Art Nouveau Tulips With Whiplash Stems Coloring Page

Six tulips rise from a single clump on this sheet, their cups drawn at slightly different heights so the group has a natural stagger rather than a straight row. The petals are large, clean and mostly empty, with just enough of an inner line to show which petal sits in front. What makes the page Art Nouveau is everything below the flowers. The leaves are long blades that bend and cross one another, and the two outermost stems sweep down and hook into tight spirals at the bottom corners, which is the whiplash curve the style is named for. Big shapes like these reward a gradient. Lay your lightest tone at the rim of each cup and build toward the deepest at the base, and the tulips gain volume without a single extra line. Vary the flowers rather than matching them, because a real bed of tulips never agrees on one shade. Keep the foliage cooler and slightly grayed so it sits back, and save your cleanest green for the two curling stems at the foot.