Hi Cathy and welcome. I'm hoping that Paintingfool will hop in here with some suggestions for you. She paints beautiful realistic looking roses and has taught many painting classes.

If you look at some of our prior posts you will see some of her pics of her roses, and if you look on our gallery section, you will find some of my One Stroke roses. I love doing the one stroke roses, but I am also looking to learn some other types and techniques now.

What books do you have? That might help us know the style you are attracted to so we can offer better tips.

Luvs

Paintingfool was the first person I thought of too when I read your post. She's good at explaining technique on paper.
And yes, check the gallery, luvs also does wonderful with the one-stroke roses.
I have yet to master the rose so I'm no help at all. ha Sorry. :) ~Anj

Cathy, as it happens I am filling in for one of our club members who was suppose to teach a rose class tomorrow but is unable to attend so I am going to do it. I am putting together a worksheet for them but I have not finished. When I get back tomorrow I will post the worksheet. I hope it helps. Luvs does a wonderful One Stroke Rose - among the many other pretty things she paints.

I would certainly recommend you check your local area to see if one of the fabric or craft stores offers painting classes. Being able to actually see how a rose is painted is so much better than trying to read it through - at least for me it was - I am more visual and can catch on better if I see someone actually do it. I won't have time to check my books tonight but will go through them tomorrow and see what else I can come up with.

Hi Anj and Luvs - have been busy with the grandbabies this week and haven't had time to talk. Later

Hi PF, I was hoping you would see Cathy's post. I knew you would be the one most able to offer her advise on learning to paint roses.

Glad you are getting to spend time with your grandbabies. We will chat more when you have more time.

Luvs

Thank you guys for all your help. I have taken classes, but I still had trouble with the rose. My books are from tole painting. Thanks paintingfool for the trouble of the work sheet. I look forward to it.

I hope you didn't think I had forgotten you, I didn't. My sample piece was loaned out for the painting class so I will have to repaint one. I have been doing the Grandmotherly thing this week, one of the grandbabies can not go to daycare this week, she is having tubes in the ear so I volunteered to watch her. She is so sweet and good at 11 months, but I am exhausted at the end of the day. Haven't been able to get to the painting room but hope to do so today. Will try to post later today.
B

Glad to hear from you BeBe and that you are enjoying your time with GB. Hope the tubes help her out. Is she getting them because of ear infections? Anyway, it's nice that you can help out to watch her. It's a big help to me to have my mom to watch mine when I need it. Drop in when you can and hope you get some paint time in today. I'm finally able to work on a few things today too. ~Anj

I am looking forward to seeing the work sheet, too. What style of rose do you want to paint? There is a new book on roses called Blue Ribbon Roses but I don't know if there are work sheets in it. Trudy Beard has a design in the book that looks pretty easy. I think the easiest way to analyze a design and is what a good worksheet does, is to break the rose into sections. I like the style that starts with a ball of color. The bottom gets shaded. Then the petals are built up from that. Here's a link to a class held at a shop. It might give you some good ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Beth Wagner Roses

Hi Defrost49, welcome to the painting forum. Glad you stopped by and hope you will continue to join in here.

Wow! Those are some beautiful pics. Those ladies all did a great job--I especially like Jacques box and chair. I will NEVER be able to paint that well, but I sure admire those who do. (Well, maybe if I lived close to Paintingfool and she had the patience to teach me--she can paint beautiful roses like those.)

Hopefully, she will be back with a copy of her worksheet for us soon. ;o)

Luvs

Hi Defrost and Welcome. Hope you'll come and join us often. Those were some really cool pics. I really liked that bridal box. Thanks for sharing. ~Anj

Thanks everyone for your support. I will keep practicing. Those roses on the webshot are great.The buds look so real.

I'm back!! What a week!! I apologize for not getting back to yall sooner. My grandbaby had a double ear infection but still had the tubes put in, then my son came down with a bacterial infection and had to be rushed to the emergency room, and I had a seminar this weekend. I haven't even been able to get on line much this past week.

I do not have my sample board back yet. The students are passing it around but I did a quick modified version - which isn't as nice as I would like but time is limited right now.

When I paint a stroke rose, I use Jo Sonja tube acrylic because the paint is thicker. This is a quick breakdown:

1. Double load your brush, blend well on the palette.
2. Start your back row of petals first, overlapping each stroke slightly.
3. Make a second row of petals a bit down from the first row.
4. Stoke the center petals - sort of a U shape, making the second row of center petals a little wider than the first.
5. Stoke petals from the right side, overlapping each petal (turning your project around as you go) until you get to the bottom of the rose. Then stroke from the left side until you meet the bottom row of petals.
6. Fill in another row of bottom petals.
7. Finally slide in a few petals to fill in the rest of the rose.
8. The leaf is a quick three step leaf - you can call it the Donna Dewberry leaf but actually the technique has been around since I started painting in the eighties.
9. Double load with green and white, stroke the left side of the leaf pulling towards you, keeping the the dark side of the brush alone the vein line.

10. Flip the project over and stoke the other side of the petal away from you.
11. Pull in a vein line with the chiseled side of the brush.
12. You can wiggle your brush slightly to give the appearance of veins.

I hope this helps and if you have any questions please ask, between the ladies on this forum and myself, we should be able to answer. And Luvs has a lot of experience with roses also.

I might add that you have to practice, practice, practice. I can't emphasize this enough. {{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: that home site

Paintingfool, thank you so much for your instructions and the picture of the rose and leave. I am definitely no expert on this as you are and this helps so much. I can't open your link though, I get the msg the website isn't there, etc. Can you check that out or repost the link. Thanks,

Sal

Sal, I don't know why that link showed up. I must have posted wrong. I know it is very difficult to learn something new if you do not have someone there to walk you through it. Sometimes you need to see how the brush moves, how much pressure to make, etc. before you can understand the technique. My little bit of illustrations above are not the best and it is hard to paint when you are trying to show each stroke but I hope it helps a little bit.
b

Bebe, Can I ask what colors you used in your examples? The colors blend together so nicely and look so soft. Thanks for the step by step--I will use it too and practice. However, you are right, there are allot of strokes there, so knowing the pressure and watching someone else actually do it does make a big difference! You do a lovely rose. Luvs

Hi Luvs,
If you ever painted in oils you probably remember the way the paint felt. So, what I wanted was the same texture when I paint a rose. I use Jo Sonja Plum Pink and a tube acrylic white. They both have the feel of oil paint so it covers completely. You don't have to load your brush as much as you do with bottle acrylic. Have you ever painted a rose and the background - perhaps a vine or part of a leaf - shows through? I didn't like that so I tried the tube acrylic and it worked great. I still double load the brush and blend it out on the palette. The strokes are very similar to Donna Dewberry's but I don't like to wiggle too much (the sea shell stroke), instead as I stroke the petal on, I press the brush and lift to give the indication of a petal. And I also will back up and start a stroke slightly over the last petal. The center petals are probably the hardest to do but I try not to stoke the petal all the way across the rose, instead I make them shorter. It gives a little more of a realistic look even though it is a stroke rose. Sometimes I just go up on the chiseled edge of the brush and as I slide it across the center of the rose, I often will press the brush to the side a bit to make it look like a petal that is slightly turned out. I also work top of the rose to the cup of the rose, then the right side, then left side and then work from the bottom up.

You are already such a good rose painter you should have no trouble with these. If you don't have Jo Sonja paints, try some of the tube acrylics they carry at Michaels, you only need a dark pink and white. I think you will like the feel.
B

Thanks PaintingFool, I'm going to give it a try tomorrow. I'll print the instructions off. And I'll practice faithfully.

Thanks for the nice welcome.
Paintingfool, that's a terrific worksheet!!! Nice instructions, too.

Hey, PF, are you still stopping by here? I have been doing allot of practice, but the middle section is still giving me a headache. Partly because I had gotten so used to the DD one stroke rose I think. When you have the top petals, rose bowl and lower petals all done--do you have a specific place to start the chisel strokes for the middle section? I think what I am doing is looking too "stacked", where I want them to look more "loose" and random. I had gotten the "start on the chisel at the side of the bowl, press, lean out, pull, then back up to the chisel for the one stroke roses. That took me a long time to get right. Now I am sort of lost because I won't be starting at the edge of the bowl exactly. Any advise or suggestion would be appreciated. By the way, I hope you are doing well, haven't heard from you in awhile here or on holidays. We miss you. Luvs

In looking at the link to the "Beth Wagner" roses, I see that the "ball" rose, with the petals built up from there, is precisely the style that I've been trying to do on my own and um, not. :-)

Does anyone know of a work sheet that might be available for this?

Oh, some of the roses I have committed have been, well, humorous, but not art.

--Jenn
http://web.mac.com/thriftshopromantic/iWeb/

Tsr, I agree that those roses are gorgeous--but so many petals to have to do just right--I'm sure not ready for them yet. The painting on that site is just fantastic--way above my skill level.

Have you tried doing the stroke rose that PF gave us the worksheet for? Maybe start with that and then work into the more complicated ones.

You might also like "Romance with Roses" for some more inspiration. I think you can find it at www.artistsclub.com. Last name of artist is Childress, can't remember her first name, maybe Beth, not sure.

Let us know what you find, and be sure to post pics of your projects. We love pics here, and none of us (except maybe PF) are professionals. We just love doing it and making pretty things for our homes and friends.

Luvs

Luvs-- thank you-- you did me a great service with that link. I came upon the Meadowview book of roses which seems to stylistically have ones I would like to learn to do...And it was so so inexpensive! So thank you bunches!

I have actually a One-Stroke book and video, and I've seen people do some very nice projects with it. I learned quite a bit with it in general about paint mixing/shading. I just would like to learn roses that are a little more Victorian/realistic in feel, I think. (You should see my back garden-- Rose Central. :-)

Thanks again!
-Jenn

I would love to see your garden. Roses are my favorites too. And it makes me so happy that they are all blooming now--some smell so good too.

I know what you are saying about a more victorian feel. I am trying to learn a more shabby/chic type because they feel romantic to me. Very soft and muted.

I ordered a computer cd from ebay that is by Katie Banks of The Shabby Pink Cottage in San Diego. The cd is not professionally done, it is just Katie painting while someone video records her--but I love the projects she does and the way her roses are so pretty. I have watched her paint several times, and am trying to practice now. Have a suitcase ready to paint as soon as I feel i've "got it" on how to do the roses. She paints her roses very similar to the one PF gave us the worksheet for.

What strikes me so funny is that with Donna Dewberry (and even PF) they use really thick paints--on Katie's video, she says she uses Apple Barrel paints because they are so thin and waterey! Is it any wonder I get so confused???? LOL

Glad you enjoyed the link. I love that site because you can usually preview the book a little. Hate to buy a book based solely on the title. Have fun, and hope to see more of your projects.

Luvs

Hi everyone. I never seem to have much time to post these days but I do try to read them as often as possible.

Luvs, I usually paint a bottom row of petals, another row on top of the bottom and then starting back at the top I slide in a few petals - usually three. I hope that makes sense. You are right, I do use thicker paint when I paint roses - mainly because I like the feel of the paint - it feels like oil paint to me. And it doesn't dry out as quickly as bottle acrylic so it gives you a bit of blending.

There are so many ways to paint a rose and so many looks you can get by using different paints. Trudy Beard paints a pretty cabbage rose (www.trudybearddesigns.com) and the cutest snowmen. Check her out. I am going to Tampa next year for the Society of Decorative Painters Convention and plan to take a class with her.

TSR - With a little practice I know you are going to be able to paint that cabbage rose. Look how good Luvs has become - she does beautiful work.

BB

Thanks much, all of you. :-) Very appreciated.

--Jenn

Thanks, PF. I am still practicing--I know that suddenly I will get it just right, and then wonder why I thought it was hard in the first place. LOL

I'm going to go check out Trudy Beard's website, I've admired her work many times, but didn't know she had a website.

Good luck TSR, and please come back and share future projects with us.

Luvs

Hey Jenn, I was looking at your website and the roses you have been working on. You are certainly on the right track, I love the long arrangement--reminds me of the ones that you see on the Make Mine Pink websites. Keep at it girl, you will get it. Be sure to show us pics of any new ones you do. ;o) Luvs

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