If you’re like me, you love flowers in any shape, size, or color. But there’s just something about roses that makes them special, isn’t there? Is it their heady fragrance and luscious colors? The intricacy of their form? Or maybe it’s all the memories we associate with them. No matter what the reason, there’s no denying that they’re gorgeous!
Seems like everywhere I travel, I snap pictures of roses…
From Santa Barbara…
to Sarasota…
and from Maine…
to Spain.
English cottage roses in the Cotswolds…
David Austin roses in Ireland…
and old-fashioned roses just down the road from home.
I love them all!
Okay, you might say I’m a little obsessed, but that obsession led me to create this week’s featured lesson…
In How to Paint a Rose, I explain exactly how to draw and paint a beautiful pink rose that has soft gradations, glowing shadows, and lots of dimension.
Every step of the way, I offer practical tips that will help you succeed. My lessons are so much more than just photos of a demo. They are packed with the instructions you need to achieve results you’ll be happy with.
The lesson begins with helpful hints for drawing a rose, but for those who find the idea of drawing a rose too intimidating, I’ve included some easy ways to transfer the image to paper without drawing.
After the rose has been drawn, I discuss how to look for value contrast in an image, so you’ll know where to leave highlights and where to deepen values.
Many of my students seem to struggle with getting enough dark values into their paintings. They’re frustrated because their sketches look flat and dull, so in this lesson I show you how to achieve a range of values by building up layers of transparent color to give your roses depth and dimension.
When painting realistic watercolor roses, graded washes are your best friend, and the detailed instructions in How to Paint a Rose explain exactly how to soften edges, blend paint, and grade washes from dark to light and light to dark to create the delicate look of those pretty pink petals.
A more accurate title for this lesson would probably have been How to Paint Roses and Leaves because a big part of the tutorial is devoted to showing you step-by-step instructions for painting leaves. And I don’t mean just one technique for painting leaves – I’ve included SIX different techniques!
This is information you can use over and over again as you paint a variety of floral subjects. I use these techniques in almost every sketch I paint, and I wanted you to have this valuable information so you can learn, practice, and become confident painting floral subjects with greenery.
After your rose and leaves are painted, you’ll want to add a background. For the example sketch, I painted a dreamy, watery wash that’s meant to suggest foliage, blossoms, and sky. I’ve included instructions in the lesson that will help you to paint a wet-in-wet wash that merges and flows without streaks or overlaps. As a bonus, I’ve included troubleshooting tips for when things don’t turn out as you hoped. It happens to the best of us, but now you’ll know how you can improve the next time!
How to Paint a Rose goes hand-in-hand with another of my tutorials, 52 Ways to Sketch a Garden. There you’ll find loads of page layout ideas for sketchbook journaling that feature a single flower, like the rose you’ll paint in this course. So, instead of just painting a single rose in your practice sketchbook, why not have some fun and add a hand-drawn frame around it or include a relevant quote?
And if you’d like to see visual demonstrations of the blending techniques which are important to this lesson, I suggest you enroll in my Watercolor Essentials video course. I created that course so you could see, in real-time, exactly how much paint to load onto your brush, what position to hold it in, how to drag the bristles across the paper, etc. And, remember, you’ll receive a 20% off coupon for Watercolor Essentials when you purchase How to Paint a Rose or any other PDF lesson.
If you love flowers and have a desire to paint them, I hope you’ll give this tutorial a try.
Last week I asked you to comment about life-changing trips you’d taken, and, wow! You really responded. I loved reading your stories about hiking, camping, overseas travel, new babies, island honeymoons, tropical getaways, European tours, and crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary. I got choked up reading some of them, and others gave me goosebumps, but they all made me feel connected to you. Thank you so much for taking the time to write and share a little part of yourself.
And now….
The winner of last week’s drawing is
Barbara Lowe
Congratulations, Barbara ! You’ve won the set of American Journey watercolors.
Since I shared all those photos of roses around the world, I thought it would be fun to give away and travel paint brush this week. The Princeton Aqua Elite Travel Size 8 Round is a favorite of mine. It holds plenty of paint or water and has the perfect amount of spring for me. (See the whole range of travel brush sizes here.) I’m also including a spiral-bound 5″ x 7″ Winsor and Newton watercolour journal filled with 140 lb. cold pressed paper. (Thanks go out to Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff for their generous donations.)
Be sure to leave a comment below to enter this week’s giveaway. (US addresses only, please.) The winner of the drawing will be announced in next week’s “Lesson of the Week” post on September 7, 2021.
Here’s this week’s prompt…
Tell me about a rose memory
Were there roses in your wedding bouquet? Have you visited a fabulous rose garden? Did slugs eat all the blossoms off your roses one summer? (I hope not!) Did your grandmother grow old-fashioned roses with intoxicating fragrances? Tell us about it. 🙂
And I’ll leave you with one more perfect rose image before I go…
Can’t you almost smell them? 🙂
Good luck with the giveaway, and happy sketching!
PS – If you’d like to paint any of the rose photos in this post, be my guest!
61 Comments
One of my mom’s favorite flowers was the rose. She planted several and our home was always filled with them. The week of her passing, i saw and smelled roses everywhere…giving me tremendous comfort at her loss.
We now live in the house I grew up in, the house my dad built. As a child I spent a lot of time in the garden with my mom as we grew most of our own vegetables. The vegetables are no more, with the trees grown so tall and shady and my parents have passed but outside our window grows one perfect very tall rose bush. It’s salmon coloured blooms appear in the spring and are the last flowers to disappear in the fall. Butterfly kisses from my mom.
That’s so special, to have that remembrance of your mother. I wonder what type of rose it is, that blooms the entire season. Do you know?
My “rose memory” is of my first visit to Elizabeth Park in Hartford, CT., the country’s oldest public rose garden. Years ago, my daughter planned a mystery outing for us. She picked me up for lunch, but wouldn’t say where we were going. When we arrived at Elizabeth Park she unpacked the picnic lunch she prepared. Then she unpacked my camera, so I could take lots of pictures of all the beautiful flowers!
What a sweet girl! She must have an extraordinary mother. 🙂
My favorite memory of roses was from when we first got married. Money was tight, but sometimes my husband would surprise me with a single rose, which meant the world to me.
I love all roses, like you have had rose bushes in our yard for more than 50years although challenging, in New England weather in ma!! We still have them blooming, right up to fall! Thank you for a chance to win, I am an amateur painter!!
Thats an easy one : being with my Grandmother in her sun filled rose garden, cutting roses together . Also..sitting with you Leslie, in that rose garden at the Santa Barbara Mission, as you created the page above 😉
That was one of the best workshops ever. I loved being in that big barn for class, overlooking the Pacific, and Santa Barbara is such a great town. I’d love to go there again sometime.
I can’t choose one particular favorite memory of roses – I just love their beauty and scent!
My mother grew a Peace rose in her backyard. I remember cutting the most perfect blossom and bringing it in to float in a large “brandy snifter” vase. So beautiful, and it smelled heavenly!
My favorite rose memory is of my grandmother’s white picket fence covered with tiny pink roses. My grandfather was an Englishman, and he built a half-timbered house when he moved here to Alabama. That beautiful house, white picket fence and pink roses are such a lovely memory!
My rose memory is from about five years ago when I began to really grow my interest in gardening outside. I bought this little yellow rose bush from the clearance section and proudly brought it home. Shortly after, I discovered that I had purchased a diseased plant when I researched about the black spots. I nurtured that rose bush back to great health and it began to thrive and bloom. The next spring season I became quite ill myself, and wasn’t able to attend to my little rose bush. I was sure it would not bloom or survive without my attention…but, I was pleasantly surprised how it produced a remarkable abundance of yellow roses. I knew it was God’s little hug to me during this time of illness.
My Grandparents had a farm in Southern Missouri that we used to visit in the summertime. I always remember the “old roses” that were along the dirt road and fence , and beside their porch. We would sit in the porch swing and have iced tea and lemonade-and you could get the scent of those roses. Always so pretty!
My husband loves old time roses, the kind that grow along the highway. When we moved to our home we live in now, he decided we had to have some. But not just any color, he wanted the deep scarlet red ones. He looked everywhere we went. One day he found them at a old neglected home off of a dirt road. He had to have clippings and after getting some,we grew them in our flower garden. They were beautiful.
I remember when on Mother’s Day people wore a red rose if their Mother was living and a white rose if she was dead. These were picked out of the garden and I remember having to go to the neighbors for a red one. Now if that was the custom I’d be wearing a white one.
I have a simple rose transplanted from my grandmother’s garden . I think of her whenever it blooms.
This post is just wonderful.. Bought then How to Paint a rose awhile back, have to get busy painting it.. so many flowers… so little time.. LOL….. thank you Leslie!!!
Roses were always in our garden when I was growing up. The most special ones came from a bush my grandfather gave my mom. They’re both gone now but the bush brings many happy memories.
Simply beautiful,Leslie!
When we were kids and would buy roses for my mom to celebrate her birthday or Mother’s Day, she would always take a single cutting, position it under a glass jar, and wait til it sprouted roots. She then carefully planted the new addition in her rose garden. The variety was amazing as were the roses. She said the roses from cuttings were her favs since they were from us.
She must have had quite the green thumb. I tried that technique years ago and never had any luck with it. Wish I knew her secret. Maybe I should give it another try.
Roses and sweet peas were my mother’s favorite. She didn’t have many hobbies but she loved being outside tending to the roses!
The first time I visited friends in CA, I marveled at their rose garden. Their roses were so-o-o big and fragrant and colorful that I wanted to bring them all back home with me. She said, “That’s so easy.” She pulled the petals off some roses, put them in a wicker basket and left them outside in the warm, dry CA air. Sure enough by the time we left, I had a fabulous homemade potpourri to remind me of smart, wonderful, generous friends.
My best memory of Roses are from when I was very little and I visited my Gram’s House. I was always out in her garden, and I loved walking under her arched trellis where the beautiful scented and gorgeous looking roses grew. Sometimes I can almost smell those roses, I am 58 now and my Grams died when I was 12, but I still remember her and her garden. She gave me the passion for gardening and sewing, she taught both skills to me at a young age. Some days I wish I could go back there and see the roses, eat the sour cherries or an apple from the orchard and touch the pussytoe flowers and gather up four o’clock seeds again. I guess now it can only be in my dreams!
That sounds so idyllic, Ginny. Reading your words makes me realize what an influence I am having on my grandchildren. We’re creating the memories that they’ll carry with them throughout life, just as you have. It makes me want to be a better grandmother.
The smell, all about the smell! Both of my grandfathers had rose gardens and even though the blooms didn’t last long, the smell always lingered.
I have a beautiful pink rosebush on the side of my house and it blooms and blooms and smells fabulous. I love tending it and watching it bloom until the late fall. Roses are special. Thanks Leslie
I wish I knew what type of rose you have. I’d like to find some that will bloom all summer and into the fall. So many of mine only bloom in the spring. Email me if you can recommend what kind to get.
We live in southern California, in a neighborhood of roses and trees and peacocks. l step outside in the early morning to get the paper delivery and to do a 360 to see all the colors coming alive on my block. I can never get enough of seeing the reds, yellows, purples, oranges, and cross-bred combinations. I never met a sunrise I didn’t love, or a new day for me to use that I wasn’t grateful for, and I never viewed our roses casually-the royalty in the garden. But every once in while, there is standout rose, and last week one such specimen caught the dawn light first and my heart just stopped.
Leslie, thank you for having us all focus with these last exercises. Life is certainly better when you take notice of it.
It sounds lovely, Joan. I can identify with what you’re saying. Despite all the turmoil in the world these days, there’s still so much beauty, joy, and happiness to be found, if we only look for it.
The Doctor that I worked for had a beautiful rose garden. Once a week he would come in with beautiful roses for my desk during the season. It made the office smell so good and all the patients commented on the beautiful roses.
I was taken by a recent display at Rogers Gardens of the rose “Sally Holmes” growing on an arbor with beautiful wedding bouquet groups of white roses. They were sold out, but I ordered the plant online. We have positioned it to fill in our new wrought iron arbor which replaces a wood arbor that was falling apart. Supposedly the rose is hardy and easy to grow.🤞
I never met a rose I didn’t love! I love all colors and types. My favorite flower with so many lovely memories.
I have two very vivid memories of my relationship with roses. As a very young child living in California at the time, roses were everywhere. I used to gingerly take a few thorns off, lick them and reapply the thorns down my nose, on my forehead pretending I was a rhino or a dinosaur. I’m 64 now. On occasion, it’s not unheard of for me to pluck a thorn from a bush, lick, apply, and… pretend. Please, shhh, don’t tell anyone!
When I lived in Salt Lake City in the ’90s, I planted 5 beautiful lavender rose bushes in front of my home. Oh, my gosh, they were beautiful! One very very cold winter I drove into my driveway. Before going into the garage, I noticed one of bushes was leaning a bit way to the left, so I got out of my car and straightened up the bush. I turned around to face the car, stopped, and thought, “Wait, did I just straighten one of the rose bushes? Why would I do that?” It was then I realized as I pulled the rose bush out of the snow and out of the ground that prairie dogs ate the roots of all five bushes – Lucky Larry, Lilly, LaVerne, Lionel and Lucy were violated and taken out at their roots. Yes, I named them. I named the rose bushes. and, yes, I still mourn them to this day.
Now I live in the desert and grow cactus… still stuff with needles, just a bit more hardy… (sigh)
oh my a rose memory.
When we recently moved to Madison the wonderful gal who is the sales coordinator for the apartment complex spent eons of time with us helping all the arrangements. Moving in the middle of a pandemic. And to top it off she appeared with a huge bowl of gorgeous roses for us shortly after we settled in. I painted several sketches of them. A lovely memory.
I must add the rose lesson to my “Leslie” file and will!
Roses have been a garden mainstay all my life. There are so many beauties but the Peace Rose stands out for its scent and color than softly changes from yellow to shades of pink.
Home isn’t home until the roses are planted and include that rose bush!
A rose is a rose is a rose… although I can not grow them easily, I do love to have them in my home. One of my favorite varieties is the very fragrant double delight.
My memory is visiting a beautiful garden in Canada while on a tour with my husband. I still enjoy the many pictures that I took.
Oh, the smell of roses! Everyday when I get home from work and before I go into the house I water two plants, then walk over to my roses and smell them. I linger for a bit so I can smell them a few times before I head inside. I’ll miss that when winter comes!
I don’t remember my grandma growing any roses, bit she did have beautiful flower gardens, as well as growing fruits and veggies. After she passed I took seeds and seedlings from her place up north and brought them down to my place. The Sweet Williams are my favorite from her.
I will definitely be purchasing this rose lesson!! Now to get some time away so I can practice without everyday life getting in the way!
Yes to roses! Even the fragrance I wear is all about it.
My favorite is the Peace Rose, the soft blending of colors from cream to peach to light pink. They were my Mom’s favorite as well.
What gorgeous reference photos! and your delicate work capturing them is so lovely. I am anxious for cooler weather because your posts have rekindled the urge to sketch outdoors!
I started dating a man that stole a rose to give me. He has been my husband for over 40 years now. He was a sweet man in college and no job. Both of us in college. For over 2 years just saying hi or bye. Until one day he had the courage to talk and still a rose from a house which had a lady would have kill anyone that would touch the rose bush. He is still that sweet man the I felt in love with. God send my way a beautiful man that takes care of me and our 2 sons before he cares for himself. We all love him so much. Now we add grandkids to the mix and he/we melt with 3 grandchildren. Thank, reading the blog brought all the memories.
What a sweet story! You’re a lucky woman.
I cannot point to a single moment that I can relate. There are several times when roses were remembered. Whenever I went to visit my “Big Mama” in East Texas I could barely get out of the car when she would take me on a tour of her flowers.
Prominent in the front yard was her yellow rose of Texas. It was a real beauty.
What beautiful images of a favorite flower. I can remember the fragrance of wild roses growing along the fence line of my grandmother’s field. Thank you Leslie for helping me remember special times.
A wonderful photographer, neighbor who is a man has a wonderful rose garden and very graciously shares them with all of us…I will share one of his bouquets I painted. Thank you so very much for all this inspiration. I will add one of yours to my sketchbooks! (Oops, couldn’t share…)
Growing up my Mom had a beautiful rose garden right next to her clothes line. I always thought that when she hung her laundry she had a beautiful view and lovely aroma. I had a bouquet of white roses for my wedding. My rose garden is small, but is a memory of her and her love.
My wedding bouquet was a dozen white roses, I would love to win this brush and try to paint my memory of that bouquet! 🙂
Coming up with a specific rose memory is very challenging for me as I have never met a rose that I didn’t love. I will simply offer up my current favorite–‘Just Joey.’ A luscious golden/apricot colored tea rose with a wonderful fragrance to match. When the early morning light hits it just right, it positively glows!
My mother had bright red roses for her wedding bouquet in 1954; as a child seeing the wedding pictures, I thought they were beautiful, elegant and romantic. Maybe that was the start of my lifelong love of roses. I chose roses for my wedding bouquet, too; mine were a soft pink. What a lovely idea to paint those special flowers…
My mom was always the practical one and her garden held herbs and vegetables, but not any flowers, the exception being two beautiful tree roses…one yellow and one peach. They weren’t very fragrant but added just the right amount of sparkle to the yard.
Such beautiful blooms, Leslie. And I can only imagine the fabulous fragrance!
I’m not sure I have any rose memories, which is kind of pathetic when you think about it! As close as I can get is recalling the beautiful rose petals sprinkled along a pathway leading us from one are to another, from dinner to a craft workshop tent.
Hi Leslie!
My mom passed away when I was just eight years old, but when I see roses I think of her. She loved to garden and she had the most beautiful roses.
Thank you for the lovely memory,
Terry
My favorite memory of roses go back to childhood where my mom grew old fashioned roses and small roses on a climbing vine on the side of her home. The house was a rock house using volcanic rocks that were in the area. The winters were harsh with lots of snow, so when spring and summer arrived we welcomed the beautiful colors of the pink roses and the wonderful smell that they gave off.
I love all flowers but I’m afraid I don’t have a special affinity for roses (my “fan favorite” is zinnias). But a friend with whom I share weekly walks in nature is a rose lover. She always “stops to smell the roses” which brings a smile to my face as I witness her joy and know that she has many special memories of “rose encounters.”
David Austin roses are my favorite type. I can’t ever forget walking into the Pavillion at the Chelsea Flower Show and being bowled over by their display.
When my daughter got married,10 years ago, it was at a local park that had the most beautiful rose garden. It was over 100 degrees outside, but the roses stood up nice and stately unlike me who was wilting away. I will say it was a beautiful wedding despite the hot weather.
My father-in-law was very special in my life. I still miss him and think of him often. My father died shortly after he walked me down the aisle at my wedding. After my father’s death, my father-in-law became a role model, friend and inspiration. He came to America when he was 16 years old. He spoke no English and was on his own to build a new life in a new country. He seemed to know exactly what to say to make me feel better. He built his own home and swimming pool with a little help from his son. But most of all, he loved his family wholly and with great sacrifice.
One thing I remember was his one or two rose bushes. The roses were at the bottom of the stairs at the back of the house. They always looked beautiful and smelled like perfume. The care that he heaped upon those roses was always tender and loving. I believe that is why the bushes flourished. It seemed they loved him back. He never picked a rose to bring inside as I do, but was quietly proud to tend them and see them grow.
One of the greatest gifts I have had in my life was the presence of this remarkable man from Italy.
What a beautiful tribute!
I’ve always loved fragrant roses and keep thinking about planting a bush or two but for some reason haven’t tried them yet. I’ve thought they were always too hard to keep alive! Maybe next spring I’ll buy a few.
As a child, going to Canada to visit friends of my parents who had a farm. She grew the most beautiful roses. And, her name was Rose!
A rose memory — that’s a toughie, since I seem to kill them far more easily than one should. But I do remember my college friend Andy bringing my mom a peace rose after she was first ill. We should have moved it when we sold the house — it always bloomed!