Painting Digital Roses
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/09-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
Follow the steps to paint a rose in your favorite digital painting software.
Originally created for the Paint Outside the Frame forum.
Blocking In
Paint a random blob of a midtone that will serve as the basic shape of your rose.
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/01-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
Petals
Use a darker color to sketch in your petals. Remember that roses are typically tight in the middle and loosen toward the outside. Petals are arranged in a spiral pattern, small on the inside and larger on the outside.
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/02-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
Shadows
With the largest brush possible for the size of your petals, rough in some shadows.
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/03-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
Blending
Blend the shadows with your midtone and refine the shape of your petals.
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/04-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
Highlights
Begin adding highlights to give your petals more dimension.
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/05-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
Balancing
Continue with highlights until you feel like you have a good range of values.
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/06-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
Like Satin
Blend highlights where necessary to help give your rose a satin finish.
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/07-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
Refine
Enrich shadow areas to create more contrast.
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/08-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
Finishing
Add brighter highlights if desired to gove the rose a little shine. Try to avoid solid white. You can also continue detailing from here as much as you’d like.
![](https://studiochris.us/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/09-painting-digital-roses.jpg)
This example was painted totally in Adobe Photoshop using a hard-edged round brush with opacity and flow set to pen pressure and with very little size/shape dynamics, but any painting software can be used. The Dodge Tool was used sparingly to help with highlights.