Paint a wild rose in watercolor

Usually I paint plants in the botanical tradition, with a white background. But for these wild roses, I felt inspired to try something a little different and include a loose style background.

To paint the background, I worked wet-in-wet, which is also unusual for me since my realistic painting style is always done using a wet-on-dry method. As you’ll see in the mini class video below, when the paint in the background dried, the pigment settled around the edges of the wet areas, leaving an outline which I felt gave this piece an illustrative look.

So in this mini class I’ll show you how I painted this textured loose background, and of course the wild roses with all their pretty details.

I worked big for this at 15.5″ x 21″ (39.5cm x 54cm), which made it easier to paint the detailed flower centres. If you have a go at this one at home, I recommend working no smaller than 12″ x 16″ (31cm x 41cm).

If this class on how to paint a wild rose has got you in the mood to paint more roses, check out my other mini classes on how to paint an opening rose, a petal-packed pink rose, a rich, velvety red rose, and I also have a mini class you can check out on how to make a tonal drawing of a rose using pencil.

I hope you’ll feel inspired to give these techniques a try and paint a wild rose too. Please do leave me a comment below if you do. I love hearing about what inspires you and what you’ve been up to.