How to Draw a Rose
This lens shows you how to use Photoshop, a graphic tablet, and Creative Commons licensed photos from Flickr to draw roses.
Rose drawing copyright Gretchen Little. Drawn (but not traced) with pen & ink using a photograph as a guide.
Rose drawing copyright Gretchen Little. Drawn (but not traced) with pen & ink using a photograph as a guide.
How To Draw a Rose in Photoshop
Digital Pen & Ink
I started out drawing roses with pen & ink on paper with no sketches, no rough drafts (scroll down towards the bottom of this page for an example). I know I can do it, so I don't feel like it's cheating to trace a rose from a photograph using Photoshop CS2
and my Wacom graphic tablet.
The shading, coloring, and the quality of the line is what makes it a unique drawing instead of just a copy.
Here's how I do it:
I started with this rose photograph posted on Flickr by lincolnian. It has a Creative Commons License on it that allows for "remixing" or altering of the image as long as attribution is given.
First I made the transparency of the photo about 90%. Then I created a new layer to draw the tracing on. Using a pen & ink "brush" I created in Photoshop to mimic a fountain pen, I traced the outlines of the petals.
Using lines that change thickness adds dimension to a drawing. That's what makes it look done by hand.
After doing the outline I like to use little dots to create shading. I kept the original photo visible under the drawing to guide me in where to put the dots. Lines of dots show the shape of the petal. Just look for the faint lines or "veins" in the photo and follow them. As my art teacher said over and over again, "less is more". Just use the lines to give an idea of the shape of the petal. More dots makes a darker shadow.
You could stop right there and have a drawing that could be used for clip art and as the basis for many other works of art.
Or you can add color as I did. I used other Photoshop brushes to "paint" on transparent layers of color. Using the layers function in PS I put the dark gold color on one layer, and the bright yellow on another.
The darker shading is much the same effect as you would get with a pen and ink wash. The yellow color would be watercolor paint.
The eraser function is my best friend in Photoshop. I lay down color and then use a scatter style brush to pull some of it back out. It gives it a more natural texture.
That's the simplest way I know to draw a rose. Every mark you make with the graphic pen (or even the mouse, if you're extremely patient) is your own individual signature.
Don't worry about being exact! That's the great thing about drawing flowers. Unlike a portrait of a person, as long as you get the general shape of the petals and overall flower it will be recognizable. Flowers give you an opportunity to play around with techniques and see what happens. Most of my art is intuitive and accidental.
and my Wacom graphic tablet.The shading, coloring, and the quality of the line is what makes it a unique drawing instead of just a copy.
Here's how I do it:
I started with this rose photograph posted on Flickr by lincolnian. It has a Creative Commons License on it that allows for "remixing" or altering of the image as long as attribution is given.
First I made the transparency of the photo about 90%. Then I created a new layer to draw the tracing on. Using a pen & ink "brush" I created in Photoshop to mimic a fountain pen, I traced the outlines of the petals.
Using lines that change thickness adds dimension to a drawing. That's what makes it look done by hand.
After doing the outline I like to use little dots to create shading. I kept the original photo visible under the drawing to guide me in where to put the dots. Lines of dots show the shape of the petal. Just look for the faint lines or "veins" in the photo and follow them. As my art teacher said over and over again, "less is more". Just use the lines to give an idea of the shape of the petal. More dots makes a darker shadow.
You could stop right there and have a drawing that could be used for clip art and as the basis for many other works of art.
Or you can add color as I did. I used other Photoshop brushes to "paint" on transparent layers of color. Using the layers function in PS I put the dark gold color on one layer, and the bright yellow on another.
The darker shading is much the same effect as you would get with a pen and ink wash. The yellow color would be watercolor paint.
The eraser function is my best friend in Photoshop. I lay down color and then use a scatter style brush to pull some of it back out. It gives it a more natural texture.
That's the simplest way I know to draw a rose. Every mark you make with the graphic pen (or even the mouse, if you're extremely patient) is your own individual signature.
Don't worry about being exact! That's the great thing about drawing flowers. Unlike a portrait of a person, as long as you get the general shape of the petals and overall flower it will be recognizable. Flowers give you an opportunity to play around with techniques and see what happens. Most of my art is intuitive and accidental.
Photoshop Rose Drawing Tutorial #2
Showing a slightly different way to do the shading
This is another digital rose drawing I've done using Photoshop CS2 and my Wacom graphic tablet I'm going to assume you already have some knowledge of how to use layers in Photoshop.
I started with this photo by kostas.v on Flickr.
I changed it to black and white so that I could more clearly see the values from black to grey to white.
From there I opened a new layer and outlined the rose with a bold pen photoshop "brush" as I did in the first tutorial above. (I hid the photo to show you just the drawing, but it's still there in my layers.)
I use a lot of layers when I work in Photoshop which gives me more flexibility as to what I can remove or change later on in the drawing's progress. So, opening another layer between the photo and the outline, I began to fill in some of the shading using crosshatching. The shadows were my guide.
I ended up with this:
I was trying to stay true to the actual shading on the photograph, but when I was done I decided that didn't have enough contrast. It had no visual punch. So I went back in and redrew over the the lines I had (using several new layers), going with what I thought looked good instead of what the photo dictated.
Notice how I used some of the lines of the crosshatching to show the actual shape of the petal. After I got that all drawn in I threw in some more random crosshatching to keep things interesting. It also takes the pressure off from having to be perfect.
That is the basic, clip-art-like rose drawing. From there you can do all sorts of things with it. I chose to color it in digitally again.
Using a chalk "brush" in Photoshop, I laid down some color underneath the drawing using another layer.
I continued on using different shades and values of red. I really like to use the eraser brushes in Photoshop to pull color back out again, too. Keeps things from looking too flat and more like what I call "analog art".
I could have messed around with all that for hours, but this is where I stopped.
If you had a drawing like this of your own you could print it out and use it in collages and other mixed media art. There is a great book about how to do that called Collage Unleashed by Traci Bautista that shows how to "repurpose" your artwork over and over again like this to make new pieces.
and my Wacom graphic tablet I'm going to assume you already have some knowledge of how to use layers in Photoshop.I started with this photo by kostas.v on Flickr.
I changed it to black and white so that I could more clearly see the values from black to grey to white.
From there I opened a new layer and outlined the rose with a bold pen photoshop "brush" as I did in the first tutorial above. (I hid the photo to show you just the drawing, but it's still there in my layers.)
I use a lot of layers when I work in Photoshop which gives me more flexibility as to what I can remove or change later on in the drawing's progress. So, opening another layer between the photo and the outline, I began to fill in some of the shading using crosshatching. The shadows were my guide.
I ended up with this:
I was trying to stay true to the actual shading on the photograph, but when I was done I decided that didn't have enough contrast. It had no visual punch. So I went back in and redrew over the the lines I had (using several new layers), going with what I thought looked good instead of what the photo dictated.
Notice how I used some of the lines of the crosshatching to show the actual shape of the petal. After I got that all drawn in I threw in some more random crosshatching to keep things interesting. It also takes the pressure off from having to be perfect.
That is the basic, clip-art-like rose drawing. From there you can do all sorts of things with it. I chose to color it in digitally again.
Using a chalk "brush" in Photoshop, I laid down some color underneath the drawing using another layer.
I continued on using different shades and values of red. I really like to use the eraser brushes in Photoshop to pull color back out again, too. Keeps things from looking too flat and more like what I call "analog art".
I could have messed around with all that for hours, but this is where I stopped.
If you had a drawing like this of your own you could print it out and use it in collages and other mixed media art. There is a great book about how to do that called Collage Unleashed by Traci Bautista
that shows how to "repurpose" your artwork over and over again like this to make new pieces. My Favorite Drawing Tools
4
Koh-I-Noor Artist Set of 7 Technical Pens
Koh-I-Noor 7 Pen Set...This technical pen set incl more...0 points
5
Stonehenge Pads - Vellum - 11 x 14 - 250gsm - 15 sheets/pad
Stonehenge is my all time favorite paper.0 points
6
![Adobe Photoshop CS2 [OLD VERSION]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GZ0WT8G5L._SL75_.jpg)
Adobe Photoshop CS2 [OLD VERSION]
There's a CS3 version, but I'm still happy with CS more...0 points
How to Draw Flowers Books
Also known as botanical art
Drawing Made Easy: Flowers & Botanicals: Discover your "inner artist" as you explore the basic theories and techniques of pencil drawing
Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 07/06/2009) 
How to Draw Flowers
Amazon Price: $4.99 (as of 07/06/2009)
Draw 50 Flowers, Trees and Other Plants: The Step-By-Step
Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 07/06/2009)
Drawing & Painting Flowers - Problems & Solutions
Amazon Price: $20.69 (as of 07/06/2009)
Beautiful Botanicals
Amazon Price: (as of 07/06/2009)
Links to Rose Drawing Tutorials
- How to Draw a Rose in Pencil
- Including the finer points of details of shading.
- Howstuffworks "How to Draw a Rose"
- Learn how to draw a rose and other flowers and plants with our step-by-step instructions. Bring out your inner artist as you learn how to draw a rose.
My Pen & Ink Rose Drawing Using Koh-I-Noor Pens
Get a Graphic Tablet!
It'll change your life! At least it did mine...
In case you missed my enthusiasm for this drawing tool elsewhere on this lens...
Wacom Graphire Bluetooth 6 x 8-Inch Tablet
Amazon Price: Too low to display (as of 07/06/2009)
I went from complaining and whining about not doing art for twenty years (!) to drawing almost every day once I got my graphic tablet. 'Nuff said.
Bloggers Drawing Roses
Image courtesy of Essjay is happy in NZ on Flickr.
- Drawing Roses Brooklyn Botanical Garden # 198
- Drawing Roses Brooklyn Botanical Garden # 198. Drawing of Roses at the Brookyn Botanical Garden, Summer 2008. Image # 198. Artist: Deborah Carney. RRP: $50 Your special online price: Click Here. Tags: Deborah Carney.
- Stop and Draw the Roses: Tap Dancer Drawing – Icebreaker
- Thanks Rose! I am glad you like the cropped composition. I really want to focus attention on the feet. Although someday I might try drawing the whole dancer. I'm having fun coming up with the titles. I hope I can keep it up! ...
- Roses Drawing
- How Do I Make My Dozen Roses Look Right? Drawing Roses. By: Willie Jones. When I first started to design flowers I often heard how designers had difficulty making a dozen roses look nice. That it was hard to keep the roses in place. ...
- Draw Roses
- 3. Pests need to be controlled. Roses are inclined to draw in pestering bugs like aphids and Japanese beetles. There are all kinds of organic treatments if you are opposed to spraying with a pesticide planned for roses. ...
Rose Drawing Videos
Learn by watching someone draw
Twitters About Drawing Roses
Image courtesy of Ashley Dinges on Flickr.
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- dabongdaboosh
- roses are, are...... I am sure there's a verse hear somewhere, Oh well back to the drawing board!
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- tailwindturner
- Today I'm drawing roses on a pretty piece of paper and feeling ecstatic! Shouts to Mos Def.
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- Romeone
- Drawing roses...you'll see...
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- evilsweetnessx3
- tigers and roses on black paper. the hardest part is drawing no doubt. bring on the day =)
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- claud_ineee
- http://twitpic.com/90zyd - i miss spending hours & days drawing... one of my abiii07 artworks>>Fifteen Roses, (c)abi
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- casasflowers
- Congratulations to David Wada for winning our Monthly Dozen Roses Drawing!Enter to win a Dozen Roses today! www.casasflowers.com/drawing.cfm
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- xheatherbrucex
- Listening to Guns N Roses. Hahaha. Kaley is drawing me a picture. (:
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- rowannihilation
- @nin_flamzors roses and i have a love/hate relationship when it comes to drawing... as for how, just watch an ep of ouran and ref from that.
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- mightyatom
- I have made the drawing of Haman holding a bouquet of roses in her vagina a painting in Sims 2.
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- PabloPalin
- Freestyle Drawing Signed Picasso (Flowers, Roses) http://bit.ly/7ynZt
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