I have been playing around with drawing roses, trying to come up with an easy way to do it for anyone that might like to.  I wound up with this tutorial. Give it a try. It might take a bit of practice, but if you keep at it, soon enough, there will be sketches of roses all over your house (believe me, I know).

How To Draw Roses

I made this quick poster to show how to do it right away, and then if you want more details, scroll below.  You can see that I used different colors for each step.  Pink/red was the first color: as in the first line to be done on each step, purple is next, and blue is last, the light green is what was erased at the end of the step. Beyond that, it’s just imagining the petals, like in step 1, and putting them together to form a flower. Whether you are doing a sideways view, or view from the top, it’s all about putting the petals together.

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For the three roses I drew below, I used the Macro Refine Colored Pencils which I got for my birthday. They were different then the Prismacolors that I love and use all the time, but a decent cheaper option for anyone that would want to color with pencils. I also used Strathmore Bristol Paper, 11 by 14 inches for this drawing.

How To Draw Roses: Detailed Step by Step Directions

I drew three roses, the first one is facing the viewer, the second one is a bit sideways, and the last one is facing half way away from the viewer.

Start by drawing a small oval shape. That will be the center of the rose. Add a few lines for the inside of the center and the outside of the center. Then begin adding petals.

Keep adding rose petals radiating from the center. They are just slightly curved lines going around in the circle when you think about it.

Keep adding more and more petals as you go. I like to make some of the petals a bit pointy toward the center.

For the rose that is facing the viewer, just keep working in a circle, adding anywhere between 3 to 5 petals for each layer.

Try to make sure that the flower looks somewhat balanced. For the photo on the right, I put dots to indicate which petals were drawn first.

Add a few more petals going all around the circle. All done with the first flower!

Don’t forget to add a stem and a few leaves.

Here is the first rose completely done, and the beginnings of the second rose.

Time to do the second flower!

For the second flower, start with a tube with a slight opening, like the photo on the left. Then, change the opening by adding a few curved lines to indicate petals.

Keep at it. To draw a petal that wraps around the rose center, begin at the outer line of the center, and bring the line around to the front, like the photo on the left.  After that, you can add two lines extending from each end of the newly formed petal, and draw a slightly curved line to indicate the the petal is bent a bit at the edge.

To make a slight opening, draw two curved lines going from the back of the rose (photo on the left).  The lines should form a heart like shape in the front of the rose.  Then add a few more indications that the petals are bent and curved (photo on the right).

Each time you draw a petal, add lines extending from the edge, down to the base of the rose (photo on the let).  Add one more petal, this one is facing out more, so the viewer can only see the curved part (photo on the right).

Keep adding petals, now expanding outwards more, so that they look open.  Make sure that they are ‘attached’ (in a manner of speaking) to the base of the rose.

As the last step, add a few more petals all around, including one that’s bending outward. As you can see from the photo, that petal covers a part of the base.

Make sure to draw a stem and a few leaves for the second rose.  It is time to start the third rose.  This time, it’s facing away from the viewer, so I start with one heart shaped petal, just like in the photo above.

I add a few petals, not too many, all attached to the base of the rose.

Add even more petals showing from behind the first part of the rose.

I added one more petal facing outward, just like in the second flower, and a stem with some leaves.

Coloring The Roses White:

I wanted to make it look like there is an open sky in the background, so using a light blue, I drew a few clouds.  Then using the same light blue, I colored in a bit of shadows on the roses and leaves, a bunch of blue for the sky, and the background.  All done in one color.

Next, I used black to darken the bottom of the page, where it’s not just the sky, but what ever background might be there.

Next I used dark pine green to add even more dimension, and even some details on the leaves.

Using a light green, I added more color to the leaves and stems, and more shading for the white roses.

Since white is really just a collection of various colors, I used some pink, tan and yellow to add shadows to the roses. I also used silver to do a bit of shading on the clouds, and added more blues to the sky and the roses.

These are the colors I used so far.  In order I used from left to right.  Every time I used a color on the picture, I made sure to use it to darken the bottom portion of the picture.

Next I used bits of purple, and more blue for the sky and to darken the bottom area.

I used the five colors above to add to the sky and the roses.  The white pencil I used profusely on the white areas of the flowers and the clouds. I also added more greens to the leaves and stems.

Here is the final result, I do wish the colors were a bit deeper, but I will try again next time: