Carnation flowers represent love, fascination, and distinction. In the US, carnations are the official flowers for Mother’s Day. They’re also used in corsages for prom, and are considered the birth flower for the month of January. These beautiful and delicate blooms symbolize different things in different places, but one thing’s for sure, they’re a marvelous subject to paint.
Just in time for the first month of 2021, we’ll be sharing how you can easily recreate a carnation using watercolor paint–the perfect medium to replicate the subtle color gradient seen on our flower of choice.
We’ve chosen a red carnation as our subject, but you can always go for your preferred carnation color.
Materials needed:
- Chalkola Watercolor Paint
- Paint brush (preferably a fine one)
- Pencil
- Water in a cup (for cleaning your brush and mixing your watercolor)
- Watercolor paper
Ready to get fascinated by this layered and ruffled flower? Let’s start painting and creating by watching the video below.
Steps:
- Lay out your materials. On your paper, faintly draw the outline of your carnation flower using a pencil.
- For our first layer of color, we started with Naples Yellow. What’s so great about using watercolor for a gradient artwork like this is that you can control the opacity, use different colors, and apply several layers. Chalkola’s watercolor paints are lightfast and quick-drying, too. So you don’t have to wait for your paint to dry for a long period of time.
- Once you’ve filled out the center part with Naples Yellow, move on to red. With this, you can add a bit more water so the yellow underneath can still show through.
- Next is the flower outline. To make it brighter and bolder, lessen the water so the color comes out completely opaque. This will add clearer details to the edges of your petals.
- For the stem and leaves, we chose Sap Green, which makes the colors of our flower pop even more. Add layers and dimension to your stem by mixing in other shades, such as Deep Green or Light Green.
There you have it! A carnation masterpiece in watercolor. We’re sure you’ve created a stunning artwork today. We’d love to see it, so tag us on Instagram @chalkola and use the hashtag #ChalkolaArt for a chance to be featured on our page. Until our next art-venture. Enjoy painting and creating with Chalkola!
