Painting flowers is one of the first steps that an artist takes on her artistic journey because it teaches you both how to deal with complex organic shapes and how the golden ratio shows up in nature. Curves are among the hardest lines to draw because you cannot use a straight edge to help you. The golden ratio is a ratio of parts of the painting to their composition and is widely seen in organic shapes like roses.
Place your canvas on your easel in a well-lit work space. Tape a picture of the lotus to the side of the canvas, so you have something to work off of.
Draw a grid work over you lotus picture with a pencil and a ruler. Divide it into 1 inch by 1 inch squares. Draw a grid on your canvas with a light penciled-in line, using 6 inch by 6 inch squares.
Lightly sketch the lotus on the canvas, matching each grid on the canvas to a grid on the picture. Do not use heavy lines as they are hard to erase if you make a mistake.
Clean up your sketch lines with an eraser, so there is a minimal amount of pencil lead on your canvas. Paint on the base color of your background with a darker shade of color then you want for the background to be in the end. It is okay to go over the pencil lines as your will be painting over the parts that are over the line. Paint the stem of the lotus next and then the petals with a lighter shade of color then you want the stem and petals to be in the end. Use broad strokes for now; you do not need detail at this point.
Paint in finer details on the lotus with a darker shade of the color you want. By using opposing shades of the color you want, you will get gradated shading automatically as the colors blend with each other. Stop when your painting matches the picture you took.
