Rose Drawings:
Your Step By Step Instructions To The Perfect Rose

Rose drawings can be tough.  Hey, I've been there.  Being frustrated when I can't seem to get things right with my art.  With this lesson, you'll feel more confident with your drawing abilities, that anxiety will melt away and you will again learn the joy of play!  

I'll walk you the basics, then to more complex below:

Imagine completing a great little piece of art that you can include in a card for a friend.  Even get your kids involved!  I really think you'll enjoy these instructions.

A simple rose drawing that kids and novices alike, will love to try!

Take the stress out of trying to draw roses.  They may look really complicated with all those petals, but we will start out with EASY!

You'll enjoy learning and teaching your kids how to create something special from Grandma's house too!  

Simply follow along and I'll show you step by step.  Not many tools needed. 

  • A kneaded eraser is about the most sophisticated tools.  A normal eraser will work, you just have to be a bit more careful and 
  • HB, 2B and 4B pencils.  
  • Oh, and of course, paper.

Step 1.  I usually start with a circle, and then another smaller circle near the top of the first.  This is just to give your rose drawing a few boundaries.


Step 2.  Starting from the center and working your way out, lay in the center of the rose, then a few small petals next to either side.  The petal shape generally is the same throughout, only they get larger as they head for the blossom outer edge.  Don't worry if it appears cartoonish, it is just this style of rose.  We get more realistic in the lessons below.


Step 3.  The petals wrap themselves around the center, so follow that general pattern as you put in each petal.  

Your petals don't have to look exactly like mine.  You can keep them more rounded if you wish rather than the "elf ear" shape I have on these.  

It's just a matter of preference for the look and feel of your rose.  

The elf ear petal resembles the hybrid tea roses I see in the floral shops.  If you go with a rounded petal, it will resemble a more old fashioned rose.  

Step 4.  Once the initial drawing is in place, go back with a darker pencil and go over the lines.  Pressing a little harder will also give a darker, thicker line.    


At this point you are finished with this simple rose.  It can be a basis of a more realistic work of art if you wish.  Click here to see a full demonstration of a rose that starts as a drawing, and ends up a painting.


And don't forget crayons.  You can draw the initial rose, photo copy from your computer, and have a crayon coloring party.  Or even trace the image onto skin, use some watercolor, washable markers, and create a fake tattoo!

If you do decide to take this drawing to the next step, let me recommend another artist friend of mine that has an instruction page on just this subject. 

This link opens in a new page so you won't lose your place here,

Art by Carol May, painting watercolor flowers


The Video below is the process from start to finish.  

Rose drawings, from simple to fine art quality.

Now, are you ready for a more serious drawing of a rose? 

In this demonstration I am using an HB, 2B, 4B pencil, and two more items

  • a paper stump and 
  • a simple kneaded eraser.  


I have in front of me, but out of camera view, a painting that was done using a similar drawing as this.  I show it at the end of the video.  

Once I'm happy with my outline drawing, I check measurements with a tool.  It's called a proportional divider and it's a quick and accurate way to check your drawing.

It's discussed here, link opens in a new window so you don't lose your place here!


I am happy with my initial sketch, so I proceed with cleaning up all my lines and beginning to do a bit of shading.  I'm using a 2b pencil at this point.


So the process continues now with a 4b pencil, darkening the areas that need more shading.  Sometimes cross hatching, sometimes little circles.  Pressing a bit harder to get a darker line.


After going over the entire piece with my darkest pencil, I begin to use my paper stump to begin softening and blending the shaded areas.  I don't worry if I go too far into a white area because I know I have another secret weapon to fix that.


My kneaded eraser!  And boy did I need it and knead it!  Once it's nice and soft, you pitch and shape or mold the rubber into a point.  You can then press it into the area to remove the graphite nicely and bring back the white of the paper.  I even shaped it like a wedge, and stroked areas that I wanted to lighten but not completely.  The video shows it better.


Above, I'm doing a bit of final clean up with a normal eraser.  This to me is still considered a simple sketch, but it looks pretty good.  The next step would use a harder, fine point pencil to get some really fine details like, dew drops, veins in the petals, a bug or two on the leaves, etc.  But that's for another lesson.

Wasn't that easy!  Why not continue to increase those drawing skills?  Check out this great training here below the video.    I've taken it, and the exercises really has improved my art.  It also improved my painting as well! 

A video showing 2 rose drawings from start to finish.

Thanks for watching the film!

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Care to see more of my work?  Click here to head over to my fine art site at delmusphelps.com