How to Draw a Rose Step by Step
The rose is the most popular flower to draw, but it’s also one of the most difficult. The swirls and contours of a red rose evoke feelings of romance and intimacy, but it’s not always easy to draw those swirls and contours. But when you learn how to draw a rose step by step, you’ll be able to reproduce rose petal designs with little trouble.
How to Draw Roses
The following are instructions for how to draw roses.
Start with a Swirl
Decide where you want the center of your rose to be, then sketch a swirl in that spot. This is going to be the center of your rosebud. Remember to allow space in every direction around this swirl, because you’ll want to fit the entire rose on your page or canvas.
If you have multiple roses, add multiple swirls. Remember to keep these far enough away from one another that your rose bouquet looks realistically spaced.
If the rose swirl is difficult at first, practice sketching them on a scratch pad, until you can reproduce one faithfully. Look at a photograph of a rose or someone else’s rose sketches, to get an idea what the swirl looks like.
Add Large Petals – Drawing the Rose Bud
Make the rose bud by drawing three petals to surround the swirl, roughly to the right and left, and on top of the rose. You want these petals a little offset, to give the sense that gravity is drawing one side of the rose towards the ground. After you draw the petals, add curved lines around the inner swirl, to show petals wrapped around the rosebud itself.
Draw Sepals and Stem
Sepals are the green leaves directly underneath the bud part of a flower. They grow just below the bud and lead into the stem of the rose. Draw the stem and sepals next.
Draw leaves around the stem to give the rosebud its leafy highlights. Take a look at a number of pictures of roses, to make sure you have the anatomy of the rose complete.
Drawing Rose Vines
How to Draw a Rose Step by Step
You can also add rose vines, if you wish, by drawing curved stems with occasional twin buds jutting from the stem. Once again, draw from photos of a rose to get this part right.
Erasing Directions
Erasing on a sketch is a little different than it is in normal writing. If you have smudges, it’s best to press a kneaded eraser on the sketch, instead of rubbing like you would on a standard piece of lead pencil writing. That’s because rubbing tends to strip paper off your canvas, giving it a rough quality. Trying pressing, instead of rubbing, before you use are forced to use the extreme method of erasing.
Use charcoal, instead of conte sticks, if you need to erase a lot. Charcoal is a little easier to pick up with a kneaded eraser. Remember to keep washing your hands as you continue, because lead on your hands and fingers is going to lead to excess smudging.
Draw in Black and White
If you want to learn how to draw colored roses, start with black and write rose drawings first, to get the shape down. Once you have mastered the art of drawing roses, move to the next step of drawing with colored tools.
Spray with Krylon
Once you have the sketch exactly was you wish, set the drawing by spraying with Krylon workable mat fixative. This sets what you already have on the page down, so get rid of smudges and other imperfections before moving to this step. You’ll be able to add more to the drawing, but what’s on there already is going to stay on there.
Practice Drawing a Rose Step by Step
You’re not going to get this perfect the first time. Mastering how to draw a rose step by step requires repetition and practice. Draw variations of the original sketch time and again, until you start to improve. Take a look at rose photos in magazines and other books, then practice copying those pictures in sketch form. Eventually, you’ll master the technique.