Botanical Sketching: Draw a Poppy with Alcohol Markers

1. Trailer: Ready to master the Art of Flower Illustration. Welcome to my new Skillshare class article, catch and Draw a Poppy with alcohol markers. If you ever felt intimidated by complex flowers, this class is your solution. I've designed this as a real time process, meaning you won't just watch me draw. You will draw along with me step by step from the very first pencil sketch to final highlight. Together, we will explore how to simplify the flower structure into basic shapes, building rich depths and saturation through precise color layering, and finally, adding texture and fine details that make your puppy truly pop. Marqui art is stylish, bold and incredibly satisfying and by the end of this lesson, you will have both a beautiful piece of art and the confidence to tackle any floral subject on your own. Grab your materials and let's start drawing together. 2. Class Project: As a class project, I suggest to you to draw a poppy flower. Feel free to use the reference I've prepared for you in the project and resources section. And of course, you can use your own photographs, find some nice pictures on Pinterest or somewhere in the Internet, or just draw from real flower. And don't forget to share your sketches in the project section. I can't wait to see what you come up with. 3. Flower Anathomy: To draw a poppy, we first need to understand how it is basically structured. Let's start by looking at the reference. I chose this photo so that we can get a basic understanding of the shape of the flower because when I draw, I won't be strictly following the reference. Basically, the poppy consists of an ellipse like this, and at the bottom, there is also a small ellipse and they're connected. You can see the shape of the ellipse in this photo too. Here it is. This photo I took to show you the shape of the poppy leaves because I want to add a leaf to my sketch. So it's time to start. 4. Pencil Sketch: So we start to draw our poppy. I outline this ellipse on the top. It's quite open like this, and now I outline the ellipse that's at the base of the flower. It's more closed. And now I connect these two ellipse. Like this. I draw the stem This is where the center of the flower is going to be. And now I start forming the pitiles around it. They also kind of l in the shape of the flower itself. Notice that pitiles don't have an even edge. Again, we don't drive to 100% repeat the reference. We just do sketching and having fun here. Also, I press hard on the pencil so that you can see better. You, of course, don't do so. And we are continuing to forming our ptails here. And I think I want to make the center of the flower a little bit lower. Something like this. Now it's better. And now we can add a leaf to the stem of our poppy. I'm roughly guided by the shape of the leaves from the photo which I showed you in the beginning. But in general, I just draw it from my head. Okay, now I like it. And I think we can add a bit more details to the middle of the flour. And now I'm going to remove the top layer of the pencil and outline my flower with a thin liner. Do. Yeah. Okay, here it is. And now I'm going to remove all the leftover pencil. And we are ready to start working with color. Seeing the next part. 5. Coloring: Welcome back, and it's time to start working with color. I chose this orange shade Y four as a color for under layer, and I will cover the whole surface of the pitails with it. And notice that I put strokes on the shape of the pitails. It's very, very important. Oh ready. And here we start to deepen the tone. I take my wife five, which is already such a red shade and I add it with strokes from the base of the pitail. I don't paint with this color completely the pitail that are in the light. The light goes on the top left here. So this part on the right below is in the shadow. And here I will let more of this shade, small pitails completely covered with this color. Oh And now with my lightest if four, I will mix the shades together. Mm. Mm. Now, I take an even more saturated red R 14. It's almost the same as Y five only a little bit darker. You can easily do without it and go straight to the darker reds. Here I'm working with strokes again from the base of the pitil to the top of it. Something like this. This way, we add some mod texture to our poppy flower. M Mm. Mm. Now I took a darker red three, and I continue layering red shades, those adding depth to my flower. Again, here we are working with very thin strokes, layering them from the bottom of the pitail to the top of the pitail. This technique allows us to layer color on the top of each other, resulting in a more realistic texture. We can add this shade on the edges of the pitail somewhere to draw their details with it. Mom. Mom. Mm. That's it. Our poppy has already become more voluminous. Now I take even darker red again or two and carefully add it with the same strokes. This is how we show the texture.'s I think we can even add this more dark wine shade from Touch prand or two and add it in the darkest places to strengthen the texture even more. And you can safely add this dark shade near the center of the flower because it is almost always darker there. Now I take my R 14 again and use it to mix the colors a little bit. But I'm also blending with stroke, so don't lose the texture. That's Here we go. For now, let's leave the pitiles at there and move to the center. For it, I'll take GY four and cover these small things with it. I don't know how exactly these things are named. Maybe this is seeds or something. I'm not sure. Now I'll take black and start putting these dots on side. That's how we form the center of the flower. I think I add them even more that on the reference, I like the contrast that they give. Right now, you probably can see what I'm doing very well because of my hand. But I just adding these black dots to the very center of the flower, filling them in completely to form this core. I think I might add a picture below so you can see what the final result should look like. But anyway, when I take my hand away, it will be visible. Okay, here it is. Now we move on to the stem. I've chosen GY five as a color under layer and I paint the stem and the leaf completely with it. Now I take a darker green GY eight and start adding it to the shadow parts. Also I'm planning showing the veins with it, too. Now, to an ever darker shade of green GY 42, and I deepen with it the shadows areas even more. O. I take my darkest green GY 43 and add texture even more with it. Here I work with dots on the stem, as you can see. And here I deep in the Vend a bit more. Here it is. And now with my GY eight, I will mix the shades a little bit. And again, I do it with the strokes, too. And now I'm going to use my GI five to work on the texture a little bit more. So our stomach is almost ready, and now I want to take my two again and work a little bit more on the texture of the pitails because the markers have dried and become much lighter. Again, I'm working with these light strokes. O. So our poppy is almost ready. Now it's time to polish it a little bit. See you in the next part. 6. Finishing Touches: Welcome back. Our poppy is almost ready, and now we can finalize it a little bit and add the tails with white pencil and white gel pen. I take a white pencil and with the same strokes, I added in the light parts of the ptailsbluring, as usual with my finger. You can do it with a soft eraser or with a piece of soft paper. These parts on the reference are very light, and here we can add white very bravely. Again, I continue to work with strokes. Also, let's set a white pencil on the stem and on the leaf too. Now let's set a bit of illustrativeness to our sketch with a white gel pen. If somewhere the marker runs out of the outline, you can correct it a little bit with a white gel pen. Also, we can add a white pen around the outline of the pitails Somewhere we can also add some strokes, but carefully, it is important not to overdo with it. Here in the very middle, we add dots, and also we can add the same dots on the pitil somewhere. And we can do the same on the stem and on the leaf too. Here it is. Now I want to take my GI five and add some textures with dots right here on the green part of the center. And a little more white pencil on the stem. If suddenly you think that somewhere white is too much, you can always cover it with a red shade. So we did it. Our poppy illustration is ready. 7. Final Thoughts: Well, congratulations. You've made it to the end. Our poppy is ready. I hope you enjoyed the process because sketching is all about having fun, not about making it perfect, not about copying a reference one to one, but about enjoying the process and improving your drawing skills at the same time. If you enjoyed this class, I would very grateful for your positive reviews. It helps me as a teacher and also helps other students when they're chosen which class to take. Of course, see you in the next