I never promised you a rose garden … but I do promise that if you read this detailed tutorial, you’ll be able to illustrate your own. That’s much less thorny than the real thing, anyway! Each section of this tutorial includes suggestions on how to use your newfound rose-drawing skills, so if your aspirations go…
The weather has been suspiciously nice lately in Colorado, which has me all exited for the summer {and the nice part of spring}. Because summer can never come fast enough for me, I have decided to surround myself with summery roses … of the illustrated sort. If you’re of a similar mindset, or if you just want to learn how to draw roses, then you’re reading the right blog post!
The first roses I’d like to show you are very easy to draw, and they don’t require any special art tools. You essentially can use anything with a fine tip: sharpened crayons, colored pencils, markers, pens, watercolor {with a fine brush}, acrylic paint … whatever. I’m using colored pencils today, which I sharpened to prepare for use.
First, draw a small circle for the center. {Yes, drawing a brown/black center technically makes these flowers not roses, but since they’re rose-like, they’re in this blog post.}
Fill your circle in.
Then, start going around the circle with little crescent moon shapes that “hug” the center. These shapes will be your petals.
Keep drawing layers of these petals!
You can draw as many of these roses as you need to fill up space. Use different colors to draw your flowers, and you’ll get great contrast! You can see here that I’ve switched to a pink.
Here are two finished flowers in this style:
Though I only drew two roses here, these flowers are wonderful for making patterns with using a few different colors. These roses would look great as:
The next rose I am going to show you how to draw is an unintentional dead ringer for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast rose in the bell jar.
Like the roses I just showed you, you can use any coloring tools you have on hand to bring this rose to life. I had Sakura Glaze pens on hand, so that’s what I used!
Before you do anything, you’ll want to pull out a pen or marker you know won’t smudge when it’s being colored over {I’m using a Micron pen}, and draw a weird shape just like the one below.
Because the photos speak for themselves, I’ll let you visually browse through the steps below! An attempt at a verbal explanation would overly complicate the process, which in actuality isn’t difficult.
Once you’re at this step, you’ll want to add some shading for good contrast.
There’s really no rhyme or reason to the shading; I just add thick patches of black along the inside of some petals, and along the outside of other petals. The goal isn’t for your rose to be super-realistic; the goal is just contrast.
At this point, you can call it good; or you can add some color.
When I am coloring, I like to leave white areas to signify either dew or the rose being shiny. To do that, I outline a squiggly shape with my pen, then I color in around it. Make sure the shape follows the contour of the petal it’s in!
The white areas can pretty much go wherever. I put them on this rose in random areas, and it turned out just fine!
Here’s the finished rose:
I want to show you why I like using the Glaze pens for stuff like this. They have the sheen of Jolly Ranchers candy, and they’re super vivid! Can you see how the ink reflects light?
Of course, with that sheen, the rose isn’t super scannable, but it is perfect for a variety of other things! You can:
These next roses are probably the easiest, which is why they have a special place in my heart. Like the first roses I showed you, they’re not inarguably roses … I mean, they could be whatever flower. Nevertheless, I’m calling them roses because there’s no proof to the contrary!
To draw these roses, you’re going to start off with a wet blob of the color of your choice. I really mean that: just put a blob of watercolor down, circle your brush around a bit so it makes a sort-of-circle, sort-of-flower shape.
Then, quick as you can, add another color to that wet blob. Just dot on this new color on a few spots in your original blob. If the blob is still sufficiently moist, the other color will automatically blend into it.
Repeat this process, adding new blobs in different colors {but use the same process}.
You should end up with a series of flowers that look like pom-poms.
Next, you’ll want to add green bottoms to you flowers, like so:
Use a thin-tipped brush to draw skinny stems down from each green bottom.
At this point, you can add leaves if you want to, or you can leave your roses be! These roses are my favorites because they’re so simple to create, yet they look so pretty. Coupled with a hand-drawn banner, they’d lend themselves wonderfully to a logo design:
You could also use them for:
{If you like this style of flower, you may also like the How to Create Watercolor Flowers tutorial.}
Moving on, these next roses take about two minutes to draw and one minute to watercolor.
Don’t believe me? I made a video … mainly because the roses are simple to draw, yet they prove to be a surprisingly difficult concept to photograph step by step.
{You can click here to watch the “How to Draw Roses” video on Vimeo.}
Once you’ve drawn your roses, you can use a medium-sized brush to loosely add some watercolor.
I love coloring outside the lines of these!
If your roses are lacking for something {as mine are}, you can add leaves. I kept mine black and white, which lends really nice contrast!
These roses are very multi-purpose, so you can use them for a variety of projects. I would suggest:
The last roses I am going to show you are my favorite because of their vintage flavor, but they take the longest time and the most concentration to make.
First, you’re going to start off with a pencil drawing. You’re welcome to mimic the different flower shapes I am using here:
Once you have created your pencil drawing, start to go over it with ink. You can use a regular pen {a ballpoint, a gel pen, etc.}, but I like using a dip pen and ink. The Nikko G nib is great for projects like this because of its medium flex!
Next, add contrast, just like you did with the Beauty and the Beast-y rose. Again, you don’t need to overthink where the shading goes; really you’re just aiming to add some visual interest.
Now, for my favorite part: adding shading lines! I add short, close-together lines to most of the edges of my petals as well as the bottoms. To be honest, there’s no exact formula on where to put these lines, so feel free to add them wherever and gain inspiration from the photos I have posted in this blog post. The only thing you should be mindful of is this: the lines need to obey the contours of the individual petal you are working on. If your petal curves, your lines need to curve accordingly.
Once you’ve gone over your entire pencil sketch with ink, you’ll need to erase the pencil lines.
I know you’ve seen this pattern before in the Vintage Photo Project: Embellished Postcards tutorial. So, of course, I suggest using this design motif for that!
I am also using these roses to add pizazz to a drawing of the Arc de Triomphe. They lend a fresh look to an old favorite!
The roses also look wonderful drawn on black paper {using a Sakura Gellyroll white pen or white calligraphy ink}. I have used a colored-in variation of this design on the “Congrats New Mommy” card below.
I hope this post has enlightened you on how to draw roses, and what to use those lovely roses for! If you have any questions or suggestions on other projects to use these roses for, please, don’t hesitate to comment! In the meantime, I’ll be getting Saturday’s blog post ready — which is a guest post by talented artist Gaby Friedman. I know you’ll love it!
Thanks again for reading! I’m glad you’re here. 🙂
Warmly,
*This post contains affiliate links to Amazon
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