The Painted Rose Tutorial

Since Roses have filled my life with such
inspiration lately, I thought it might be
lovely to share a painting tutorial so all
of you, could join in the creative fun.


I snapped this photograph of a flower from
my garden, and printed the image on a sheet
of copy paper.


Flowers are really all about capturing the
shape of a petal and distinguishing one
from another by emphasizing the dark,
shadowy areas and the highlighted areas.

Using an ink pen, I outlined each petal so
I could easily distinguish the shape of the
rose.


Using a piece of bleach muslin 200 thread ct.,
I traced the inked outline onto the fabric with
a mechanical pencil and a light box.


Following the basic painting steps in the
Watercolor Effects Tutorial, I broke
the subject down into several main colors
and started by painting those large color
blocks using a dry brush technique.

In this example I had four colors: light pink,
medium/hot pink, red, and medium green


Once the paint was dry, I began layering
other dark and light paint colors to create
the shadows and highlights using a wash
technique.


Allowing each wash to dry thoroughly,
I continued adding more layers of paint
until satisfied.


Finally, I cut the painted rose from the
surrounding muslin fabric and collaged
it onto a background of vintage papers.