Roses are one of the most well-known flowers out there, and they are commonly drawn since they are a symbol of love. However, due to their many layers, they can be a real challenge to draw. You can learn to draw a rose if you are willing to pay attention to detail and carefully shade the entire rose to add proper dimension and depth. The following is a quick guide to help you draw the perfect rose every time.
Gather Your Art Supplies
The good news is, you don’t need that many supplies on hand to get started. You will need a hard pencil, a medium soft pencil, and a soft pencil to help with the guidelines and the shading, but if you only have access to a regular pencil, you can change the power of your stroke to help adjust your lines. Of course, you will also need a sheet of paper to draw the rose on, and it is always handy to have a pencil sharpener nearby in case your pencil dulls.
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Start with the Basic Egg Shape
The first step is to simply draw an egg shape on a paper using the hard pencil. You want to create very light lines for now, because this is your guide to the shape of the rest of the rose. Eventually, this small teardrop will serve as the rose’s inner bud. Once you draw the egg shape, make a tiny curve at the top of the oval which will create what resembles an ‘opening’ on the egg.
Introduce the Petals
Next, draw small circles that encapsulate each other inside of that tiny opening you created. These will become the shape for the inner petals of the rose. You want to be very fine with these circles and keep them inside of the opening. After you finish, draw a heart around these petals, which is going to serve as the outline of the other petals that sit outside of the bud
Connect the Outline to the Bud
Now, connect the heart to the bud that you created by drawing a couple of straight lines from the heart down to the outer edge of the oval. Run a line fading out down to the bottom of the rosebud from the bottom of the heart. Then, add another heart that is slightly larger around the first heart that you drew. Add in some more lines at the top of the second heart to connect it to the bud and draw a few more lines from the heart down the sides of the bud.
Add One More Heart and Create the Rose Body
The final heart shape is the key to forming the rose body and creating the room for the petals to branch out from. This time around, create a large heart around the others, but make it less regular and don’t seal it off at the bottom. Instead, allow the sides to simply close off at the sides of the bottom of the bud. Then add in some lines from the heart and across the bud to create depth. Layer them on until you can see the rose starting to pop out from the image.
Add an Inner Petal Across the Front
Now, to finish off the inner bud, you have to add an inner petal, which is a bit more complicated than the other heart petals. You will want to draw a line across the front that appears to be a backward, vertical ‘S’ shape. Make sure that the ‘S’ creates curves on both the left and right sides of the bud to add a bit more thickness to the overall shape. Then add in a few connecting lines to make the petal look more natural and connected to the bud.
Create a Cup of Petals
It is now time to create the outer cup that the bud sits inside. You will do this by adding petals that gradually slope out from the sides and gather around the structure you have. Start with small curves that come out from the inside of the bud and then close off again higher up on the rosebud. Then gradually build off of those to build up the sides of the rose. Once you have a nice thick shape, add a few more sloping petals that are large and grow the rose along the sides and bottom. Continue to do this but slope the petals and the curves down a bit so that the petals start to appear to bend downwards. These are the more open petals at the bottom of the rose.
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Define Shaping Lines
Next, you will want to go back over the lines that look like defining lines to make sure that the shape of the rose pops out of the page. Then you will need to use some of your own discretion to figure this out, but in general, you will want to retrace harder over the thicker petal shapes, and the inner bud of the rose. You will also want to define the hearts a bit more. You can leave the connecting lines a bit softer.
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Start Shading
You will want to grab your softer pencil and start to shade in the rose to add some real depth to the image. Start on the insides of the rose petals, and lightly shade to start, and then go back and press a bit harder around the inner folds to create a darker shade. Now take the same pencil and add a bit of darkness around the edge of the prominent outer petals.
Add the Finishing Touches
At this point, you just need to eyeball your rose and add a bit more texture to the petals. Grab your hard pencil again and add some light shading to give the illuminated part of the rose some texture. Use the darkness of the inside to determine how dark you should shade here. Ultimately, you want the illuminated parts to be lighter than the inner areas you just finished shading in. Finally, trade out your pencils and choose your softest pencil to add a bit of shading in the darkest crevices of your rose.
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