Spooky Botanicals: Create Floral Ghosts in Watercolor and Ink

1. Introduction: Fall is a magical season when Cosi meets spooky. It's a time for fluffy blankets, scented candles, yummy trees, and hot tea. And, of course, a perfect moment to draw some Halloween inspired illustrations. Hi, my name is Ava Rosa, and I'm an illustrator, embroidery artist, and top teacher here on Skillshare. I love illustrating ghosts, but I'm not a fan of horror movies. I want my ghost to be super cute, adorable, and pretty, and that's exactly what we are going to create today. I will show you how to draw a ghost and modify it by changing its overall shape and facial features. Then we will use watercolors to fill our designs with colorful background layers. We will finish by embellishing our ghosts with beautiful florals, using ink pens and gel pens to make them super pretty. I will be using some of the motifs I explored in the class on drawing botanical doodles inspired by pressed flowers. So if you are looking for more ideas for your project and you want to have a sneak peek into my doodle herbarium, I encourage you to watch both classes in a bundle. To elevate our creations even more, we will cut out our ghosts and place them into floating frames so they look like they are hovering midair. Of course, you don't have to cut out and frame your designs if you don't want to. You can use this project to create an illustration for your portfolio or to fill a sketchbook page. And if you're a digital artist, you can still absolutely follow along and create a floral ghost in Procreate or other program. Just have fun with it and enjoy the process. 2. Class Project & Materials: For this class project, I would love for you to create at least one floral ghost using tips and techniques I will share with you today. To create your ghost, you will need a pencil and eraser for sketching and some sturdy paper that is suited for watercolors. Take notice of its weight. It should be at least 300 grams or 140 pounds, so it can handle a lot of water. I recommend you choose smooth, hard pressed paper that is not too grainy. This will make it easier for you to embellish the surface with gel pens and ink pens later on. Then, of course, you will need some watercolors to paint your ghost. So prepare a few of your favorite colors along with a round brush, palette, and water jar. To decorate your design, you will need a white gelpen or a black ink pen. For the white gelpen, I recommend Nibal signal, but you could also try using an acrylic Posca marker with a fine tip. For a black ink pen, I will be using my trusty micron number four. I will also be using a golden calligraphy pen to add some tiny details, but this is entirely optional. If you want to turn your design into wall art, you will need scissors to cut it out and a floating frame of some kind to frame it. My favorite floating frames are these metal golden ones. They come in a bunch of shapes and sizes, and you should easily find them online. For example, I bought this big one at Ikea. Double sided tape can become handy to secure your drawings to the glass so they won't move around when you assemble your composition. 3. Let's Draw a Ghost: So the easiest way to draw a ghost is to start with sketching a circle or an oval for a head. You will follow this shape to add lines indicating sites of the body. So this first choice will determine whether your ghost will be thin or more round and plump. You can modify these lines further by letting them flare to the sides like this. At this stage, you can also decide if you want your ghost to be tall or short. So don't hesitate to modify its height. After you've done this, it's time to play with the hem of your ghost's body. This is where the real fun begins, as you can create countless iterations. You can go with a simple cartoon scalloped shape and modify it by varying the number of arched lines and extending some lines to indicate falls. You can finish the body with some squiggly lines placed at different angles. You can create hem with small tooth like creases and play with its overall shape, your hem can be slanted, curved, wavy, even, or arched. You can decide to create a lot of faults by elongating the creases of your hem with lines of different lengths. You can even try to finish your ghost's body with a spike similar to a tail. To make your ghost even more complex, you can change the position of its body and add some hands to it. To do that easily, you will have to use two more guidelines, one for the imaginary spine of your ghost and one for the hands. The sketch on the left shows a ghost as seen from the front with raised hands, and the sketch on the right shows a ghost with curved body and hands hanging down. You can create a ghost in any position. Just sketch the guidelines first and then follow them when outlining the body. An imaginary spine guideline will also help you place the eyes and other facial features in the correct positions. So let's add some facial features to your ghost, shall we? Let's start with the eyes. These huge spooky ovals are my favorite, and I often leave my ghosts looking like that without any further additions. But if you want to make your ghost cuter, you can use two arched lines for a happy or sleepy ghost or even these unfinished triangles for a laughing one. Then you can add some mouth using a circle, an arch, or a half circle. And you can even add some eyebrows or eyelashes. I like to add oval or round blushes to my ghosts to make them look super adorable. As you can see, there are tons of ways to draw a ghost, and you can use endless modifications to create one that really suits you. I encourage you to make some doodles on the side first and test different options to see what you like. When you are ready, move to watercolor paper and sketch your ghost or ghosts using guidelines to help you. Then remove all unnecessary lines with an eraser to prepare a clean sketch like this one. In the next lesson, we will cover these sketches with watercolors to prepare a background for our botanical doodles. 4. Let's Color a Ghost: Now that you have your ghost sketches ready, it's time to fill them with color. For this first one, I will use violet and lavender to create a pretty dark background that will contrast nicely with white gelpan doodles. If you want to use lighter colors and especially if you are not planning to cut out your design, erase pencil lines as much as you can before you start painting. Of course, you still want to see them, but make them as light as possible so they won't be too visible under the paint layer. I will be using wet and wet technique to create smooth transitions between the colors. Our botanical motifs will be blooming from the hem of the ghost's body. So I want the bottom part to be darker and the top one to be quite light. So first, I will fill the shape with a very diluted paint, mostly water. And then I will start gradually adding more color. You need to work quite quickly to keep the surface wet and blend lighter and darker hues together by adding more water. A As I'm approaching the bottom part of my ghost, I use less water and more paint to make this area as dark as possible. You may notice that I'm not too careful with painting inside the lines. That's because I know I will be cutting out my ghosts to frame them. If you're creating regular illustration, you may want to put a little more effort into sticking to the outline and perhaps even use a smaller brush for this purpose. I add drops of pigment along the falls to bring them out and create an illusion of three dimensional fabric. I Now I will repeat this process filling the middle ghost with green paint to create a background for some forest inspired doodles. I will cover this last one with yellow, orange, peach, and red for a more autumnal fell. In the next lesson, we will start embellishing our ghosts with different botanical motifs. And then down 5. Let's Decorate a Misty Meadow Ghost: Okay, so before we start actually embellishing our first ghost, let's fill its ice with a black ink pen. As you can see, I've already cut out this drawing for the sake of creating a pretty flat lay for you. But of course, you can do it afterward. So now that our ghost can see what is happening, let's make it happy by embellishing it dress, shall we? I will be using a white gelpan for this purpose to create delicate, ghostly designs that will look gorgeous on a dark purple background. For this particular ghost, I chose some delicate, tiny flowers and bigger daisies from my little herbarium. Start with drawing a thin curvy line and top it with a small triangle like shape with three petals and a white oval in the middle. Next, add some more lines, branching of the main one and of each other and top them with more of these tiny flowers. Fill the spaces between them with some teardrop shaped leaves. Now let's draw our first daisy. Start by creating a cluster of circles and then add some drooping petals under it. Finish by adding a stem and a couple of leaves. For smaller daisies, substitute the cluster of circles with a simple half oval. Proceed with filling the bottom half of your ghost with flowers and imagine they are blooming from its hem. H now let's add another branch with tiny flowers. This time, you will create them by drawing a half oval with some lines in the middle and topped with three petals. As before, you can fill the spaces between flowers with some leaves. I will finish the composition by repeating the first branch design. And there you have it a mysterious, melancholy ghost inspired by a misty meadow. 6. Let's Decorate an Autumnal Ghost: Well, I can already tell you that our second ghost will be definitely much more cheerful. This time we will build the composition by working from the bottom. We will cover it tightly with some bigger flowers from my doodle herbarium, and then add some smaller flowers on stems to balance everything out. So let's start with a rows. Draw a bunch of half circles to indicate the center of it. Then add petals around it, making sure they overlap like that. Go round and round until you reach the edge of your ghost, so the flower fits snugly in the corner. Now let's add another flower partially hidden behind the first one. Draw several petals coming from the middle and then add a bunch of short lines with tiny circles at the ends indicating semans. I will fill the left corner of our ghost hm with a cluster of small flowers inspired by a plant called Baby's breath. Luckily, we are not talking about Rosemary's baby, so there will be nothing spooky about it. Now let's add some smaller flowers on stems for a nice contrast. The first design consists of some rounded triangles with three petals in the middle. And the I don't want the composition to be too crowded, so I will fill the spaces between them with simple small circles on stems. Now let's create some bigger triangle flowers inspired by single petals with decorative lines in the middle. Lastly, we will add a few branches topped with circles. I will draw some carvlines inside them so they look like gooseberries, but you can leave them blank for a more minimalistic design. I will finish my ghost by adding some watercolor blushes to its cheeks. 7. Let's Decorate a Magical Forest Ghost: Now it's time to decorate our last ghost. And for this green one, I chose a bunch of forest inspired motifs from my Dugal herbarium. So we will start with some ferns, draw a slightly curved central axis, following the ghost's body, and then add diagonal lines on both sides to create a skeleton of sorts. Notice that I make these lines longer and longer as I approach the bottom of the leaf. Now, all you have to do is to draw an outline around the skeleton. H. I will create the second fern without the aid of diagonal lines. But if you have a hard time keeping proportions right, don't hesitate to stick to the first method. Now let's add a few branches with some slightly elongated, slender delicate leaves. Just follow your intuition and add more leaves as you go to make the branch look full and balanced. We will finish the composition with tiny berries. Simply draw some lines branching off each other and add small black circles at the ends. This is an excellent filler for nooks and crannies in your design. Now, this last step is entirely optional, but you can add some golden details to your botanical doodles to make them even more magical. I am using a golden calligraphy pen from the Dutch brand called Deco time, and I absolutely love how it looks on watercolors. But you can also try using a golden oil marker or even some metallic watercolors or acrylics. I haven't yet found a golden gel pen I would be happy with, so I cannot recommend one to you. And that's it. Our magical Forest Ghost is ready. Oh 8. Let's Frame a Ghost: Okay, so framing your ghost is not a rocket science. You just need to place it on one piece of glass or plexiglass and cover it with the other and then slide both pans into a frame. One thing I would recommend is that you secure your drawing to the glass with a little piece of double sided tape, so it stays in place while you assemble it. You can elevate the composition by adding more cutout floating elements to it. Think moon and stars or butts and pumpkins or even some pressed leaves. It will definitely make it look more magical and cute. 9. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for taking this class. I hope you had a lot of fun with this little project, and it helps you relax and get into a cozy autumnal mood. I cannot wait to see your not so spooky illustrations, so please don't forget to add them to the gallery. And if you want to stay tuned for my next classes, follow me here on Skillshare. So happy creating and see you next time.