There are several ways to draw a rose. You can draw a rose from the side, like we have done lower on this page, or you can draw your rose from above, looking down into the
blossom. These overhead view roses are more accurately called rosettes.
The easiest way to draw a rose from above is from the inside working out. You start
with a tiny off-center triangle, and then make more triangle shapes working outward to create the folds of the rose petals. After about ten layers of this, then your triangles can become softer and bend more, like real rose petals bend and curve.
The line drawing of a rose is very easy
to draw, but if you want to draw more realistic roses, I suggest you use some of the photographs of roses below. Copy these images, paying close attention to the forms of the petals and the different shadows they make. Notice how rose petals are different than other plants, and how different kinds of roses look.
Of course, while photographs are helpful, there's nothing like drawing from the real thing. So consider heading down to the grocery or florist's store to get a couple of real roses to copy. When you're done studying you can give some to your girlfriend, or your mom.
How to draw a rose
1) Draw the stem. Rose stems tend to bend slightly where the leaves come out, so you may want to add gentle angles to the line you make to draw the stem.
2) The first outside petal. Use a teardrop shape. This petal will have a curved tip, so you may want to shape the first lines to accomodate how the petal will look with the curved-out part.
3) The second petal. Some curves along the inside edge will give the suggestion of the ruffled edges that rose petals have.
4) The smaller inside petals. Some tutorials have you make this shape as a swirl, and that's fine too, but real roses have sharper lines where the petals intersect.
5) Draw two very short lines down into the center of the rose, starting at the two angles you just made to create the smaller inside petals. The short lines should come down and touch the inside part of the two large petals.
6) The outside back petal. Again, a little ruffling or waviness in the line will suggest the ruffled edges of a rose petal.
7) Look at the very first petal you made, and draw a single wavy line from the tip of the teardrop (the petal), down kind of toward the center of the petal, then curving back to the inside edge of the petal (near where it touches the second petal you drew). This creates a nice two dimensional affect that looks like the rose petal is curved out.
8) Next, draw the insides of the leaves. Think of them as leaf spines.
9) Draw the outsides of the leaves. Rose leaves are jagged, so adding a zigzag rough edge here is good. By the way -- if you look really carefully as a real rose, you'll notice roses have three leaves in each segment, not one leaf coming from the stem as we show here. However, three leaves looks more complicated and takes away from the bloom, so I decided to simply the leaves to make the
image less intimidating to draw.
10) Add a second line so that the stem of the rose is made of two lines. This makes the rose seem more realistic, and makes the leaves look better.
11) The finished rose with the thorns added. Adding the thorns helps people know that this is a rose, not a tulip.
