How to Draw Nature: Structure, Gesture & Texture Explained

Botanical drawing is one of the most incredible ways to connect with the world around you. In this video, I introduce the three ideas at the core of botanical drawing — structure, gesture, and texture — and show you demonstrations on flowers, seed pods, pine cones, and more.

This is a shortened version for YouTube. The free full-length course includes a complete hour of detailed drawing demonstrations and a project that sends you out to engage the natural world through drawing.

Chapters:
0:00 – Introduction
1:30 – Structure: simplifying shapes into 3D form
2:56 – Gesture: capturing movement and energy
4:09 – Texture: mark-making techniques
7:08 – Flower demonstration
11:07 – Devil's claw seed pods
12:42 – Pine cone geometry
13:54 – Drawing on colored paper
17:01 – Get the full free course