Rosebud Contour Drawing
Lightly trace this line drawing, use a graph to draw it, or draw the rose free hand.
Draw the shapes of the shadows and highlights, the lighter lines in the body of the rose and bud leaves, too.
I’ve darkened this outline drawing so you can see it easily. Make your line drawing just dark enough to see, so the lines will blend in with the shading.
Shade The Rose
To help see the shadows and highlights, think of the drawing as a blurry jigsaw puzzle. Each shadow or highlight area is a shape, and you put the puzzle together by shading each piece.
Shade everything slightly lighter than it is at first, then slowly darken the shadows as you add more layers.
A small flat brush is a good tool for making light values. Just drag the brush over the contour drawing to create a light watercolor-like wash effect. For darker values, hatch with the point of a medium hard pencil and then blend with a brush or stump.
Hard and Soft Edges
Make the shading more realistic by paying attention to hard and soft edges.
Soft edge lines are slightly blurred. An example is the highlight line in the bud casing below and to the right of the rosebud in this image. Erase soft edges into shadows with a kneaded eraser, draw them in other areas with light pressure on a pencil, or use the side of the lead.
A hard edge looks like a clear, hard line and can be dark or light. In this image, there is a hard line around the outside of the bud. Create hard lines with a sharp pencil tip, but use several layers to create a dark edge. Pencil tips easily gouge paper and can blemish the entire drawing.
Exaggerate To Give The Rose Visual Punch
Darkening shadows and lightening highlights somewhat more than reality gives any graphite pencil drawing an eye catching and dramatic effect. This is a good technique to use on drawings of flowers because the eye expects to see color, and high contrast helps fulfill that anticipation.
Here’s where I manipulated the contrast on this rose:
- Highlights around the edges of the petals.
- Tiny veins at the bottom of the bud.
- Emphasized the way the rose gets a little lighter near the bottom of the bud.
- Details along the petal and leaf edges.
- Details in the leaves showing how they undulate.
Finally, I darkened the outside edges of the rose to make it stand out clearly against the white paper.
Flower Drawing Tips
When looking for a flower model, look for beautiful line, shape, texture. These are qualities that you can take advantage of with pencil.
When you draw, you’re essentially drawing light and shadow, so pay attention to lighting. High noon light is harsh and flattens form. Slanted light shows detail and form at its best, so try taking photos or drawing outside from 9 to 10 in the morning, and from 3 to 4 in the afternoon.
Try working on light colored pastel paper. It’s an interesting way to inject a touch of color into graphite work.
Experiment with rough and smooth textured paper to see which kind suits your drawing the best.
In this drawing, I used a very smooth hatch technique that works especially well for flowers, but very rough hatching can work too.
Supplies:
Medium or HB pencil. A No. 2 writing pencil will work.
Erasers – kneaded and vinyl.
Small brush for shading.
Paper stump for shading.
Drawing paper marked medium or smooth.