This sketchbook study was completed for FOR Sweden, and is one of a series of 12 invasive species illustrated.

As mentioned in the last blog; this is one of a whole clutch of blogs I’ve written on how to illustrate roses.  You can check out another one on painting this species, one on illustrating a dog rose, and one on doing a sketchbook study of a pretty peach rose for The Garden Forager by Adele Nozedar.

Illustration with completed leaves, awaiting illustration of the flower

Materials

You need to have your art materials and a few rose flowers ready.  If the rose isn’t in season, either use a whole range of photo reference, or wait til it blooms!  My botanical illustrations are always completed on hot press watercolour paper, in this case Stonehenge Aqua by Legion Papers.  Mechanical pencils create a good crisp line for drawing up the plant, I favour the Pentel P205.  The watercolours I use most are Winsor and Newton pans, although I’ve also used a some Ultramarine violet from a tube of Daniel Smith watercolors for this illustration.  I mix a few drops of the very vivid pink (Quinacridine magenta) Doctor Martin’s Hydrous watercolour ink in with my rose hues, and always use a size 1 and 000 Series 7 sable brushes by Winsor and Newton.

Draw up the Rose

In this case, we’re returning to an illustration we’re already working on.  However, you could just as easily take a pencil and draw a line drawing of the flower direct onto the hotpress watercolour paper.  Keep a light touch and precise, atonal lines.

Starting out on the petals

The first step is to mix up a good magenta.  The hue of the Japanese rose is very distinctive, and is quite a blue-pink.  I used plenty of Winsor and Newton (W&N) Opera rose, a touch of Daniel Smith (DS) Ultramarine violet, some W&N Permanent rose, some W&N Cobalt blue, and a tiny bit of W&N Quinacrodine violet.  To add an extra kick, I put in a drop or two of Doctor Martin’s Quinacridine magenta hydrus ink.

It’s all rather experimental, mixing hues.  I keep written notes of what I’m adding and go on mixing until the colour matches the petal.  Sometimes I paint a tiny drop of the mix onto the petal itself to see how close of a match it is; this is ridiculous in truth as paint dries a different colour and appears differently on the substrate of white paper.  I like to think it’s a good pointer, though.

Following the lines of growth on each petal, and painting outward towards the outer edges, I start to build up colour.

Make sure to leave plenty of white paper.  With watercolour, the white page provides you with the colour white, and with your highlights.  Swallow these up with colour at your peril.

One petal has the first layer of colour applied

A close up of the petal shows that the colour is made of lots of tiny lines.  To get this crisp effect, the paint has to be pretty thick; probably similar to the consistency of cream.

Close up of the petal

Working around the petals of the Japanese Rose

Move from one petal to the next, being sure you don’t lean your hand on anything you’ve just illustrated.  A piece of scrap paper under your painting hand helps avoid dirtying the rest of the sheet of watercolour paper and allows you to focus on the area you’re concentrating on.

Working around all five petals of the rose

By following the lines of growth, and by anchoring your lines at the outside edge of the petal you’re echoing the structure of the flower, and adding movement to the illustration.  It also makes the outer edges of the petal darker, which helps the eye find and settle on the exterior of the flower.

Top wash

Next, I dilute the pink hue with clean water.  Water is the best way to make a tint, or paler version of a hue.  It makes the colour paler and lighter but doesn’t muddy it with white pigment.  The paint used here is really quite watery, and is applied over the top of the areas of petal already painted.  As with the leaves, extend this paler area further in to the white highlights on the page.  This makes the juxtaposition between colour and white paper softer, and more realistic.

This layer is applied as before, with parallel tiny brush strokes which follow the line of petal growth.

Close up showing the top wash on the top petal

Work your way around the petals, being sure not to smudge your work.  Don’t swallow up the white of the page entirely, it provides highlights and gives life to the illustration.

Flower with all five petals complete with top wash.

Be brave about when to stop working on the petals

With many flowers, I’d do another paler dilution of the colour, and gently apply this over the entire flower.  This can make a flower glow, but can also stifle its delicacy.

In an earlier illustration of a Japanese Rose (below), this top wash slightly compromised the illustration.  It was needed, as the illustration had to be complete and polished, but with this sketchbook study I chose to relax and not add a third layer of colour.

Illustrating the Stamens and Stigma

Look closely at the centre of the rose.  You’ve already drawn all the stamens with their anthers, and can see the top of the stigma.  Mix up colours that match what you see.  For the anthers I used W&N Cadmium yellow, outlines with Cadmium yellow and a touch or Cadmium orange.  The filaments are the same yellow, but with a dash of green.

The hue of the stigma is a colder and greener yellow than the anthers.  W&N Winsor Lemon works well, with an outlying circle of the same colour mixed with sap green.

For more on the anatomy of roses have a look at my earlier blog on the structure of rosehips, or this simple guide from Texas A&M University.

Japanese rose with stamens and stigma coloured in

Working into the shadows

The last thing to do is to mix up a good colour for shadows, and to pop some of these in.  I tend to use W&N Cobalt blue and a purple, and love the crispness a good drop shadow can give.

I also like to add a few tiny brush strokes of this watery, darker hue to the external edges of the petals.  it seems to help provide focus to the illustration.

A little more judicious use of shadow around the stamens brings the illustration together.  It’s finished.

Completed Japanese Rose sketchbook illustration

For a film of me working into this rose illustration in real time, and explaining what I’m doing as I paint, please take a look at my Youtube film:

For a blog on my sketchbook illustrations click here.

Conclusion

I always paint the flower after the foliage in the same way as I leave the tastiest bit of a meal until the end.  It’s the treat to reward me for the hard work that goes into navigating those seas of green.

It’s not just that doing botanical illustrations of flowers like this Japanese rose is more fun than working on the leaves (although that’s true), it’s also easier.  Tracing the patterns of lights and darks is simpler as the structure is less complex.  The colours are a whole lot of fun to mix and work with.  And there’s something infinitely satisfying about sitting back after completing a decent day’s work, and seeing the flower you just illustrated glowing on the page.

Completed sketchbook study sheet for the Japanese Rose

The post Botanical Illustration of a Japanese Rose appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Materials

First, assemble your materials.  You need a few roses with leaves, and art equipment.  I always do my botanical illustrations on hot press watercolour paper, in this case Stonehenge Aqua by Legion Papers.  I use a mechanical pencil to draw up the plant, and favour the Pentel P205.  Watercolours are Winsor and Newton pans, although I’ve also used some Daniel Smith tubes for this illustration.  I add a kick of colour to the flower by mixing in a pink Doctor Martin’s Hydrous watercolour ink, and always use Series 7 sable brushes by Winsor and Newton (a size 1).

Draw up the Rose and rose leaves

It’s always worth taking a good look at your subject before you start to draw it.  Rose leaves are actually made of leaflets; one at the tip and a series of paired leaflets below.  The Japanese Rose leaves are glossy, wrinkled when young, and have toothed margins.  In fact the scientific name for this rose, Rosa rugosa, translates as “Wrinkled rose” which refers to the rough and folded nature of the young leaves.

Using clear and light pencil lines, I draw up the plant onto my hot press watercolour paper.

Line drawing of the Japanese Rose, focusing on the leaves

Adding the mid-tones

I work unconventionally in that I put in my mid-tones first.  Traditionally in botanical illustration, one works from light to dark, creating a layered effect.  Although I sometimes wish I did work this way, I always find and plot in the shapes of the darker areas of each leaf first.

The green colour used is Daniel Smith Spring Green, plus Daniel Smith (DS) Cobalt Turquoise.  There’s also some Winsor and Newton (W&N) purple, cobalt blue, and yellow ochre in there.

Shapes of mid-tones painted

I try to look for edges in these areas of shadow, and for patterns.  If there’s a dark shadow next to the leaf midrib, then it’s likely this will be consistent down the whole length of the leaflet.  There’s often a difference in shadow to be seen from one side of a leaf to another; this relates to how the light hits the leaf blade and interacts with the veins.

Traditionally, the light source comes from behind the left shoulder and I tend to stick with this.

In the image below, you can see how just plotting in these shapes and areas of dark give structure and tonality to the leaf, even at this early stage.

Three leaflets with mid-tones plotted in

Suggesting other Rose Leaves

This is a sketchbook study, so doesn’t have to be a polished finished illustration.  Instead of illustrating each leaflet in painstaking detail, I can use a wet wash to plot in extra leaves.  I apply this colour (a mix of W&N yellow ochre, sap green, and DS Cobalt turquoise) very wet and allow it to dry fully.

I leave the main lateral leaf veins and the midribs as white for now; they’ll get knocked back later on.

Midtones of leaves plotted in, with wash suggesting the leaves behind

Working into the Rose Leaves

Once fully dry, I work into the edges of the areas of mid-tone.  I use the same colours as before but add a little more W&N yellow ochre, some W&N cadmium yellow light, and more water.  With watercolour, the water itself acts as a diluting agent and allows you to mix paler tints of a colour.

This process knocks the stark edges off the shadows, and I paint over the dark areas with the new mix as well as the edges of each shape.  In a way, you’re plotting a concentric circle of a slightly paler green around the edge of each shape of shadow.

Be careful not to cover all the white of the page.  White paper represents the palest light areas in a watercolour, so if you cover it all up with paint then the whole painting will end up dark and rather lifeless.  You can always make an illustration darker, but it’s almost impossible to lighten a watercolour.  Believe me, I’ve spent years trying to find easy ways to do exactly that!

First paler wash goes onto the leaflets on the left

I tend to do all the leaves with each layer of colour.  So I’ll pop this first gentler wash on all the leaflets, and allow them to fully dry before moving onto the next layer of colour.

The third layer is yet paler; more dilute and with more yellow in the mix.  Again, it’s the concentric circle method that gets used; the paint getting paler as you move out from those initial mid-tone shapes.  Still leave whites on the page.  Allow this to dry fully.

The fourth layer (oh yes) is very dilute and pale.  It’s really more like tinted water; W&N yellow ochre and DS Spring green.  This time, cover the entire leaf including the leaf veins and areas of highlight, but keep it a pale colour.  Never use white to try and make a watercolour hue lighter, it tends to result in a muddy mess.

Leaflets almost all covered with four layers of paint

Working into the shadows of the Rose leaves

Once the paint is totally dry (there’s a pattern here…), you can start working into the shadows.

I use a mix of W&N cobalt blue and purple, and just pick out the darkest parts of each area of shadow.  You need to look at the leaves all the time to do this, when you try and work without reference it starts to look odd.  In many ways, working from life is much easier than working from pictures, but it’s very punishing if you lose concentration and start making things up instead of sticking to direct observation.

I also tend to sharpen up the edges of the teeth of the leaf margin, and any areas where one leaf abuts another.  I also have a close look at the mid rib as this often casts deep shadows onto one side of a leaf.  The paint is thicker than the washes we’ve just been using; similar in viscosity to the very first green we mixed, it’s almost like the texture of cream.

Be careful not to overdo the shadows, you’re using them to make the contrast in each leaf stand out; not to swallow up the nuances of tone.

Illustration showing the leaves with shadows picked out

At this point, the leaves of your rose are completed and it’s time to move onto illustrating the rose.

To see this process of painting rose leaves in real time, with me talking through the processes (and other things which may or may not be relevant!) please have a look at my Youtube video:

Once the rest of the plant is painted, you may well find you need to return to the leaves.

Tweaking the Rose leaves once the rest of the plant is illustrated

Adding different elements to an illustration invariably changes the tonal weight and may result in you needing to put in more shadows.

In this case, once the rose was illustrated (sister blog here), there was a need to make it stand out even more dramatically from the leaves behind it.

The shadow is yet again a mix of W&N cobalt blue and purple.  Looking closely at the specimen or reference, and remembering that your light source comes from behind the left shoulder, paint in your drop shadows.  Here, the petals cast shadows onto the leaflets on the right hand side, and the leaflets on the left cast a crisp-edged shadow onto the petals.

Completed sketchbook study of Rose and rose leaves (detail)

Conclusion

You’ll find that seeing the lights and darks in a subject gets easier over time, as you get your eye in.  Drawing the plant will get easier too; and don’t beat yourself up if you find it hard.  Transforming a 3D object like a plant to a flat 2D image is quite a challenge, and looking closely at a subject can be totally exhausting (and absorbing).

 As with anything, the more you do it, the quicker and simper it becomes.  And this is important because it truly is these tonal differences which make or break an illustration.  Too much dark and it’s swallowed up.  Not enough sharp contrast and the whole thing looks weak and floppy.  It’s a matter of respecting the white of the paper, and having the courage to work into the shadows.  With those two elements sorted out, you’re well on the way to creating decent botanical illustrations of whatever subject you choose.

Finished sketchbook illustration with art materials.

The post Botanical Illustration of Rose Leaves appeared first on Lizzie Harper.