Nina Fuga shows you how to draw your favourite home plant using Tombow's Irojiten's colour pencils in 7 easy steps.
What do you need before you start: 12 shades of Irojiten colour pencils (D19 Teal Blue, D17 Cactus Green, D7 Forest Green, D11 Plum, EX7 Peony Pink, P3 Shell Pink, V4 Chartreuse Green, D13 Terra Cotta, LG9 Campanula Blue, V5 Parrot Green, Peacock Blue V6, EX2 Yolk Yellow), 1 x HB Tombow MONO 100 graphite pencil, an eraser, a sharpener and a sketchbook.
1 - Give yourself a little time to decide what plant you want to draw, you can use a photograph of a plant for reference or place your favourite plant in front of you and look at it for a few minutes. The best way to learn how to draw is to learn how to look. Get your sketchbook out and pick a random blank page where you want to start your image!
2 - Sketch out very loosely your plant, keep your line faint so that you can go over it with your colour pencils if you need to...everything moves all the time, both the subject matter and your point of view, so try not worry too much if this doesn't look too accurate!
3 - I usually like to start from the leaves, get a light pink pencil (P3 Shell Pink) and create a light shading base for all the leaves of your plant. Having a colour base which is not green will give your leaves a light shimmer that will shine through as you apply the next layers of colour.
4 - Select a light green - I used the V4 Chartreuse Green - to start layering the various shades of green of your plant. As you add this colour evenly on your plant, the overall shapes should start to take form on the paper. You are still applying the colour evenly, as you look at your reference.
5 - Select a darker shade of green to add detail to the leaves, followed by a contrasting tone (D11 Plum) to create a more unique green tone.
6 - Use a bright colour to draw and colour in your plant pot. Remember to keep your marks and shading light; you can always add more layers if you want the colour to be more intense. To make your plant and pot stand out you can add a light contrasting colour in the background (I used EX2 Yolk Yellow). Once you've added the background colour you'll see your plant popping out and acquire a more 3D effect.
7 - The last stage of your image making is when you add more detail and colour to your drawing. Colour is nothing but light and that's why I love adding the purple shade that's on the plant pot onto the plant leaves.
Now that you have finished your first drawing you can begin a new one and select 12 different tones of the Tombow Irojiten color pencils to experiment with ...enjoy!