Drawing a floral border with anemone flowers

I used a circle and square to give some structure to this delicate border of anemone flowers, which made it really easy to decide where to place the flowers while creating a balanced design. I’m going to show you step by step how to get the same effect.

Before we start the tutorial, can I share a story about this drawing?

When I drew this border of anemones, I knew I was going to put a favorite quote or scripture inside the frame… but I kept debating which one. I happened to look up the meaning of the anemone in the process. Maybe I overthink things, but I’m always interested in the meaning of different flowers.

Not far into my mini research project… I realized the associations of anemones are not nearly as cheerful as some other flowers. Shouldn’t these beautiful little blooms represent something happy, like unending hopefulness or true love or joy?

But they traditionally don’t. In Victorian times, anemones were said to represent “forsaken love.” They show up in Greek mythology with a similar theme.

So I drew this border, only then looked into the meaning of anemone flowers, and had to ask God, “WHY did I happen to pick THIS particular kind of flower to draw?”

It was so He could remind me what I needed to know.

Because life is HARD. Mine sure has been the last few months.

I’m so glad I stopped and asked God why I picked anemone flowers to draw. He completely turned it around.

Because the God who made the anemone does not forsake those He loves.

And I really needed to be reminded that. Anyone else with me there?

I ended up pairing the border with Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

It’s a good thing He will never leave me… because I desperately need Him on a daily basis. He’ll be there for me, no matter what happens. Thank goodness for that.

Anyway, let me show you how I drew this reminder of God’s faithfulness.

Step 1: Use a circle and square as guidelines

I started by drawing a circle for the flowers to frame.

Using a glass jar made it easy to make the circle even.

Then I sketched a square around the circle.

I purposefully left it a little cattywampus. (Yes, that really is a word! Synonyms are crooked, askew and misaligned… but cattywampus is way more fun to say.) Anyway, more specifically, I drew my square with the top shifted to the right, and the bottom shifted to the left… and the sides are only approximately equal.

Step 2: Drawing the anemone flowers and other florals

With a nice base for my design sketched out, I got to the fun part: drawing flowers between the two shapes.

I found that the easiest way to draw anemone flowers was to draw a few lines for the centers first.

Then, I surrounded the center with five or six petals, overlapping them in places.

I also focused on making the bottom petals shorter so the flowers don’t look flattened.

Between flowers I drew a variety of leaf types.

The first was a group of leaves along a stem.

I also made smaller leaves by drawing a small oval and adding a prominent center vein just past the oval to make a little pointed tip to the leaf.

Since the flowers were larger, I ended up drawing them in the corners of the square for the most part. The leaves filled in smaller areas.

Then I went back over the sketch with a pen. I used one of my favorites: Sakura’s Micron pen in size 02.

Once I went over the sketch, I let the ink dry a couple minutes, then erased the pencil lines.

I noticed the top corner needed a few more leaves and such, so I added those in.

Step 3: Adding words inside the floral border

With my floral anemone border complete, this piece was just begging me to add a quote to the center. I chose Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” I love this verse, especially on days that don’t seem to be going my way.

Sometimes words are where my designs get messy, so I tested out how many words to put on each line and what size to write by writing them out on a piece of tracing paper. It’s a good thing I did, because I stepped back during the process and realized I was writing a bit crooked! I ended up drawing horizontal lines on the paper to make sure I wrote straight for the final version.

I guess the practice payed off. I’m pretty happy with the result.

And that’s pretty much it!

I put the design in a frame and now it’s sitting in my room beside my nightstand to remind me of God’s faithfulness first thing every morning and last thing every night.

Blessings,

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