Wednesday WarmUp Symmetrical Floral Outlines

Welcome!

For the past few weeks, this blog has hosted “Wednesday Warm Up,”— a day of usually quick drawing, inking, brushing as warm up to our serious art. I share a strategy to try each Wednesday using the iPad app ProCreate. I only use the brushes in the app— there are so many I haven’t tried that warming up with a new brush will be an added bonus and challenge.

This Week

This week we’ll review a fun way to create quick messages to share with friends on social media. Take a look at last week’s warmup: “Quick Splash Grid Messages.” We’ll add how to create our own symmetrical floral outlines like the ones above using the symmetry tool.

The Goal

The purpose for this is to create your outlines as a png [or you can just duplicate the document each time] to import for reuse to create a new floral design using the same florals– so you don’t need to redraw them each time. When saving as a png, be sure to turn OFF the background color so your image is only the outline of the florals or stems.

The Process

The Florals– Symmetrical Outlines

Set Up

Canvas: 10 x 10 inches at 300 DPI
Ink color: Black
Brush: Monoline in Calligraphy

To create the symmetry for the florals, you’ll need to go to the “Canvas,” turn on the “Drawing Guide,” then edit the drawing guide. In the edit, choose “Symmetry,” then “Options,” then “radial” and “rotational.” Click your layer to be sure “Drawing Assist” is on each time you need it. Turn off the drawing guide symmetry to edit or add details.

Links to ProCreate Handbook: Symmetry Tool and Drawing Assist.

For the stems, change the symmetry. Go to “Canvas,” “Edit Drawing Guide,” “Symmetry,” and choose “Vertical” only– no radial or rotational. Check your layer to be sure Drawing Assist is on.

Drawing

Florals: Draw the centers first, then add petals. You can be very creative with shapes and details of the petals. Hide one floral, and start a new layer for the next floral. Sometimes I like the first center and petals, so I duplicate the floral and add more petals to that one so I have both a simple and complex flower.

I also duplicate the florals and reduce the size of one so the document contains both sizes.

Arrange the florals and stems so you can export several in one document-png to import into new documents as needed [like the four florals above]. Before you export your png, be sure to turn OFF the background color so your image is only the outline of the florals or stems. Or you can duplicate the outline document and delete what you don’t need for your new composition.

Here’s a video showing the process– creation of the outlines of the florals and the stems, and then importing the png to choose the floral and stem to create a new illustration [below the video].

See last week’s post for how to create this, including the brushes for coloring and texture.

About The Coloring

The outline layers are separate. Each color is on a separate layer. I usually follow this process for adding color:

On the outline layer, use the select tool on “Automatic” to choose the center of the flower.
Be sure “Select” tool stays on during this process.
Add a new layer below the outline layer.
Choose the color you want.
Click the empty layer and choose “Fill layer.”
That layer will fill the shape you’ve selected with the color you chose.
If you want the same color center on another floral, you can choose another floral outline and the center of that flower with the Select tool.
Then go back to the color layer and again choose “Fill layer.”
Repeat this process for each color, keeping each color on separate layers.
If you have enough layers, you can keep each flower in a group, with the layers of outline and color separate.
This allows you to change color if needed and to choose to have the outline on or off.

Play around with blend modes, for instance, the sun. The sun is a duplicated center of a flower and one of the inkbleed transparent circles.

Examples

It’s fun to have a set of outlines ready for an illustration– either for a serious work or just for a warm up. Ready access to one’s own assets adds to the effectiveness and efficiency to be more creative in digital art.

Here’s examples of my “splash grid” warm ups I’ve shared with friends on social media to brighten up the winter and pandemic blues: