How to Paint a Rose ..Step by Step ....( showing everything)

Many people have written to me about flower painting and I think I can break it down fairly well. Here is my attempt to do so. First draw the flower . This photograph is from the Morgue File. This is a place where you can get photographs to work from that are placed there for this purpose.

Now lets look at one more thing before we start the journey....

We are going to paint the rose on the right but I also think you might want to start out with painting the rose on the left. The one on the left uses one dark( red) and one mid-tone ( orange). The white of the paper represents the lightest value. So this is a painting using three values . Big strokes and not fussing.

Now back to the rose on the right.

After the drawing I mixed two dark colors on my palette the red and purple on the right and four lighter colors on the left.
 You could draw a line between the two sides if that helps you remember which side has your darks and which side has your lights .

Using the two dark puddles I placed in the darkest patterns I saw in the rose.
Here are the puddles I used.

OK . Now lets move on to the mid-tones or the lighter puddles I mixed.

These are the puddles I am referring to.
Now lets put them on the painting.

We are getting somewhere now. But things are a little washed out. I like the decisions I made but I need to bump up the color with a red wash in the mid tones. But I can not ..I repeat I can not go into the darks at this time. Do not cross that imaginary line.

Better....This is what you palette should look like at this time. The colors should be separate If you have a muddy mess, that is not good.

Now clean off the palette and lets mix some greens for the background

Again separate your puddles. My dark which is nearly gone on the right was a mixture of red and green together to make a brown. If you use complimentary colors and mix your neutrals your painting will be more cohesive.

The greens are in . I like this but I am going to hit the painting with some darker spots later. I need to decide what to do. I will let you know. I hope this helps.
More later..