How to Sketch a Rose

Tutorial by Dawn Darko, United States

STEP 1. The easiest way to begin sketching a rose is to make a fancy style S that has a curled in tip at the top.

STEP 2. When you start sketching out the rose petals, you can begin to see how the S actually forms the base of the rose bud or center part of the rose bloom. Sketch in some nice rounded but pointed petals that has a nice center swirl.

 STEP 3. Continue to sketch in more petals, but this time the petals are larger, and a bit more full looking. At this point the rose starts to take on a bloomed form.

 STEP 4. Starting at the right, begin sketching out more of the rose petals. There should be a smaller shaped petal, as well as a larger shaped petal that points in the center.

 STEP 5. Now that the rose is all sketched out all you have to start doing now is sketch out the leaves which are in three. Sketch in the center of the leaves like so, then proceed to the next step.

 STEP 6. Once you have cleaned up the rose freeing it from mistakes, you can start sketching in the shading starting at the center of the rose, and then slowly work your way out on the first fold of the rose petal. Notice how there are light spots which are not shaded to darkly.

 STEP 7. You will continue to sketch in the shading which adds detail, definition and texture to your rose. Notice the crosshatching as well which is all part of the base shading process.

STEP 8. Continue to shade in the rose petals like so, and all you have to do is follow the darkness and lightly shaded areas of the rose like you see here. Use the rose above as your guide.

 STEP 9. Shade more of petals until they are all shaded in. There are lighter areas to the shading process as well as darkened areas as well.

 STEP 10. Work on getting the base shading done on the leaves, and when you are done move to step eleven.

 STEP 11. You will start adding your light source to the rose. Do this by simply erasing and smudging until you get the areas lighter like you see it done here on the rose.

 STEP 12. Soften the rose shading process and when you're done your sketch should look like the rose you see here. I hope you enjoyed this lesson on sketching a rose.

Tutorial by Dawn Darko, United States

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