Lately, a lot of my work has been strictly abstract, so I decided to change things up a little by creating a rose and stem drawing. It’s pretty easy but not so simple that it looks childish. I typically like to find a balance between “easy” and “looks good!”
There are a lot of guides online about drawing a rose and stem, but they all look a little too basic for my taste. This one (in my opinion) is a good balance between simple and realistic.
Materials Used
For this rose and stem drawing, I used the following:
- Pencil: Pentel Twist Erase III (0.7mm lead)
- Shading: Blending Stumps
- Eraser 1: GPBM2-BP Factis Pen Style Eraser
- Eraser 2: Kneaded Eraser
- Paper: Any Sketchbook
Note that the kneaded eraser probably isn’t necessary, and I believe I only used it once as I was creating this.
Rose and Stem Drawing Tips
This drawing is actually the result of finding a how-to video by a YouTube channel known as “My Art Therapy” (previously J. Solorzano). He showed a step-by-step process on how to draw the rose, which I found very helpful. He does the drawing digitally, which I’m not as familiar with, hence why I created it with the classic pencil on paper.
Anyway, here’s a few tips if you plan to take this one on:
- Start out with the shapes you see me start with in my video
- Don’t go straight into the detail. Shapes and lines will help you figure out placement
- Draw lightly at first and darker once everything is where you want it
- Don’t stop with the outline. Adding shadows can transform your drawing from just “meh” to “oh hey that’s a rose!”
- If you can, do it all in one go
- If you take long breaks in-between, it can really make you lose focus and the thoughts you have on where your next stroke will be
Rose and Stem Drawing Video
I also recorded myself drawing this one to show any viewers the process of how it came to be. Fortunately it’s a time-lapse video, so you don’t have to sit here watching for 15-30 minutes.
If you want to use it as a step-by-step guide on how to draw a rose and stem, you can pause it throughout the video until you catch up. To save you from leaving this page just to watch the video, I embedded it into this page. Hope you like it!
This is a good beginner drawing for someone looking for Valentine’s Day drawing ideas. If the rose isn’t your thing, I have a few other ideas in my recently updated Valentine’s Day Drawing Ideas article.