, if you feel like
you can place here and there some small glass plates with unique pathways and directions. With this, you have
successfully finished creating this unique
botanical composition. Thank you so much for taking this class and creating
this illustration. If you enjoyed
making your artwork and you find the
information useful, make sure you leave a review and share with us your experience. Thank you once more and
see you in the next class.
Cristina Handrea
