Step-by-step plan

Rose

A rose symbolizes love and romance. These beautiful flowers may also be in your garden. The botanical drawing technique helps you to show specific characteristics of a plant or flower. You try to do this as realistically as possible and this is how you approach the plant or flower in your garden.

In this step-by-step plan we draw a rose with fineliner / brush pens, watercolor and pencil. The rose is not yet in bloom, but is still in the bud.

What you need

Bruynzeel Fineliner Brush pens set 12 colours. You can also use colours from another set, of course!
Bruynzeel HB pencil and eraser
Tear-off palette or plastic sleeve containing a white A4 sheet
Good sturdy paper, e.g. Van Gogh water colour paper 300 grams
Watercolour brush
Kitchen roll
Pots of water for mixing and to clean the watercolour paintbrush during and after use

Tips

Read through all the steps before you start
Leave to dry thoroughly before applying the next layer
After use, clean your water colour paintbrush thoroughly so that it remains usable for longer

Step 1

Make a rough sketch. Use a Bruynzeel HB pencil for this. Sketch lightly with a Bruynzeel HB pencil. Erase any excess graphite, as pencil stripes remain visible under the light colours.

Step 2

Draw over the lines with fineliners of the correct colour and fill in the larger sections with the brush side. Erase any remaining pencil marks.

Step 3

Paint stripes with the water colour paintbrush on the tear-off palette/sleeve. Try to make some nice blends with the brush. Also look at the mixing chart for matching colours. Test these on the edge of your paper, on the back or on a piece of waste paper. This will give you an idea of what the colour and the water do together on the paper.

Step 4

When switching between the fineliner and the brush pen, be sure to allow sufficient drying time in between. Carefully apply some water to your drawing using the water colour paintbrush. Do this stroke by stroke and enjoy the water colour effect that is created. If necessary, you can apply some more original colour directly from the pens or blends from your tear-off pallet/sleeve. Allow each piece to dry thoroughly before applying the next layer. Play with colour, add water and dab with kitchen paper every now and then.