How to paint a realistic rose flower in watercolour

Hi everyone. In this tip video I wanted to show you the process I went through to paint this full rose bloom. I work from a photo I took myself and begin with a detailed contour drawing where I mark out the outer edges to all the petals. It's time consuming and quite tricky but it's crucial I get it as close to the photograph as I can because that will make my painting process much easier and much more enjoyable. I've enhanced the drawing here so that you can see it clearly but actually I drew it straight onto the paper really lightly with pencil so that the pencil lines won't be visible through my paint. I began the painting with my largest brush. It's still pretty small as it means I won't get too much paint on my paper at once which might cause the paper to buckle. I'm laying down a wash to match the lightest colours in the flower overall using a pale pinky purple paint. Next I go straight in with my darkest tones. This gives me a visual anchor on my paper so that I can see just how dark my midtones will need to get if they're to blend in smoothly to these darkest tones. I've gone down to a smaller brush and I'm using dark crimsons and pinks at a much thicker consistency to match the colour I can see there. Next I want to isolate my highlights so that I can see them and I don't accidentally go over them with later washes. So I use a medium brush and some paint just a little thicker than the first wash to darken everywhere except my highlights. I vary the colours in the mix a little to match the different colours on the different petals. Next I work with the paint a little thicker still to darken up the next lightest areas, the lighter midtones. The outer petals contain both grey and brown to create the subtle colours that you can see there. With the lighter midtones now darker I can see I need to darken the darker midtones once again. Now I've darkened those midtones I can see that my darkest tones ought to be darker still so I darken them again with another layer of thick paint applied on top. Then I can see I need to darken the next darkest tone some more and with those darker I can see that I need to darken my mid-mid tones some more. All the while I use a combination of pinks, crimsons, purples, browns and greys to make sure I capture all the subtle variations in colour. The rose starts to take a bit of shape now so this is a good stage to start to work on the leaves to darken those up. Once that's done it's time to take a step back at which point I can see that my darkest tones within the flower need to be even darker. Working on them and then the darker midtones some more means I can now see that I need to darken some of my lighter midtones. I take this opportunity to bring in a little orange to my mix so that I can correct my colours and get them closer to match the photograph. With the tonal range now looking correct it's time to use my smallest brush to add in lots of details like veins to the petals and to neaten up the edges of those petals to get a really realistic finish. If you'd like some more guidance on painting this flower this painting is available as an almost three hour long step-by-step tutorial via my online school. If you've enjoyed this tip video please visit watercolourswithwow.com where you can sign up for a free step-by-step tutorial, check out the materials I recommend, view more tip videos, upload your own work to a gallery and lots more. Thanks for watching.