Painting a rose - Part 1

Painting a Rose: Parts 1 & 2

We will now be tackling how to paint a pink rose. I'll be sharing with you a few of my techniques for capturing the delicate nature of petals in watercolour.

The Fragility of Flowers

Flowers can be a challenge to capture in watercolour due to their dainty composition. Certain flowers are much more susceptible to drooping and losing their petals than others. I would recommend steering clear of:

• poppies
• dahlias

Instead, go for something more robust for your first few attempts - a rose is a good choice.

Try to get shop bought roses rather than home grown, as these will have been cultivated to last longer.

You might like to choose quite a tight budded rose, because these are slightly easier to draw and capture.

What You Will Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• A rose stem
• Vase to hold your flower
• Putty rubber
• Divider
• Acrylic brushes in size 3
• I use the Da Vinci Nova 5570
• Slightly old and worn out brushes for mixing paint colours
• Jar of water
• Watercolour paints
• I am using Permanent Rose, Cobalt Blue, Lemon Yellow, Cobalt Violet, Permanent Magenta, all from the Winsor & Newton Professional watercolour range in the half-pan size.
• Ceramic palette
• Kitchen towel

Capturing a Pink Rose

Step 1

Place your rose stem into a vase of water and choose the position you want to draw it in. Ideally you want an angle that is easy to understand for the viewer, and that avoids any characteristics that are too tricky to capture.

Step 2

Draw the outline of your flower. Start at the base of the flower, drawing the sepals and stalk first before moving onto the petals. As always, slightly rub away your pencil lines once you're happy, so you're just left with a faint outline.

Step 3

Mix a pale green, and apply it as a light wash to the sepals and stalk.

Step 4

Next, use Permanent Rose across all of the petals and start to build up the form of each one.

• Move the paint around the paper quickly to achieve the smoothest finish possible - this is particularly important when painting flowers.
• Remember to build up darker areas to represent the layering of petals, and to signify which are at the back and which are at the front of the flower.
• Building up darker areas can also be used to begin the depiction of the bends and curves of each individual petal.

Step 5

To enable the viewer to differentiate between the petals, you can now add in an additional pink tone to communicate the lighter areas and provide some contrast - I recommend Cobalt Violet. Less light falls on the back of petals, so this can be represented by building up darker areas. Focus on the best way to communicate the order of petals through light and dark.

Step 6

While you're waiting for areas of your petals to dry, revisit the sepals and stem to intensify the colours, adding depth and form with darker hues.

Step 7

Going back to the petals, try using very thin layers of Permanent Magenta to build up your representation of the delicate folds and rolls of each petal - this is a good colour to use when you want to communicate depth in lighter areas.

Step 8

If you can see any fine lines or details, now is the time to add these in.

Step 9

As you're making the finishing touches, make sure your edges are all neat and crisp.

Your Assignment

A lovely project you can do is paint a flower at each of its different stages: from when it's budding through to blooming and eventually drooping.