International Artists’ Day: Celebrate by learning to draw and colour your own wreath |29 October 2020
Every year on October 25, the world honours artists around the world and celebrates all of their creative work, including but not limited to paintings, sculptures and drawings.
To help you celebrate, Seychelles NATION contacted Chantale to design a step-by-step tutorial especially for our readers, one which you can use to create your own personal wreath.
Chantale is a Seychellois artist and creator of ‘The Art Soothe’ Instagram page where she displays her artwork daily.
Chantale tells us that this easy tutorial will get us “drawing and colouring as a means to ease stress and decompress from all the chaos going on in the world at the moment”.
“What can I use this wreath for you may ask? You can use it as a personalised card, you can create a bigger version that when cut out and stuck on cardboard can decorate your home, you can keep it small and decorate your office desk, you can write something symbolic in the middle such as for a birthday, a wedding date etc, the possibilities are endless.”
Below is the list of materials you will need:
- Paper
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Ruler
- Circular object
- Painting materials (I used watercolour paint and a fine paintbrush)
Instructions
- Draw a circle, as below, using your circular object. This circle should leave enough space on the outer side of the circle to draw the leaves.
- For this wreath I have created a few examples of leaf and flower drawings to incorporate into the wreath. You can practice these easy drawings with a pencil separately before adding them to your circle.
- I have chosen to draw the leaves on opposite diagonal sides of the circle. Start by drawing the longest leaf (A) in order to position the design along the circle and draw a similar set on the opposite side. You can use a ruler to align the drawings on both sides. Continue the wreath by adding another set of leaves (B) from the centre of the design flowing outwards.
- Continue the wreath by adding another set of leaves (B + D) on the inside and the outside of the circle always flowing from the centre of the design outwards. You can also create overlapping leaves to make the wreath design fuller by adding leaf design (C).
- Pick a few flower designs (I used H & I) and add them in the centre of the design. Remember to duplicate your drawing on the opposite side of the circle.
- For this wreath I decided to use an autumn colour scheme and tested each colour to help me decide which colour would be best used where.
- Start by painting in the longer leaves (A) with the lightest colour. Don’t worry about overlapping.
- Choose a slightly darker colour to paint in the rounded leaves.
- Play a bit with the contrast of colours to paint in the flowers and the overlapping broad leaves.
- To add that extra earthy feel to the wreath I joined the design by painting the remaining corners of the circle with wavy lines to imitate the garland that holds a wreath.
- Let your artwork dry if using paint and do not forget to lightly erase any pencil marks that are left.
- Step back and admire your work!! Well done!!
“To keep updated with my creations find me on Instagram: @the_art_soothe”
“Happy creating!”
Compiled by F.P.