Simple Ink & Wash Carnation for Beginners | Dawna Mae | Skillshare

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Simple Ink & Wash Carnation for Beginners

teacher avatar Dawna Mae, Watercolor Artist & Illustrator

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Class Introduction

      1:33

    • 2.

      Materials

      1:43

    • 3.

      Sketch and Composition

      10:51

    • 4.

      Flowers and Leaves

      10:27

    • 5.

      Details and Tips

      6:16

    • 6.

      First Wash

      10:59

    • 7.

      Shadows and Layering

      11:53

    • 8.

      The Project

      5:48

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About This Class

Course Outline: Simple Ink & Wash Carnation for Beginners

  • Introduction
    A quick welcome to the class! I’ll share what we’ll be painting, who this is for, and go over the basic materials you'll need for this beginner-friendly ink and wash project.

  • Sketching the Carnation
    We’ll start with a simple sketch using pencil or ink. I’ll show you how to break the carnation down into easy shapes and give you tips to improve your sketching skills.

  • Watercolor Wash
    Next, we’ll bring the flower to life with a soft watercolor wash. You’ll learn how to choose colors and build up gentle layers for a fresh, vibrant look.

  • Adding Shadows
    I’ll show you how to add light shadows with ink and watercolor to make your carnation feel more dimensional and realistic.

  • Simple Composition Tips
    We’ll go over a few easy ways to make your painting feel balanced on the page—even with just one flower.

  • Final Thoughts
    I’ll wrap up with a quick recap and share a few ways you can keep practicing ink and wash florals after this class.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Dawna Mae

Watercolor Artist & Illustrator

Teacher

WELCOME!

I'm a Filipino-French artist and illustrator living by the beach in a charming old fisherman's village, deeply inspired by God's creations, grace, and love. Artist, illustrator, and certified ESL teacher, I work mainly in pencil and watercolor--my first love--before exploring the digital world with Procreate.

I currently create:

Children's book illustrationsFaith-based, Bible-inspired stories and charactersEducational and fun coloring booksArt prints for families and collectorsI blend storytelling, faith, and a playful artistic style to bring hope, beauty, and joy to young learners and families.

Along the way, I've exhibited in galleries, worked on private commissions, and collaborated with in... See full profile

Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Class Introduction: His Jonah Here, artist An Ill Strater welcome to this beginner friendly painting class using the beautiful ink and wash technique. In this class, we'll be sketching and painting a carnation, a simple yet elegant flower that's perfect for learning how to work with ink and watercolor. You'll learn how to sketch confidently with ink, create expressive shadow add loose stress free watercolor washes that bring your art to life. This class is all about enjoying the process. No pressure, just playful creativity. It's perfect for beginners, but artists of any level are welcome. By the end, you'll have a stronger understanding of ink and wash. Fair warning, this technique is very addictive and once you try it, you might not want to stop. You can follow along with my reference photo or use your own if you'd like. Grab your pen, your brush, and let's dive in. You'll be amazed at what you can create. 2. Materials: Everyone is donna here. These are the materials that we are going to use for this ink and wash watercolor carnation. We're using cotton, eight times 5 " of paper, and for pen, this is an ink pen and I recommend that you use the waterproof ink pen and try it before using it on your final project. You don't have to buy expensive materials, just have materials that are worth it. Next, we have the watercolor palette, and this is Paul Robins that I'm using and this is a professional one. But if you don't have, just use whatever you have. So watercolor paints, this one is really vibrant and it's very absorbent, so it's really nice. Next, these are the colors. We have yellow org, bright red, indigo purple, borne sienna, van **** brown, ivory black, lemon yellow, sap green, tortoise. But whatever colors you have Try to experiment it if you have cool and warm colors. Of course, you have your tissue paper, your glass of water or baketa water, and of course, lots of fashion and patience and determination, and I can't wait to finish this painting with you. Everything will be available to download, so please download it before we start. 3. Sketch and Composition: Thank you so much for joining me in this class. I'm so happy to have you here, and I'm very excited to paint this ink and watercolor painting of carnation. And this is pot. So let's begin. By now, you have downloaded your photo, the reference, and that you can also use some of the other reference that I'm going to give you in this class. You are able to download that in all our FDA files. I'll be using this paper and this ink pen. Now I am trying to make sure we are going to start at the very middle, so the mouth of the jar. I decided to to use a jar instead will be at the middle of the painting. I am starting with points and it's going to guide me to have the correct angle and lines and shape that I want. We are going to use the final painting as a guide, and I feel like it's better to use that gender reference. But of course, you can download the reference photo with you. Now I am doing my sketch really, really slow and I'm not really in a hurry. We're not in a hurry. We just want to enjoy the sketching pot and I'm making lines is more like an arc but really slight arc. Now, I am going to to drag the lines down so that we can have the shape of the jar. Now that I have, I'm not sure if this is a jar. I think this is more like a pot. We're going to make a pot instead of the jar and I've changed my composition obviously and feel free to use to use the reference as it is, and to cap it as it is. So now we have the bottom of the pot and I'm going to drag my lines down. I'm going to use another point, the points again to guide me through the lines. I'm dragging it really slow. As you can see, I am using an ink pen, but feel free to make under sketches using the pencil. Then later on when you're done with your sketch, you can erase them very lightly. This paper is 20% cotton. This is Paul Robins, watercolor paper, and this is the first time that I'm using it and it's really nice. I am making now the petals of the carnation and the reference is bigger. So I am actually doing smaller petals, smaller flowers of carnations. I'm very careful and I started in the middle. So we have the jug shape circle, but it has little spiky petals. Carnations, they are spiky petals and it is perfect for ink pen because we can do it really well with the ink pen, especially with the pointed tips like this. There are two ways to make your carnation. One is to start in the middle and then another one is to start from the shape itself, from the outside and then you go to the middle slowly. I'm making really jag and pointed edges of the petal. And I'm doing it really slowly. If you notice this reference that we have, it has you don't really know where is the middle of the flower. I'm just making small sections inside the flower and as long as you're doing it slowly, you can have that spiky petals that you want. Here on the left, I'm going to add a smaller flower here. So one of the tip another tip that I can give you is to really observe your reference before starting the painting. It doesn't have to be perfect. Sketches, lines and shapes, but at least it has the correct, you know, it has the correct lines. So using this ink and wash technique, so I would say that you spend at least 80% of this painting in general really on the sketches. We are focused more on the sketches rather than the washes. Most of the paintings that you see with this technique, you have really light watercolor washes, and I think it makes sense because it's going to show the lines that you have. I'm going to add another flower. I've changed the composition and we are trying to balance the painting at the same time. We don't want it to be a big bouquet of circle of flowers in a round shape. I want it to have that even and more artistic position of my flowers. So here, as you can see, I've started outside and then the middle and we're going to go farther and farther inside the flowers. It really depends on how you want to do it. So if you want to determine already the size of your flower, you start at outside. But if you want to do it gradually and you want to add, maybe you will change your mind and you make it smaller or bigger, then you start in the middle. I think this is a very stress free practice and it's really fun to use ink technique. This pen that I have actually is not 100% waterproof, but it's because it is really, really fine line that it doesn't bleed even if you add the washes. This is really a cheap pen that I bought in Asia. Now I am trying to add more petals or flowers in my painting and feel free to experiment with your composition with this one. So far, I like it and obviously I still need to add more flowers. Take a moment to look at your sketch and plan ahead, I think is very crucial and it's very important, especially with the ink and wash and if you are starting directly with the ink because obviously you won't be able to correct them or erase them easily once you already started the lines. So plan ahead and it will give you the confidence for any execution that you want and it will show onto your painting. So this one, the position of this flower is kind of falling. Of course, we're going to add the shadows later. But I'm still going to add darker lines to tell me later that this is part where there is a shadow. That's it. Well done, for this first part, I congratulate you and we are going to go to the next part of the sketch, and this is going to be really exciting. I'll see you. 4. Flowers and Leaves: Pot of dcation ink and watercolor wash sketch, and we are very excited for this pot. Also this is the part of the sketch and the painting that I am going to give more tips on how to get better at sketching. Let's begin and I can't wait to finish this painting with you. So now I am adding flowers on the top part of the painting. We are sketching section by section. You still have your reference with you and you have your guide with you while you're doing this with me. And now I'm starting outside, so we have the shape of the carnation and then we're going to move slowly and little by little to sketch inside with the jag or pointed tips of the petals. The first step that I'm going to give you is to master your basic shapes. It starts with simple shapes like circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, cylinders. Almost everything you can draw can be broken down into shapes. For example, with this one, we have a round shape for your carnation, practice drawing them in different angles and positions, and this will help you understand from the form and the structure of your painting. Keep on practicing the shapes. So now I am adding the middle parts of the carnation and I'm really doing it very slowly with the jug edges of the carnation. Carnation has got to be one of my favorite flowers, and I don't know about you. Probably you also like carnation and flowers they always make us feel happy and it has a mysterious flower in it that makes us happy. So this painting of yours, you can make a lot of things. You can give it as a gift, or you can also display it in your living room, or you can make it as a card or a thank you card or whatever you like. And even a bookmark. Go. So in between these flowers, there are some leaves. I'm leaving some distance right in the middle right here, and this one, I'm going to put some leaves in here. So plan your composition. I have so many classes here in this platform and I am guiding you and introducing you to composition, which I think I strongly recommend that you practice because it is the most important part of a painting. So if your composition fails, then everything else will fail on your painting. Another thing is that learn your proportions. Proportions refer to the relative size pots in relation to each other. Here we are adding flowers like big and small and the biggest. We don't just add flowers randomly with the same sizes. It's one of the goal not to make a big round or a giant circle on your painting, but you have to vary the sizes, you have to vary the lines. So far, I like this sketch, and I'm pretty sure you love yours. And if you don't give up to start all over again. Maybe it will also help you encourage that I've done this sketch quite a lot before finalizing my final sketch. And when I'm not very happy with it, I always do it again and I think it's just really a matter of how eager you want to learn and your dedication and your passion. On this spot, I'm adding a flower that is just a falling one, so it's going to change our composition a little bit and we'll balance the overall impact of our flowers. On top of this, I'm going to add a medium size of flour to balance the upper part of my sketch. So I would also find time to move my sketch. And look if it looks balanced because if you are to focus on your sketch and your eyes is 100% on it, sometimes you don't see the balance or the composition. So you have to move away a little bit and just look at it. Another thing that I had to really study well when I'm doing my sketches and I started really on this one is to understand the perspective. Perspective creates the illusion object and learn the basic principles of 1.2 0.3 point perspective, and this will help you draw objects and scenes in a way that mimics how we can see them in real life. I'm looking at my sketch again, and does it feel right? Yes, it feels right for me right now. And so we're going to continue with our sketch. And I'm going to add I'm starting to add the leaves and so the stock on my flowers. But we are going to work on the texture of the pat right here. I really hope that you are enjoying this sketch and, you know, enjoy your sketch as much as you enjoy your painting. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. So we are almost finished in the second part of this sketch, and we still have some pots that we need to finish, and you will see that it's getting really, really interesting once we will start adding colors and making this sketch, turn into. I'll see you in the next part of this sketch process. 5. Details and Tips: Okay we want to carnation sketch Potter and we are so excited to finish this sketch with you. We are almost there, so let's go and start sketching again. Right now, you already have your reference photo with you to guide you through the sketching pot. This one, I have added some darker ink onto the mouth the pot. This is indicating the shadows on my sketch. In this pot, I am going to give you tips on how to get better with ink and wash and drawing and also we are going to add the table and also the other small details that will definitely change your sketch. So far, I like my sketch, and I hope that you like yours, and if not, then go ahead and sketch it all over again just as I did. Perseverance, titans, we definitely need that in everything that we do, right? So I'm looking at the sketch and now it's time for us to add the table. I change my table and it's up to you what kind of perspective or structure of the table you want to have. And also, I will try to balance the table on how big or small it is depending on the size of the spot. So in order for me to have the right perspective and balance on it, I have to imagine how it looks like for real, this table with a pat on it. So I'm using the point to guide me through, and I'm holding my inkin in a very slanting position as if I am holding a pencil. I am actually using an easel, as you can see that, but it's going to be easier for you if you are probably sitting at the table and you would put your arms onto the table, maybe that's easier for you to make these lines. As you can notice with the ink and wash technique, you don't need to have straight lines. The more crook it is, the better as long as it has this correct structure and perspective for the eyes. I'm using the point again to guide me through, and as you can see, I'm not making straight lines. First tip for this class, for this pot, start with pencil first. As I've said before, that if you are more comfortable with a pencil, go and start with a pencil and then the ink pen. The second tip would be use different line weights as we have been doing throughout our sketching pot. Varying the line thickness adds depth and interest to your work. If you have the same line weights of your ink, it will look boring and dull. As you can see, this is the table made of wood. We're adding some lines in there and not sure what exactly is called, but we're adding some lines in there to make it look a little bit realistic, although we are not up to that realistic so some people might use ruler to do this, but I recommend that you don't just put rest your arm on the paper and try to practice it on another piece of paper. And I think the more you practice lines as I've said at the beginning and shapes, the more you get better with this technique. It's finished for the spots. Let's go to the next part of the sketch, and I would like to say that congratulations in going this far and you are doing very, very well. I'll see you. So 6. First Wash: Welcome one to the painting part of this class is the carnation painting number one and it's going to be the most exciting part of this class. Let's go and start it right now. I have with me, of course, my reference to get me along and I am using brush number two, and this is a normal brush and I am mixing my watercolor paint, this is a yellow orb with lots of butter in it, and we are trying to make a light orange or pinkish color of our petals. As you can see in the reference is white. But if you look closer onto the flowers, it has some really light colors of pinkish and orange. We are going to use those colors to pop up our flowers. I recommend that you use a paint brush that has pointed deep because it will be easier to work if you have the same reference as me and you have sketch your flower not as big. If you have the same size flowers like I did, then we have to use the smaller brush. This one is brush zero and that's the smallest brush that I have right now and I felt that that brush was a bit too big for my flowers. I added a lot of white on my orange, I'm going to lift some of the colors, some of the pigment onto my flowers. If you are starting out this ink and wash, you can see that it's better to use a light pigment of your watercolors because it's going to be the lines that is probably more important than your washes in this process and it's going to be very quick while we're doing this. You can also see that I am leaving some white onto the flowers and those will serve as the light. The light of the painting is coming from the back and we want some shadows and some lights onto the flowers. I'm leaving some white. I'm just really dabbing the watercolor paints, very quickly because the sketch that we have is quite small. I really hope that you are enjoying this part of the painting and one of the first tip that I could give you as well in this process is that when you are trapping your watercolor paint, just leave it as it is and don't overdo your brushes. Also, it's very important where the light is coming from. So decide at the beginning where you want your lights to come from. Observing your reference or the place that you're going to paint is very important. I left it to dry for a few minutes, then I moved to my leaves. I am using the lemon green, but you can experiment with your own greens like maybe sub green, but keep it light as possible. We don't want to cover our lines. What I like about ink and wash is that it takes away the pressure that everything will be perfect and it's just really artistic and every student will definitely have their own version of this painting. I'm really excited for you to share us your own version of this or another reference that you use, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be great. Please post and share your paintings with us. I'm sure it's going to inspire us. While the first was was still wet, I'm really quick to add another color and it has more pigment and I think this is the combination of sub green and lemon yellow. We are adding darker shades another total value to indicate the shadows on our lips and as you can see, it's going to make the flour pop up because of the contrast. So so far, I like the result of what I'm doing. I was able to keep it light and that was a challenge. And now I am adding another green and this is a darker version, and probably the darkest version of my green, and this is sub green and I've added some shades of blue as well. I've added aquamarine blue on this one, and I'm really doing it very, very quickly so that we will have that loose effect on our leaves. Do it while your leaves is still wet. Said girl Also, I forgot to say that if you want your carnation to have different color, then you can definitely change the color of your carnation. You can have it red, you can have it yellow, you can have it pink, whatever color that you like, as long as you feel confident in doing so and it's going to show onto your painting. I really hope that you are enjoying this process and that you are not very stressed. If you are a beginner, I have a lots of classes in this platform that you can start with. They are beginner friendly. Looking at this painting, so far, I like the results and I like the loose effect on my libs. We're going to continue and we're going to finish this painting and we will be working on the pot. So I'm drapping bright red yellows. I'm going to mix all these colors directly onto the paper. I'm just dragging down all the colors. This is the first wash for our pot. Thank you so much for joining me in this class, and I can't wait to finish this painting with you. I'll see you in the next part of this painting and I hope that you will love your own version of your painting. I'm just dropping more and more colors actually before we add more washes. So that's it. I'll see you on the next part of the painting and just keep on following until we move to the next video. Here I've added the purple and we're going to use the purple to add the shadows later. 7. Shadows and Layering: B. Welcome back to this painting the carnation ink and wash. And now we will be working on the table. And this is yellow org and I am using brush six, and this is a normal brush. I am just dragging some of the colors and I'm just letting it, work on the paper. I am adding the purples, of course, feel free to add any color that you want. And this one, you can mix the warm and the oh on the table. And once we are done with the table, we're going to be working with a shadow, and this is a very interesting part because the table is going to make the difference with the overall composition of our painting. This is a bold stroke, and this is yellow orc. I'm also adding some cadum yellow, and I want this table to be a little bit medium dark so that it will have a nice contrast on the dark part of the carnation flower. That's it, and I like this color because it's warm and on this part, I'm just cleaning. I'm making the edges even so that it looks nicer. Now I've dried the paper, and then we can add the shadow. The sun, the light is coming from the back, so the shadow is at the front, and of course, added this. It's because in our reference, we don't have this, but I really want to add shadow on this one, especially with the table and the flower. It's going to be a really nice combination. This is purple and we are working on a very, very dry paper. So we don't want to overdo this part and we are just doing really quick and confident brush stroke. So as you can see, we have some flowers. So I'm adding this part because we have some flowers, of course, so I'm adding this part so that it will look realistic. That's why from time to time, I recommend that you work plain air and you observe the objects as it is so that you will have a better guess or idea on the actual painting, especially with the shadow and the light. I drop some blues while this part of the shadow is still wet and it's going to give us a really nice texture at the end. It's really important that you mix your watercolor pigment very well before trapping it onto the paper so that you can achieve the color that you really like. We are adding shadow on the table. I've got lots of videos and classes in this platform. That's going to teach you about shadows and composition and about light. So please visit them because I am sure that you're going to learn something from them. I really hope that you are enjoying this class and that you are not very stressed and it's time to light up a little bit and just enjoy the process. Here I am adding some tonal value and darker to the value onto the shadow so that it will have a little bit of interest. And here I am splashing, but I have to be very careful that they are not really that big. I changed my brush and this is a smaller brush. I think that's a smaller brush that I have. This is a very cheap brush and I'm just dragging some colors and I'm adding more warmer total value onto the table. The shadow is the cool tint because it's purple and blue, and then you have the yellows. Those are warmer like the reds and I'm just mixing the two. Mmm. You might think that this is already finished. Not yet. We are going there and we keep doing and adding more and more details until we feel that it's complete. This one, this color it's ocean blue, and I feel like I really need to add another color the third color that will make this painting pop up and have more interest. Feel free to experiment on this part. I am very excited to see your own version of this painting and what you've done on your own version. So please share it with us, and we're super excited to see your own painting. I am dropping this ocean blue everywhere, and I'm just making it unified. I am unifying the painting so that it will look like whole in general. So far, I like the results and we can see that the shadow is really bright. The brighter you want your shadow, you want to be adding light, transparent watercolor paint. Now we're going back to our ink pen just to add some details and some lines and contrast onto the painting. I feel like here in the middle of all these flowers, I need some dark ink pen, so we're going to work on that and we're going to add more lines and contrast. You will see that your flowers and the pot will definitely puff up and will play it through which is the main point of view or the main focal point. So what I'm going to do here is just to add really quick lines onto almost everything, even the table. This part of the painting is probably the best part because you know that you are already done and you've done the most difficult part which is the sketching. You just enjoy this process, but don't get carried away and add too much detail. We still want to keep it light and simple as much as possible. Mm. So I'm just adding some highlights and I'm still following the first line that we did, and I'm not trying to overdo this part. I just want my carnation flowers to be a little present in the painting because they were a little bit fade and we couldn't see them very well when you look at the painting at the first time. I will be doing more and more ink and Wash classes. So please continue to visit the channel, the platform so that will be you can see more of the ink and Wash technique and learn more about it. There you go. I like the contrast that we have. Those dark lines of blacks are really cute to look at. I'll see you at the next part of the painting. Of course, job well done. 8. The Project: Cora, we finished this painting. Thank you so much for painting with me. It was a pleasure and now we are going to add a promise. This will be the last details, and I recommend that you continue doing this because it will change everything on your painting. We're adding the final details using the ink pen. I really hope that she enjoyed the process painting with me, and I have more classes about ink and wash. It's just something that you cannot stop painting, as I've said. Once you start with this technique, you'll fall in love with it and you will continue and doing it on your future artwork. One thing I could give you as an advice is at the end, make sure that everything is completely dry before adding these last details and you just enjoy this process, but do not get carried away and overdo this process because it can change your painting, please share your painting with us. You will definitely have constructive criticism from me or your peers. I think it's really nice if you share your own version of this because I am sure that with the ink and watch watercolor technique, everybody, every student, every artist will have different version of this, and then feel free to add your signature. Post your painting for constructive criticism and of course, the most important of all is to inspire the others. So far, I like the result of my painting and I hope you like yours as well. I feel like I still need more highlights like darker ink pen lines. I'm adding this one. It's just a normal ink pen and this is not waterproof, but because the watercolor paper has already dried, so I can do it. If you feel like you need more highlights, feel free to do so. But if you are already happy at this stage, then feel free to stop as well. To have that really very short summary of what we've done. The first thing is you choose, of course, your watercolor reference, your painting reference, and then we started making sketches using the ink pen, and then we applied, the watercolor paint from light to dark, and then we added some lines along the way until the final process. Do this process when you are starting another project. A In the discussion, you could also communicate with me. You can write down when you post your project, you can write down any request that you want me to faint for you and we can learn together, feel free to write it there and I could definitely see that and I will be very happy to paint or sketch your dream project. And of course, if you have any ideas, it is very, very welcome. I think it's one way for me to grow as an artist and for us to grow together as artists in this platform. So I'm very happy with this result, and I'm sure you are. So thank you so much for joining me in this class, and I hope to see you in my other classes. And of course, job well done. You did very well, and I congratulate you for your own version of this painting.