Technique Class - Colouring Roses

Love Is In The Air

Valentine's Day is just a couple of weeks away now, so I thought I would design something pretty and traditional for all those hopeless romantics out there! You could, of course, use these roses for other types of greeting cards including birthdays, Mother's Day, or even a Get Well Soon Card.

This post is for those who would like a few tips on how I have coloured this design. You can find all the basics on the method I use to colour in the very first post I made on this blog titled "Technique Class - Colouring".

1. Print out the design on good quality, white cardstock or watercolour paper. Using the water colour method outlined in my very first post, colour the roses red. Don't worry too much about streaks or patchiness, that adds to the watercolour look.

2. Brush clean water over the entire rose dampening all of the petals. Working quickly, touch the areas where you want to highlight with your paintbrush and a little yellow colour. This will leave nice "sunny" spots where the light hits the petals. After adding the shading we will go back and strengthen these hightlights if necessary.

3. Using a darker shade of red, add shadows between the petals. If you don't have a darker shade of red, mix a little brown with the red you initially used to create a deeper hue. Remember that the shadows are always positioned opposite the source of light. (See previous post).

4. Use the red pen to add darker areas either with small dots or lines of colour. When you're done, brush some clean water over the areas you used the pen to help soften the marks.

5. Add a light wash of green colour over the leaves. If you are cutting out the design then you don't need to be particularly careful about staying in the lines.

6. Shadow the leaves. Remember that there will be shadows opposite the light source, but also below the flowers as you can see in the picture below.

7. Add a shadow along the veins of the leaves.

8. Deepen the shadows in three of four places with a tiny touch of black. Be careful not to make it too dark or to darken too many areas. You can now go back and deepen the hightlights if you feel you need to.