Classic Illustration - Drawing The Acanthus

1. Intro: Hey, I'm Bärbel Dressler, a surface pattern designer and illustration artist living in Stockholm, Sweden. In this course, we're going to take a closer look at the acanthus leaf and learn how to draw it because the acanthus is the most commonly depicted plant since the ancient Greeks and Romans and it plays a significant role in many different principles of art and design, from architecture to home decor. In this class, I'll give you the background to this popular motif and the history behind it. We'll also study some examples of how it's been depicted in architecture and art over time. We'll do some close ups to study how the acanthus leaf is built and the elements and shapes and details that make up the characteristics of this particular and stylized motif. I'll show you some ways to draw the acanthus leaf. For this, you'll get eight different drawing exercises to practice all this yourself. By the end of this course, you'll have an understanding of the acanthus leaf as a classical motif, knowledge of the acanthus leaf anatomy and its characteristics, you'll have skills and techniques for drawing the acanthus leaf and turning it into versatile and decorative motifs in a row of various angles and compositions. This will come in handy in general, when drawing other types of leaves in this stylized and decorative manner. This course is for you if you want to learn more about illustration and develop your illustration skills or your drawing skills. It's for both beginners and more seasoned artists. This is for you who also loves the vintage ornamental illustration styles and want to get the hang of how to accomplish that for your own work a bit more. It's also for you who likes a bit of art history to get a broader perspective on design and illustration than just the how to. It's for you who's a pattern designer who wants to be able to create authentic classic looks in your work. I created this course because I believe that knowing more about the acanthus leaf as the stylized motif that it is, and how to draw it, will give us the key how to create many different classical design styles. Come join me in class and let's jump right to it. 2. Welcome & Class Overview: Welcome to class. I am Bevin. I'm a surface pattern designer living in Stockholm where I run my design business, bear bell production since a few years now. I've designed patterns and prints for home textiles, for clothing, shoes, and promotional materials. In this course, you're going to learn about one of the most common motifs used in art and design throughout time. You can't just leave. At the end of this class, you're going to know how to draw intricate and twisting ending, turning, and can just leaves to incorporate in your own artwork and designs. First, I'd like to begin with some background to this course, because besides creating patterns and illustrations, another interest of mine is history, and that's probably why a lot of my work has been influenced by design from past times. When I started out in 2015, I had no pattern design experience and hardly any art education either besides a year in art school a long time ago and a row of drawing classes. I had to teach myself how to create patterns. For this skill share was a very valuable resource and especially for the technical aspect of it. But when I want to learn about a topic, I want to learn everything about it. I started educating myself about the world of patterns with the help of my favorite classical design styles like cloud visually, engine floral, piece lease, the mask [inaudible] arts and crafts, just to mention a few of the styles that I've studied so far. There is a lot on my list left for other future. This taught me so much more than I had expected from illustration and coloring techniques to how to create really advanced an intricate patterns. One of the best things is that it enabled me to combine my passion for the designing patterns and drawing and creating illustrations with my love for past times. All of this helped me find my design style as well. While studying these classic patterns and historic styles, I discovered that there are some common shapes and motifs that pop up in art and design again and again. One of these reoccurring motifs is the cactus leaf. It's been present in architecture and art and design for over 2,000 years. As the account a sleeve has been used so frequently, it must have some quality to it that really appeals to them, resonates with us. What that could be something we're going to try to explore in this course and see if we can learn from it and use it and bring it into our own work, whether it's for illustrations or patterns. This is what I will cover in this course. We'll start out with the real plant, what it really looks like and some facts about it to give you a background story. Then I'll quickly go through the history of the Acanthus motif. So you'd get an overall view of how the motif has been used since the old Greeks and Romans. Art history, the acanthus edition. We'll look at some examples where the acanthus has been used and how it's evolved over time. In motif close up, you'll get an overview of the different ways, how to depict these styles and angles and compositions. Then I will go through the anatomy of the acanthus leaf, which is really helpful when we start drawing. After that, I'll show you how to draw the acanthus leaf in some different ways. For this, I'll give you eight exercises to do along with me so that you can try them out yourself and start practicing. To finish it off, I'll give you some inspiration and suggestions to where you can use and incorporate the acanthus leaf as well. As you probably already know, all courses here on skill share, including this lump, is structured to encourage learning by doing. Another benefit of skill share is the community you get when participating and taking classes. It's about learning together and supporting and helping each other during the process that we all go through. An important part of the course is the class project. This is a fun and very nurturing way to interact with and get to know your fellow students and other creatives. With the help of the class project, you can step-by-step, go through the exercises, document your progress, discuss things you find difficult or fun or easy, and I will check in on your project, try it on and give you feedback if you'd like me to and just help you out in any way I can. The other students can see what you are working on. It's well if you post a project and visiting their projects in term may give you tips and tricks for how to solve problems you encounter or give you inspiration for how to go about a task or what to draw and commenting and supporting your fellow students and their projects is what really elevates the experience here. Also remember to include your social media handles like your Instagram name so that we can connect there as well. I suggest when you have started or finished your first exercise, you go to this section in this course page called project resource, I think, and create a new project, and you can name it anything you like. For those of you who would like to have a bit of a challenge, I will also give you a, let's call it graduation assignments. I will talk more about that at the end of this course. For this class, all you need is some paper, pencil, eraser and fine liner also or an ink pen. I can really recommend this one. It's a fine liner from micron, but it has this small and thin brush tip at the end and it will give your illustrations and really authentic vintage look. You can also use the deep ink pen if you want to go really authentic. Let's dive into the lessons now so I'll meet you in the next video. 3. The Real Acanthus: Welcome to this first lesson and in this one we're going to see what inspired this classical motif and try to understand a bit about what's so special about this specific plant. So there are some motifs throughout the history of art and design that have been really popular and used over and over again, evolving and adapting according to new trends and purposes. One example of this is the Paisley drop. Another one is the Acanthus leaf. The reasons a motif becomes popular like that can be different, of course, but in general, they have these characteristics, or at least a couple of them. The first one is that it has a specific intangible beauty to it in the shapes and the lines and details. The second is that it has a certain and easy to use quality that works well to apply for different art forms. To sculpture, to carve or paint and decorate all kinds of surfaces and objects with. The third one is that it has some symbolic meaning. Since the Acanthus doesn't have a specific symbolic meaning, not like other plants or animals can have, its popularity is based on its beauty and decorative aspects. So now I want to show you what the original plant looks like because later when we look at some art pieces and designs with the Acanthus, you're going to see that there is a bit of a difference between the real thing and the design version. Recognizing the differences between them can help you understand a bit more about how to take the essence of their original and exaggerate and enhance the most beautiful and useful aspects of it into a stylized version. There are many different species of the Acanthus plant of course, and it grows all over the world where the climate is sunny, with hot and dry summers and mild and rainy winters. A fun little fact is that the Acanthus plant is one of the earliest plants that we started cultivating. There are two species of the Acanthus that is said to have inspired the stylized designed versions and they are, the Acanthus mollis and the Acanthus spinosus. Both grow primarily in the Mediterranean regions. So it's no coincidence that it was first used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, but more on that later. The name Acanthus is Latin and derives from the Greek word for the plant, which is akanthos, which in turn is related to the Greek word akantha, which means thorn. This refers to the sepals of the flowers, that look a little bit like thorns. The Acanthus is also commonly known as bear's breeches or bear's foot. I've also heard the name sea dock used for this plant. So when we looked at the plant and the leaves, we can see that they are quite big and broad with a thick petiole and several side nerves coming from the center nerve. When we take a closer look at the edges, we can see that it's more or less prickly. I want you to keep this in mind to later on when we look at the stylized versions and how they are typically drawn. Okay, so next we're going to get a little bit of a history lesson and how it all started. So I'll see you in the next video. 4. The History Behind The Motif: In this lesson, we're going to take a look at the Acanthus leaf as an element in art throughout history. We'll begin at the very start at one of the most influential cultures and societies of the Western world. Because it was the Ancient Greeks that first started to use the Acanthus leaf as a motif. It was a favorite motif to use for adorning the columns of their buildings and temples. Later, it also became the favorite of the Romans who as with everything, copy pasted the Greek art and culture and made it their own. The columns were such an important element in the Greek and Roman architecture that they were divided into different so-called orders, which can be explained as different schools or styles or principles of design. There were five classical orders of columns. The more simplified Tuscan and Doric order, the Ionic and then we have the Corinthian and Composite orders with more embellishments. It was the Corinthian and the Composite columns that had Acanthus leaves adornments on their capitals, which is the top or the crown of the column. The oldest known example of a Corinthian column and therefore also the Acanthus leaf is in the temple of Apollo from about 450 to 420 BC. There is a legend about how the Corinthian order was invented with the Acanthus leaf, which is a story by the Roman writer Vitruvius, who lived between 75 and 15 BC. In his story, he claimed that the Corinthian column was created by a sculptor called Callimachus, who lived in the 5th century BC. The legend tells that there was this young girl from a city of Corinth who got sick and died. She had a nurse who mourned her so much that she collected all the girls toys and favorite stuff in a basket and sat on the grave and put a tile on top to protect it from the rain and the weather. But the basket was placed on an Acanthus plant, and over time the leaves grew and covered the entire basket, mixing its sleeve with a weave. One day, Callimachus, the sculptor, passed by the grave and saw the overgrown basket with the tile and the leaves and this inspired him to create the Corinthian column. So the Acanthus leaf motif first occurred as a design annulment and motif around 450 BC in Ancient Greece and then was adopted through the Corinthian and Composite columns by the Romans. The Acanthus leaf became the favorite motif of the Romans and was continuously used as decoration in the Roman architecture over the coming centuries to the end of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire around 1500. During the Middle Ages, the art was very influenced by the classical arts of the Greeks and Romans, including the use of the Acanthus leaf as decoration. You can typically spot the Acanthus leaf in wood carvings and illuminated books from this era. Another era and style that typically incorporated the Acanthus leaf its architecture and arts, was the Gothic style which flourished during the High and Late, Middle Ages. Here the Acanthus leaf was one of the two most commonly used ornamental motif. The other one was the grotesque hideous figure or face. Around the 14th century, the Middle Ages slowly turned into the period called the Renaissance, which covers the time between the 14th to the 17th century. Renaissance means rebirth and is also called the Age of Reason because this is the era when we started to adopt a more modern type of thinking when it comes to norms of humanism. During the Renaissance, the classical arts and architecture, was the main source of inspiration. Of course, the Acanthus leaf as a motif played a major role in the Renaissance art, and especially in the interior or furniture design with carved wood and in textiles for upholstery, drapes and wall coverings. The Renaissance turned into the Era of Enlightenment with the Baroque and Rococo styles and later into the Neoclassic period. All of them taking inspiration and influences from the Classical periods of the Roman and Greek. During the mid 18th century to the end of this century, we see the Acanthus leaf as an important element in the art of the [inaudible] and the arts and crafts movement who were very inspired by the medieval arts, who in turn were inspired by the classical arts. Here we have to mention William Morris of course, who is almost a symbol of using the Acanthus leaf as a motif as he used it in many of his designs. We also see the use of the Acanthus in art Nouveau and art decor arts and designs as well. All of these historical eras were directly or indirectly inspired and influenced by the classical art. Next, we're going to take a closer look at the stylized motif and how it can be depicted in different ways and styles. 5. Motif Close Up - Styles: Plant forms such as flowers, fruits, and leaves have always inspired artists and designers for their motifs. There are two main principles for depicting objects from nature. The first one is, the naturalistic principle, and the second is, the artificial or stylized version. With a naturalistic style, we create motifs where we try to imitate the object as much as possible as it looks in real life, in shape, and perhaps in color. With an artificial style, we point out the characteristics of the plant and turn them into an enhanced version where we, for example, create a better symmetry, and rhythm, and emphasize what's beautiful and turn them into something that serves our purpose, and the piece of art we're creating. Speaking on naturalistic and artificial or stylized versions of the acanthus, looking at how the acanthus leaf is depicted as a motif, we can generally divide this into two categories as well, the leaf and the scroll. The leaf is more true to the real thing, more naturalistic in its appearance compared to the scroll, which is the complete creation of imagination as the acanthus leaf doesn't have any tendrils like that in real life, it just doesn't grow like this. Earlier, I mentioned the two main species of the acanthus that's inspired the classic motif. The Acanthus mollis and the Acanthus spinosus. They have also formed and influenced two ways of how to depict the acanthus leaf. The first Greek versions of the depicted acanthus leaf were based on the looks of the Acanthus spinosus. As this is the species that grow around the Greek region, so, those ornaments had more pointed and narrower lobes and adorning buildings and temples. When the Romans adopted the motif, another style emerged inspired by the Acanthus mollis, and therefore, it got rounder, and broader, and more curvy shapes. This is probably the one that has been the greatest influence for coming art epoch, that were using the acanthus as a motif. The Byzantine Acanthus motif got a bit chunkier than the Greek and the Roman. You can see that it has been more simplified, if you like, and more stylized. It was still mostly used for adorning buildings and columns, and therefore mostly as leaves, not so much as scrolls. You can see that it even reminds a little bit of a French Lily, the Fleur-de-lis, which rolls us into the next epoch, which is the middle ages. The medieval Acanthus motif is somewhat simplified, still, especially when used in the wood carvings. Now the acanthus was often used as a motif in book illustrations as well, so called illuminations. Here we can see that it has evolved a little bit turned into longer tendrils and more elaborate scrolls. Here we can also see the use of what I call the S-lines, and with the S-lines lines, I mean, that the shapes are drawn with curving lines in S shapes like this. S-lines may have been used before as well, but from what I have found, it's in the illustrations created with pen and paper that this is starting to emerge. Then we have the Gothic Acanthus motif, which at first became more rounded with [inaudible] forms, probably influenced by the Romans style again. But later in this Gothic period, we can also see versions that became more bizarre and extreme with extra long extended tendrils that look almost like fizzles. When the Middle Ages and the Late Gothic period comes to an end, the Renaissance takes over, and now there is a significant jump in style and how it's depicted into a much more elaborate and delicate style with more detailed shapes and lines. This continues and becomes more extreme in the Baroque and especially the Rococo and Neoclassical epochs, where there's no end to the swirling, curling, and bending tendrils and scrolls. During the second half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, the art and design styles were heavily influenced by the pre-Raphaelite and the arts and crafts movement. The artists during this epoch were very influenced and inspired by the medieval arts, with styles emerging like arts and crafts, art nouveou, and also later art deco. Now the acanthus leaves style goes back a little bit, becomes a little bit more robust compared to the romantic and friendly 18th century styles. It's still quite elaborate with lots of details and long tendrils and scrolls, and here, the William Morris design acanthus really speaks for this period, I think. The Acanthus motif popularity continues into the art nouveau style, again, becoming more extreme and imaginary with a new type of details and extensions of the leaf. With the art deco style during the 20s and 30s, it goes back to a more classical and strict look again. Today, we see the use of the acanthus leaf again in all kinds of designs. It's definitely become and came into trend again, and I can see that it has a lot of influence from the arts and crafts style nowadays, which has really gotten an upsurge with reprinted and recolored William Morris patterns on wallpaper, and home textiles, to fashion. Now that we know about the different styles, how to depict an acanthus leaf, Let's take a closer look at the motif itself, and its anatomy because that's going to help us when we start to practice to draw the acanthus leaf ourselves. I'll see you for this in the next video. 6. Motif Close Up - The Acanthus Anatomy: So when we draw the Acanthus leaf and also the scroll, there are some principles that we can use to achieve that specific classical and characteristic look. It's the anatomy and the different parts that make up the acanthus motifs and that you can identify in more or less every version of a stylized acanthus. When you know about these principles and the basic anatomy, you can build on this to create your own version and create an endless row of variations. So let's start with the center vein. This is the backbone literally of the acanthus leaf, both the leaf, the scroll and every other aspect and part of the leaf is flowing from this more or less. Then we have these sections, side sections or lobes, and they in turn consists of smaller lobes with one main lobe and two or four side lobes, and the Lobes can overlap like this, where a part of one lobe is hidden behind the other. Where the lobes are overlapping, a little hole emerges at the junction between the two lobes, which is called the eye. Then there's something called a pipe, and this is mostly used when sculpting or carving an acanthus leaf in marble or wood. This is a bit of an elevation where the leaf is raised and a little bulk that goes from the eye or a junction between the two lobes, down toward the bottom of the center nerve like this. A pipe is not very often included in illustrations, but it can add some depth and dynamics if you'd like to include it. So I wanted you to be aware of this little piece of the anatomy that actually exists. Then we have the turnover, and this is where the leaf is bent, and you can see a little bit of the back of the leaf. This can be at the top of the leaf or one or more side lobes. Then we have something called a volute. It's this roller, curl that you can use to create a nice ending of the scroll or the leaf is used when it's not attached to something else like a vase or sticking out from behind another leaf or something. So when you want to end this in a pretty way. Then we have something really important when drawing an acanthus leaf or a scroll, and this is the direction of every part of the leaf or the flow, as I mentioned before. From this center nerve, the side lobes, the eye, and pipes, everything sort of starts and flows towards this point somewhere at the bottom of the leaf and center nerve. Compared to the real leaf, this is definitely an artificial part of the anatomy, and the really if the lines of nerves don't flow like this, they are more angled towards the center nerve, but this artificial and stylized way to depict it, you have this flow from the edges, down toward the bottom of the center nerve. It's really important to have this in mind when you want to achieve this characteristic look. Now I'm going to show you how to build up and draw the acanthus leaf and scroll, and for this, you're going to get a handful of exercises to practice with as well. So let's jump to the first drawing, listen and exercise in the next video. I'll see you there. 7. Drawing The Basic Leaf Part 1: Welcome to the first drawing, listen, and exercise. In this one, we're going to start from the beginning. I recommend that you first watch my steps on how to do this, to get the whole picture. Then go back to the start of this lesson and take the steps along with me, pausing in between if you need to. Let's get started. If you've seen my other courses, you know, I'm a fan of drawing some guiding lines to take bearing of the direction and also the placement on the paper of the motif we're going to draw. For this exercise we're going to draw simple basic acanthus leaves, seeing it straight on like this with no bands or curves, or turnovers. We're going to start with the direction, which is really simple. It's just straight like this. You find the middle of the paper, and this is also going to be the center nerve. Here's going to be the top of the leaf and here is going to be the bottom. Now, I'm also going to do some sketchy lines for the whole shape of the leaf, the boundaries. This is just guiding lines and these are either going to be erased later or we're going to trace over with a new piece of paper. Here is the skeleton of the acanthus leaf. Now, I'm going to show you a couple of ways how to draw the side lobes. Let's see. First, we have the top lobe, like that. Now, we can either come in and draw the center nerves on each side lobe and have them as guiding our direction, like this. I'm going to do that on this side. We're going to have 1, 2, 3, and 4 side lobes. As you see, they are evenly distributed like this. There is more or less the same space in between the different side lobe nerves. Then we go in and do some sketchy shapes of how we want the side lobes to appear and the direction on them, the shape of them. You can do like that or we can do in a different way where we go in and start defining the top side of the lobe edge. You can look at this a little bit, but see if you can just find that. Then, we have the second lobe and then we have another one coming like that, I think, and the last bottom, something like that. For this bottom, we just go in like this. Maybe we'll do a little bit of an S-shape like that, here will be the shape of the bottom lobe, and then we come in and draw the rest of the lobe like this. Now comes one of the important characteristics of the acanthus leaf, where every lobe is tucked in behind another lobe. The lobe above another one is tucked in behind the below one like this. We have this one, tucked in like this one and this one tucked in below the eye of this one. There are two ways to create the basic shapes of the lobes. Either you have the center nerves as guiding lines like this, or you start with the top side of each lobe like that. We have the top one like this. We get the same result with both strategies. We can add the nerves, on this side as well. Let's see, here is the center nerve. Let's make that a little bit more distinct. We have the eye between the two lobes, make them a little bit of long like this, and not too close to the center nerve. If you do this strategy, sketching the shape of the side lobes this way, a good way is to also make some guiding lines for where you want the eyes or the junctions, just to get some more bearing for the direction. I'm going to do a little eye here and another one in the junction between. This one is more angled because these ones are more angled, these lobes. We can do the same this side. As you cannot notice when we move along with the steps, you're probably going to adjust some of the placements of or the shape of the directions of the lobe as we go along. This one, for example, I want them to be more or less even on both sides. We're going to do really simple edges for this one. Not that much details, just to make it a bit easier at the start, like this. You can do them more narrow and pointy or wider if you want to. I like to start with the middle side lobe like that because it's going to be easier to align the rest. Remember the overlap, the one that's below overlaps the ones above it. I think this one's going to be much closer to the middle and smaller. They want the lobes to be not too wide and broad. I have the last one which is quite angled. That's nice. We want to have a little bit of variation. Then, we're going to define the center nerve, a little bit more. Here at the top, it's just thin and narrow, just a line that as it moves down toward the bottom, it widens a little bit, becomes a bit thicker there. We can also fill in the side lobe nerves as well. Make them bend like this and also create that flow door down towards the center nerve, towards the bottom. Now, I'm going to just fill in all of these lines, then we're going to do the next stack with the nerves. There's a little bit of variation here and there, which is good. I think that makes it more interesting. Now, it's time for the center nerve. Up here, it's just a thin line, then it widens as it comes closer to the bottom. Let's add some fine nerves. One thing to look out for when you do these side nerves, is to make sure that they cut and that they are aligned in the center of the bottom of each side lobes so it doesn't come too close to the bottom eye. This just going to make it a little bit weird. You might have to really make it bend. Good. We can add some more, if you want to, we're going to go into that in a coming lesson, a lot more adding details like this. That was one way to draw the basic acanthus leaf. In the next video, I'll continue this lesson and show you a second way, a second style. 8. Drawing The Basic Leaf Part 2: Now I'm going to show you a second basic acanthus leaf, this time with some more variation to the look on the edges. Let's do this as a quick repetition also for you. I'm taking my bearing with the center nerve. I'm just marking on the paper where I want the leaf to be. Now I'm going to draw it the way where I define the top of each lobe first. For this one, I'm going to make sure that I have some more space. I'm going to do this maybe a little bit closer to the center nerve because I'm going to do more side lobes on each side lobe. For the previous version, the previous exercise, I just did really simple pointy lobes like that, with just three or maybe five points. But now we're going to do sub-side lobes or something. I don't know the terminology for this, but let me show you what I mean. I'm going to do the center nerves for each lobe as well. Now we're going to do some side nerves and let's start with this one, the top one. Because we're going to do more lobes, it's going to be more detail, this one. We'll see what happens when we start creating the edges of each leaf. I'm going to start with this side and then I can go on with the next one just to show you and I'll start at the top. Now I'm not going to do them so pointy and narrow, I'm going to make them wider. Here is the center for this one, and here is the center for that one. Then I'll do this center here. Now I can see where the placement on each side lobe will be. Now every one of these nerve directions will have three points. Here's one and then we have another one like this. Here you can also create some more eyes because right here, they're overlapping a little bit, and here. Much more details for each side lobe. Then let's do that and this one as well. Going to have the second one over here, you see what I'm doing here. Here we have another eye, and here we have also another one. You can vary this much more than the previous one. You don't have to have eyes everywhere where the junctions are, you can just have these little lines just to make variations. Now I'm going to go and do this for the rest of this side and then do the rest on this one. Now I've been very symmetrical, I've done three points for each little lobe like that. We can also just do two so for this one that comes here, just do one and two. When you have done this a few times, you are going to find that you get quite imaginative and narrative, where you find variations, all kinds of variations. Which is the big fun and rewarding part of drawing the acanthus leaf. When filling in with your fine liner, you can add more details to the edges and the contours of as well. Also now remember to use those S-lines where you do most of the lines in the shape of an S. I like to start with the eye. Some more detailed contours and let's continue with the nerves. A thin line at the top, widening towards the bottom. Then we have the side nerves. See if you can align them in between the eyes and the junctions between all the little sub lobes everywhere. You have that flow down toward the center nerve and the bottom. Then you can do some more if you like it. Now we have created two versions of the basic acanthus leaf, one with a bit more simple contours and edges, with just three or five pointy side lobes, and we have done one that's a bit more detailed, more renaissance-styled with much more points and detailed edges of each side lobe. Now it's your turn to try this out and practice how to build the anatomy, of the acanthus leaf, and how to create the characteristic shapes and lines and directions of this basic leaf. If you need to go back to the beginning of this lesson, and you can do that and follow the steps alongside with me. When you've practice drawing the basic acanthus anatomy and leaf a couple of times, it's time for the next lesson. There I'll show you how to draw leafs with turnovers. Where the leaf is bent and a bit of the back is showing. Let's jump to the next video for that. 9. Drawing Turnovers Part 1: Welcome to Exercise 2. In this lesson, I'll show you how to draw turnovers, and that's when the top or at the side lobes are bend and the back of a leaf is showing a little bit. Again, you can first watch my process and then go back for reminders when you're practicing your own exercises. We're going to draw four different turnovers in this exercise. The first turnover we're going to take on is this one, where the top of the leaf is bent towards us. What you're going to do is to start drawing the leaf just like we did before. You can use this style or this style, or if you want to create some other emerged between these two or something. But you don't have to do the top as detailed. Just do the lobes up until here. Just like in a cooking show, I did a little preparation and drew these sketching lines ahead just so that you didn't have to sit and watch me sketch again the same thing. But, so I left the top without any details. I just sketched out these three bottom lobes. Then I also drew these center nerves for some of the top lobes like this as well. Now we're going to do that turnover where the top is bent toward us. For that, we're going to have this flat line where the leaf is bending over. Then, so it's going to be like this a little bit, something like that. Then we have these nerves coming up right here. Where do they go with the bend? Well, they come up like this and then they turn over and come out something like that. You can continue those nerves, those guiding lines like that, so that you can imagine how it's bending over. This central nerve is bending just straight ahead so that we won't see really. Just to make it easier for us, I'm going to erase this just to see it a little bit more clearly. Now we're going to draw the center top lobe. This one comes up something like this. Let's do some guiding lines first. This one comes up like this, like that. Then we have this one comes out like this. See what I'm getting at. Then we have some eyes, one here and one here. Now it's going to be pretty easy to sketch out these lobes. Then we do the same thing for this top side lobes, something like that. Then just erase these lines that are no longer showing. Then we have these ones left and they're not really bent. They just continue just as they would have. But, now they are not shown completely behind the top turnover. That was the first turnover exercise. In the next video, you'll learn how to create another type of turnover. I'll see you then. 10. Drawing Turnovers Part 2: For this second turnover, we're going to draw a leaf that turns over like this. It's coming up like that, and then it turns over to the side at the top. I have sketched out this skeleton just to show you the underlying anatomy and construction of this leaf. So we're going to create a center nerve that curves a little bit like an S, like that. Just slightly, not too much. Then the top curls over; turns over to the front like that. This is the center nerve and then we have the leaf. I've created this thin leaf, that's the center part of the leaf and here we have the left side of it coming up like that. As it turns over, it comes over like that, so it crosses over this center nerve. Then we have the right side of the leaf that follows along like that and then continues to the right of the center nerve again like that into the tip. Up here it creates this flat line or this roof like on the leaf. Now we can erase some of the lines that will not be visible behind the turnover leaf. This line over here. The center nerve comes up like this and then it's hidden behind the turnover element and then it shows up here at the back of the leaf again. These are just guiding lines. Now we can go ahead and sketch out the side lobes. Let's create three on each side to start with;There are some bottom ones. Since it's bent a little bit like this, they're not going to be perfectly aligned like this, but this part is going to go up a little bit, just slightly. Then we might add some more here. Actually, we're going to do that right away just to have those guiding lines. There is one that's going to go up here and end up somewhere behind the turnover and we're not going to see that. Then we have another one that goes up here somewhere like that. This is some more of that skeleton. Then we have the little eyes. Have them here somewhere. If you want to do those guiding lines as well, you can go ahead and do that. The lines will have those eyes here somewhere along that line of that skeleton. Then this one, and then, we're going to have some side of nerves coming up here as well. This can be a bit tricky. Let's say we have another lobe that's going to come up here. If the top would be straight and not turned over like that, it will be coming up like that. But as it turns over, it will continue something like that. Then we have one on the other side like this and this one, it falls along like that and then it comes up somewhere around here and turns over. That's the skeleton so far. Now let's start sketching the outlines. I'm going to do these side lobes just as we have done before. Here I have sketched out some outlines for the side lobes and up to here. I saved this part here just because I don't want to interfere with the turnover that we're going to sketch out now. The easiest thing I think is to start with the center. We'll have this tip here that with some extra details. Then we're going to have an eye over here. Then we have those side, top side, lobes. I'm going to sketch those out as well. Now we're going to see how we can connect these two parts. This one that's not turning over and this one. There would be an eye somewhere over here as well. Let's see if we can connect all of this. Then this part would come up around like that. But this is boring to just have this line like this with no details, so one thing we could do is to shorten this one, move this one up a little bit and then I would probably build it further up as well. You just have to adapt this to the other side. Then let's see if we can create some detailing here it's going to make it look a little bit more like something else is happening. Here we could have another slope like that. I think we managed to connect them both. So we have the turnover coming up like that. Then let's see if we can do some finishing of this here. Here we would have something like that underneath. Then there is this lobe coming up underneath, which is correlating to this one. But I'm just going to leave it like that perhaps I'll do a little eye that will be visible. This is how you can draw a turnover at the top that's turning over a little bit to the side. If you want to you can fill it in with a fine liner. Here is my filled in acanthus leaf with a turnover at the top to the side. The important thing to consider when drawing this type of turnover is to keep track of the nerves. As it goes down behind the turnover and all the way here. It's easy to confuse these side lobe nerves with the center nerve. That's just a heads up for you when you start practicing this. Now to the next turnover. 11. Drawing Turnovers Part 3: Now to the third turnover. This is when the leaf is bending to the side and then showing the back of the leaf like that. This is the skeleton of this type of turnover. We have the center nerve coming up and bending a little bit, then it's bending to the side, and then up a little bit. Instead of having the turnover, the top pointing down, the top is pointing to the side. Then we have the left side of the leaf coming up like this, and then it's turning over to the side coming down so that we can see the back of the leaf, and up to meeting up with the tip. Then we have the right side of the leaf coming up like this. Then coming in behind the turnover, but it continues and here it's peaks up from behind and meeting with the tip. Up here, we will see some more of the back of the leaf. Here we can create another line like that and then we can erase the lines that will not be visible behind the turnover. Then it will be easier to visualize like that. Then we will have some lobes sticking up here and some coming down like that. A bit more of a dynamic turnover where you will see a bit more of the backside of the leaf. Now I'm going to sketch out the center nerves for the lobes just like I've done before. It can have three. This time I'm not going to make them so broad. Because as we are going along with these exercises, we are now extending and throw longing and making the leaves more narrow, because we are working up to the tendrils, which is something that we're going to use when we start drawing the scrolls. But more of that later. Let's see. Here we have some side lobes. See if we can find them synchronized directions. Then we will have one coming up here, somewhere like that, that we're not going to see. I think I want to move this one a little bit just to get those proportions right. Remember the flow down towards the center nerve that strives to the bottom of the leaf. That's something that's still applies when they get narrower and longer also. Then we have low nerve that will come up like that and it'll turn over like this. Then we have another one that we're not going to really see from here, but it will go up to the side like that. Then we have the equivalent to this one, come up somewhere around here, I think, and then another one like that. We'll see how it turns out. Then we have the tip, of course. Now I'm going to sketch out the outlines of the lobes on this part, and then show you and then we'll continue with the top of the leaf and the turnover together. Here are those sketched out lobes. This time I did a little bit of variation in the styles. Instead of drawing this really pointy lobes, I did a little bit of rounded shapes instead. You can experiment with that as well. Mix rounded shapes with some pointed shapes to create a nice dynamic. I've done the lobes up until here, and now it's time to sketch the turnover. Let's do that, a little bit at a time and let's start with the tip. Then we have this one coming up here, so let's do that as well. See what we can create, what we can squeeze in here. Then we have this one, perhaps then this one comes forward a little bit more and there's an eye. I'm doing a lot of sketchy lines. I hope you can see what I'm doing. Here we will have an eye as well there, and then we have one coming down like this and it has to be connected with that eye there. This one can probably come down all of it, I think. Great. Then to create a little bit of a smooth transition, let's do something that points up like this. Then it arranges into this one and here we can do another lobe. Then we have another one coming up from the backside, and there we'll also have this little eye. I think proportion-wise, I would like to make this one just a little bit bigger because I wanted it to be larger than this one. We have just one last part, and it's the equivalent to this lobe here. Observe now where we have the center nerve coming down like this, and then we have this nerve coming down like that, and this one peaking up over here. Then we have these ones as well. Now I'm going to fill this in with the fine liner so that you will see the end result and the correct outlines that I've created. Now with the filled in outlines and I would like to point out a little detail that I did that I think turned out pretty nice, which is this little curve over here meeting up where the turnover begins, which creates this smooth transition. I would also like to encourage you to be patient with these turnovers. They can be tricky to get right and I think this type of turnover, unlike the previous one that we did, I think I tried these and did these like 10-15 times before I got it right and the way that I wanted it. Just keep trying and you will get it right eventually also. Now, it's time for the last turnover exercise. 12. Drawing Turnovers Part 4: For the last turnover, I have conveniently retraced the previous leaf that we've created. Just to make a little bit of a shortcut and show you how you can add some more turnovers to the side lobes so I'm going to remove this one. This is pretty simple, actually. What we're going to do now is to make these lobes, these side lobes curl and show a little bit from the back of the leaf as well. The principle behind this is to decide where you want the lobe to turn over. An easy way to start this is to find an eye perhaps and then draw a line from from the eye and to the tip of the lobe. Now we're going to move this part here over here. What we're actually going to reflect this one on this side of this end edge. It will be something like that. It doesn't have to be exactly reflected but these ones can give you some guiding lines, at least. Here's one, like that with another one and this will bend. Then it ends like that, I guess something like that. All right, now if we erase this and also where the nerve is crossing. We have created another turn over. You can do this bigger or smaller. Another way, if you want to create a really big turnover like almost the whole leaf, we can start from somewhere down here. Then we wanted to be curled all the way up here. We'll do that crossing line like that. That's where the leaf will turn over. Now we can reflect these ones on this side. I think it will be easier if we just erase these lines over here to give us some blank space to draw. Then we have a little look like that. Remember it doesn't have to be except now, actually, it's probably going to be angled towards us a little bit, so it's not going to be as broad as this one. Something like that, then you can go in and adjust this if you feel that it's the eyes needs to be closer, like this one. I think it should be closer here. Erase everything on this side first then it's going to be easier for you to see the proportions and angles. This looks pretty even I think and I want to create some more variations. I'm just going to redraw some of this. Then we have to add a nerve, side nerves. Cool. That's how you can create turnovers for the side lobes as well. You can do like a big portion of the leaf turning over, well you can do just small turnovers for these side lobes. Okay, now you go ahead and practice and try different types of side lobe turnovers as well. Here it is with filled in contours as well. This is a really a twisting and turning leaf or a tendril we've created, which is something that is good to have practiced when we are now turning over to the scroll instead of the leaf. I'll see you for that in the next lesson and exercise. 13. Drawing A Simple Scroll: Welcome to the first scroll exercise and we're going to start off with a simple scroll, of course, and then work towards more complex scroll in the next exercise. For this simple scroll, you can draw this type of little swirl or spiral. You can also make a complete spiral like if you start by this. I have found when drawing scrolls that, it's easier to start with placing the lobes and the shapes of the lobes instead of starting with the Lobe nerves. Will start at the bottom. I just going to create some rough sketching lines of where we want the scrolls to be, roughly the size and direction from them and have them strived towards the middle of the scroll all the time. When we come closer to where the scroll is bending around a little more sharply, we need to make sure that we make place for the next one. Have them point more and more towards the middle of the scroll. As we come up with a tendril like this, we can make the lobes just slightly bigger here in the middle. I'm going to rotate that's a lot easier. Then now, I think we need to start making them a little bit smaller again, as we come closer to the end of the tendrils.. These are just rough shapes, the lobes. As we start sketching out more and more details, we might adjust them just a little bit, the direction and size. I'll make some smaller ones coming up here towards the end and then the last one. This one might point and works a little bit more. Okay, so here is the skeleton, as I call it for the scroll and we're not going to do that lobe nerves yet. Now we're going start sketching out the contours, the edges for each lobe as well. I'll start with the tip and I'm just going to do quite a simple basic style here now with not so many details and spikes and such. Let's just focus on getting the lobes right and how they bend and turn an overlap each other. Then we can go into more detailed scroll, like that and here at the end I might do just a little bit of variation, at least. If you feel confident enough to do some variation, go ahead. It's always more fun to look at. Then when we come closer with the last spike like that on this lobe, we're going to end this with an eye. Then you might want to make this one a little bit smaller. You have to adjust the shapes as you go along and find, the shapes like that. Then let's start with the tip on this next one and then I'll do some variation here perhaps. Then it continues to the eye on the back, underneath this one and another eye. Then you just work herself up along the tendril like this. Then I'll finish this off with eye like that. You don't have to make an eye of every junction between the lobes you can leave that out also. Let's do that for this one. You can just go all the way to the edge. Then for that top lobe, the end of the tendril. Here it can add some more embellishment if you want to. Here is the rough sketches of the shapes of the lobes and you can add some more details if you want to have something coming up on the other side, like the other side, of the tendrils showing as well. You can turn on, add little pieces of the lobes sticking up like that, if you want to just to add some more variation, just showing parts of the other side of the tendril. Now that we have the lobes in place, we add the nerves for each lobe, [inaudible] for towards the center nerve or the back of this tendril and down towards the bottom. To create that nice flow. Rotate the paper if you need to. A lot easier when drawing the scroll. Then we can perhaps add just a little bit like this. These ones as well. Okay, so here you have a simple scroll with no turnovers whatsoever. Well, you can actually say that the whole scroll is a tendril , you will see only half of it turning over like this. This actually the backside of the tendril that we see. I'm going to fill this in with a fine liner so that you will see that the final contours. I have a little tip for you when you start refining your lines and perhaps when you're filling in your contours like this, you can add more details to your sketching lines as well, for example, to all these contours, you can add more spikes as you go along. For every turn that you go with the sketch, you can add more and more details. Another tip I want to show you is that in places like this where you have added some extra details and extra parts of the lobes go on the other side, you can let the leaf end like this and then you go in and continue it like that.. Don't connect the back or the center nerve of the tendril all the way. Where you have this one connected coming up and the same goes for here. Just let it cross in like this just a little bit and then perhaps also come in like this. Then you can see that these ones are connected. You can perhaps just do a little bit couple lines like that. Just a little detail that can give it even more sophistication. You can add some more details inside of this scroll as well if you want to. Now let's go to the next exercise, which is a bit more complex scroll. 14. Drawing A Complex Scroll: In this exercise, we're going to draw more complex scroll. By complex, I really mean a bit more varied and with more details. Now we're going to bring all those little things that we have learned in the previous exercises together. All the different types of turnovers and angles and bins that you can create with an acanthus leaf and tendril. For this one I have created an extra turn of the scroll and I also ended it like this one. Remember that turnover that we did that came up to the side like that. You can do the same if you'd like, or you can just go ahead and do the same type of nerve or a scroll that we did in the previous one. Or it creates an S-line as you would like to draw it. As in the previous lesson, we're going to start off with sketching out the lobes where we want them. But this time we're going to think more variations. Let me show you and give you some suggestions on how you can do this on different types of leafs that you can add on angles. Let's just get started and then we can do some adjustments afterwards, creates a more turnovers and add more details. First, that basic skeleton so to speak. I'm going to start with the one coming up here, but I want this one to be three carted. There will be something coming up that scale. From this one, we're going to have a long tendril emerging and it's curling around like that and this one we're going to just see from the side, I think so. Then I'll continue with another tendril, I think. This first going to be a long one. You can copy exactly what I do, or just use that as inspiration. Then go ahead and just sketch out some lines and some directions of lobes and just find something that you feel is interesting and fun. Then we'll have one more coming up like this and like those half ones where we can see them from the side. One were like this is going to be really lush. Here we'll do like we did in the previous one. Just vending inwards towards the center. Perhaps this one like this, one like that. Use these ones a lot. Now, like these eyes or junctions between the lobes. That's really characteristic feat of that longer acanthus. The next step is to start drawing the contours. For that, I'll just do it the same way as I did for the simple scroll, trying to have in mind to create more variation, more details. For this one, I'm going to try to do a bit more on these little details and spikes, but that's also something that you can do afterwards. You work on the sketch in the several rounds. You can start out with just doing these basic shapes like we did before. Then when you feel that you have what you want, you can afterwards go in and make some extra details in every line. Here we have a bit more of a complex scroll than the previous one with a lot more details and terms. What we can do now is to see if we want to add some more details somewhere. If we perhaps want to create some turnovers, for example, on this leaf here, we could do something to add a little bit of extra complexity. Let's do a turnover here. I'll just do this guiding line like this, that's why I want the leaf to start turning over. Then do my technique here with reflecting what I have on this side. I think that will do. I'll erase this here. Then we could do some small ones. You can go in and add some extra embellishments detailing turnovers here and there just to give it another level. I'm going to start with my fine liner and continue adding more details. Those are the outlines and now let's add those nerves as well. For these half lumps, I like to add like an extra line just along the edge of the tendril. This will be there, the center nerve that we'll see a part of it at least. Here is that finished scroll where I have added some nerves and center nerves. In the next exercise, which is also the last exercise for this time, I'm going to show you how you can add even more details that will add body and texture to your acanthus leaves, and tendrils, and scrolls. I'll see you for that in the next lesson. 15. Adding Details & Texture: Welcome to the last exercise. In the previous seven exercises, we had created a bunch of a countess leaf illustrations. But for all of these, we have been quite modest in terms of adding details that will add some more depth and body to the illustrations. That is something we're going to do for this exercise. Before we start, I want to show you something that's a bit more extreme, perhaps. This is influenced by the barrack or lobe coast style Acanthus adornments and decorations from those periods. Here the Acanthus leaf is really transformed and stylized into almost unrecognizable Acanthus shapes where you cannot really see the center nerves, and the spikes of the lobes are rounded and divide up in really long tendrils like that, and there is just a lot going on here, lot of details, so you can't really tell what is a lobe and what is another leaf sort of. In some places, the lines are closer to each other, creating the impression of depth and shade, and in some places the lines are left out, creating the impression of a highlight. Then also a detail that I really really like is to the tips of these lobe or spikes or what you call them, there are some more lines added so that he can really get a feel for that they are rounded like that. This is an example of how you can add some texture and body to the Acanthus leaf just using lines. What you can do now is pick out a couple of the illustrations that you created in the previous exercises, and we're going to add some texture to them. I'm going to use this one for starters. In a leaf, there are lots of nerves all over coming out from the edges in different patterns, and we're going do that in a little bit of a stylized way. For this first way to do that, the principle is not to connect any lines with each other. Don't make a nerve and let it touch the center nerve of one of the side lobes. The second principle to consider is that flow again. To add the lines, always in the direction toward the center nerve, and down to the bottom. We're following that hidden architecture all the time. What you can do is add some more of these nerves like this, alter long ones with some shorter ones like this. Then you can do some really short ones, like a couple in a row, or just a long like that. Another tip is to leave out the areas that will be those pipes. Remember from that anatomy lesson? These are the pipes, and they are a little bit elevated, and rounded. It's like a little crease in the leaf, and when we leave them untouched with no lines here, they're going to appear to be highlighted, and that will also create the impression of them being raised up a little bit. We just add some of those lines here and there, and you can alter these almost dots or very short lines with longer lines. Then you can experiment, and create lots of lines, or be modest, and just do a couple here and there, and you can make some lines closer to each other, and some further apart. Go ahead and play around with some of these types of lines. Not connected, and parallel to the center nerve, and this lobe nerves striving down toward the bottom like this, and also alter longer and shorter lines. That's one way how to add a bit of texture and shade. Here is the last thing I will show you, and this is something that I think will interest a lot of you, because this is reminding of the arts and crafts style, and especially how William Morris would bring details and texture to his Acanthus leaves, or other leaves that he added in his designs as well. For this one, I have traced one of my previous exercises. I left out all the nerves. The center nerve, and also the side lobe nerves. But I sketch them out with a pencil because now we're going to fill those in, but not in the same way as we have done before. We're going to draw contours around these pencil lines so that we will have broader nerves, but they are all connected. Let's start with the bottom, somewhere around here. Now, it's important to keep that flow so that there won't be any corners here where they are connecting, and you can absolutely do a bit of variation like this so that you divide up the lines a little bit, and this just makes this side of the nerve look a little bit more lit perhaps. I really like to figure out and come up with new ways to create variation to the leaves. This one of the fun parts of drawing this type of motifs. Then I'll do the same for the rest of the nerves. Here I have filled in all those nerves so that they are all connected, now to bring in some texture where we will add lines coming from the nerves toward the edges of the lobes. Now also do them in pairs, or in threes, and distribute them a little bit here and there, and here I will surround that pipe, all of it. This gives quite a decorative effect, I think. It will give it some more depth and make it a bit more interesting. What to look out for is to not overdo it, and that's actually quite a good rule to consider anytime you add details to an illustration. Sometimes I have to redraw the same illustration a couple times, sometimes more, before I get the impression that I want. Now it's your turn, and go ahead and pick out a couple of your illustrations, and add more details and lines like this to add texture and some body to them. In the next lesson, I'll give you your final assignment, and also some more inspiration for what you can create with the Acanthus leaves. 16. Next Step & End Note: We're coming to the end to this course and before I leave you, I'd like to give you some more inspiration and suggestions to where you can use the Acanthus illustration and motif. You can include the Acanthus leaf and scrolls in so many ways, and for a lot of different purposes and artworks. For example, as a detail in an illustration or a motif for an art print, to sell in your web shop, or a print on demand service like, society six, for example, you can also include it in greeting cards for birthdays, mothers and fathers days or thank you notes, especially if you want to create something with a classical and vintage look. Also it's very suitable for a more romantic look for, valentine cards, and wedding invitations. A tip for making art prints and stationary, is to include the Acanthus to make decorative borders, and frames or wreaths, with trailing tendrils and scrolls. You can also include an Acanthus tendrils, or scroll for adding embellishments, when lettering, and for Anfangs and to book illustrations. Just like those medieval illuminations. Then to my favorite, to make patterns. As I've mentioned before, the Acanthus leaf and scroll is a signature element in some specific patterns styles. For example, they are often included in the mask patterns, and of course, patterns of the arts and crafts style, but also neoclassic toile de jouys and art nouveau and art deco patterns. I think, you can either find Acanthus Leafs in European Indian florals or so-called Chintz fabrics. Patterns including plants, and specifically the Acanthus, are often used for surfaces and products that require larger scales, like, wallpaper and curtains, drapes, rugs, but also beddings and other textiles. Not to forget, dresses and shirts nowadays. I hope I have given you some inspiration to ideas for what you would like to create. Now I'll give you that final assignment to include in your class project. I'd like you to make a motif or illustration, for a greeting card, or invitation, or art print, or a pattern you choose, including the Acanthus leaf. It doesn't have to be only Acanthus elements, you can include other plants and flowers, and animals or anything you'd like, as long as there is a kind of Acanthus element. Tell us in a couple of sentences, what you're planning to create. If you have the opportunity, please do turn your illustration into, an art print, or pattern or whatever you are planning to make, and post a picture of it in your class project. A picture of the illustration is absolutely fine as well, of course. I can't wait to see what you're going to make, and if you have any questions or troubles, just write me a comment in the community section. This is all I had to share for this time and I hope you've enjoyed this class, and picked up something useful and inspiring. If you want to learn more of this type of design and illustration. You can check out my other courses, where I teach how to create classical pattern styles, but also on illustration, and how to color with markers. You can also find me on Instagram, @BearbellProductions, or on my website and blog on BearbellProductions.com where you can also sign up for my newsletter if you'd like to. Okay folks, that's all. I'll see you next time. Bye. Take care.