How to Draw Carnation

videotutorialbannerNEW

Let's draw carnation. As you will see below, carnation is one of the simplest flowers to draw.
I made a couple of simple steps that you can easily follow and learn. When you see a flower it may look too complicated at first.

You can break it down into smaller parts, like flower’s head or bud, calyx, stem(s), leaves, etc. When you do that, it will instantly look easier. It just won’t feel like overwhelming and complex work to do.


How to Draw Carnation - Step By Step

click on the images to enlarge

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

The head of the Carnation flower resembles a mushroom. Draw two intersecting ellipses, vertical and horizontal, just like you see in the illustration. The vertical ellipse represents the calyx and the horizontal represents the opened flower with petals. So, you have now a rough basic outline.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

These two ellipses will serve you as guides to keep the correct proportions if you cannot draw Carnation yet without them. Just play with it a bit. Now draw the calyx and the petals into these ellipses and gradually erase the help-lines as needed.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

Let’s break the flower into smaller parts and practice drawing Carnation “part-by-part”, beginning the drawing from calyx and flower bud first. I think these illustrations are simple and clear enough so that you can follow through.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

Just try to imagine how the Carnation would grow from bud to a full bloom flower. Yes, it is that easy. Petals are simple if you draw them separately each, aren’t they? Just draw each petal as described in the picture.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

Add the jagged edges and the petals are ready. Easy isn’t it? OK, let’s put these petals into the calyx and make a fresh-looking Carnation. Take a look one more time at the bud drawing, observe it a bit and then add the petals on the top.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

If you would like to draw a Carnation that is in full bloom, simply widen the head (petals) as you see in the illustration.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

To make the flower complete, we need to add the stem with leaves. Carnation stems and leaves are very easy to draw. The stem is just a kind of simple “stick”, and the leaves look like long curved arrows.

Practice first the various shapes of the leaves according to the illustration. You will soon understand their shape. These are the basic variations of Carnation leaf shapes.

Sure, there are many more, as every flower is individual but if you learn these you will easily draw any other.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

If you have some fresh Carnation available before you, you can see and practice right now. Draw directly into these simple lines the actual 3dimensinal shape as you see on the illustrations. Erase the help-lines as needed.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

A couple of split stems examples. Notice that the “knee” where the stem splits, grows leaves.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

I think it is time to recap what you have learned about Carnation parts so far and compose – draw Carnation as a complete flower. If possible try to draw it a little more complex, as you see in the illustration. You have practiced enough how to draw individual flower parts so consider this as a kind of assignment.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

Make as many mistakes as possible. It is good to make mistakes in the beginning. That is the process of learning, especially when you learn to draw.

Remember you are not a camera, you are human and every line you create is good because it carries your individuality. We are still halfway and the only work you have completed is the outline of the flower.

To make this Carnation outline drawing complete, let’s put some life into it. Let’s dress the Carnation up. It will be only by pencil but you will see how entirely different is the final impression. You can draw directly with a colored pencil too if you wish.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

Begin from the head or bud of the flower if possible.
By completing the head of the flower first you instantly give individuality to the flower.

I think that is quite obvious. It is similar to drawing any living creatures like animals, humans, or flowers.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

All of them have a part of the body that defines the character and individuality of the person, animal, or plant.
 
You would certainly not draw details of a flower from the root stem, as you would not start to draw work out the details of a human figure from the legs.

Imagine how would it be, draw Carnation in color. Imagine you have the only black and white vision.

Certainly, the green parts will be of a darker tone and the petals of the flower would be lighter. Let’s assume that the petals are light pink or red.

How to draw a Carnation with a pencil

This picture has 3 buds and one opened flower. Let’s begin from the far left bud first. Shade the calyx with light strokes and add more dark tone contrast where you think would be necessary.

If you draw Carnation and you have a real Carnation flower you can refer to the details directly - live. You can see that one side - one-half of the stem is lighter.
It creates an image of 3-dimensionality, which is important.

On the flower head gently shade the petals by the same strokes as you see in the picture.

Click on the images and they will open in a new tab or window enlarged so that you can see the details, the pencil strokes. Notice the spot where the leaves are growing, it is dark and it gets lighter towards the end of the leaves.





Some drawings look OK in pencil but some need to be colored, so let's liven them up!

There is no special reason why I chose the red carnation. Maybe it is the most common color. Maybe it creates better contrast with the green parts and the white paper background.

By single pencil lines draw the stems first. You do not need to draw the same directions as I did. It doesn’t matter what directions the stems are growing or how long are they.

When you draw carnation, the most important thing is to capture the flower. You can do it by drawing the ellipses as seen in this picture.

Do all your pencil work only by weak lines to erase them easily later. Now draw the shape of each carnation bud and the carnation flower head on the top.

Draw the stems. Notice how the thickness of the carnation stem varies. It is thicker on lower parts and gets slim near the flower head or buds.

I think you already sense that drawing carnation is easy. You have just started from the simplest pencil lines and you already have a solid coloring page base.

You need one pink color pencil and one light green color pencil. Draw colored silhouettes of carnation over the initial graphite pencil lines.

By the same pink and green color pencil, fill up appropriately each part on the carnation.

After coloring all the carnation parts, your flower should look like this or better. Please leave the tip of the petals white.

A combination of white and pink gives an impression of luxury and elegance.

Put more pink and red color tones on the flower petals. When you draw carnation (or any other flower) it is good to use 2 or 3 different intensity color pencils of the same or similar color (e.g.: pink, red, etc)

Combining pink and red is a very common practice when drawing flowers. Experiment a bit on a separate paper.

After coloring the flower petals your drawing should look like this…or hopefully better. I always say better, because the purpose of this website is that you can perfect these drawings and take your work to the next higher level.

Gradually add more green color tone on the stems and the leaves. Notice how the intensity of the color tone varies. Do it similarly.

Very good! Now, I think you have learned how to draw carnations in color easily and almost effortlessly.

We started with only a few ugly grotesque pencil lines and ended up with this drawing.

Did You Enjoy Drawing Carnation?

Check Out Also These Flower Drawing Tutorials:

Visitors Personal Gallery Pages

Please see and enjoy the following collection of personal galleries. We all believe you will have a lot of fun. Observing others’ artwork is always, always very inspirational. You may get some new ideas for your own drawings.

Dog portraits by Lynn

Portraits of Dogs by Lynn

Portraits by Andy Leslie

Realistic Portraits by Andy Leslie

Portraits by Lela Stankovich

Portrait Drawings by Lela Stankovic

Various drawings by Betty Chavis

Various Drawings by Betty Chavis

Original sketches by Nadia Velasquez

Original sketches by Nadia Velasquez

Beautiful Artwork by Bill Richards

Beautiful Artwork by Bill Richards

Cute Drawings by Christie

Cute Drawings by Christie

Manga Drawings by Chi

Manga Drawings by Chi

Portrait Drawings by Evan

Portrait Drawings by Evan

Various Drawings by Sabariah

Various Drawings by Sabariah

Various Drawings by Sunnu Golwalla

Various Drawings by Sunnu Golwalla

Various Drawings by Amberlynn

Various Drawings by Amberlynn

Various Drawings by Anne Burgoyne

Various Drawings by Anne Burgoyne

Various Drawings by Carly

Various Drawings by Carly

Portrait Drawings by Bud Norris

Portrait Drawings by Bud Norris

Portrait Drawings by Mahendran

Portrait Drawings by Mahendran

Scenery Drawings by Phil Edmondson

Scenery Drawings by Phil Edmondson

Portrait Drawings by Stacey

Portrait Drawings by Stacey

Manga and Fantasy by Lee Henrik

Manga and Fantasy by Lee Henrik

Manga Sketches by Paul Rowan

Manga Sketches by Paul Rowan

Various Drawings by D. Fox

Various Drawings by D. Fox

Original Pokemons by Johan

Original Pokemons by Johan

Original Manga by Grace

Original Manga by Grace

Cute Little Sketches by Gwen

Cute Little Sketches by Gwen

Creative Anime by Celia

Creative Anime by Celia

Various Drawings by Taylor Sligowski

Various Drawings by Taylor Sligowski

Various Sketches by Amanda

Various Sketches by Amanda

Fantasy Drawings by Melissa

Fantasy Drawings by Melissa

Various Drawings by Steven Chesley

Various Drawings by Steven Chesley

Various Drawings by Maciej Michalak

Various Drawings by Maciej Michalak

Various Drawings by Aiswariya Pramod

Various Drawings by Aiswariya Pramod

Manga Drawings by Andrea

Manga Drawings by Andrea

Original Artwork by Richa Kotriwala

Original Artwork by Richa Kotriwala

Various Drawings by Sandy Lange

Various Drawings by Sandy Lange

Cartoon Drawings by Dipanjan Dey

Cartoon Drawings by Dipanjan Dey

Cartoon Drawings by Dhrubo2002

Cartoon Drawings by Dhrubo2002

Ballpen Drawings by Shehbaaz Baurtally

Ballpen Drawings by Shehbaaz Baurtally

Emma Adams Cartoon Sketches Gallery

Emma Adams Cartoon Sketches Gallery

Sonali Ghosh Illustrations Gallery

Sonali Ghosh Illustrations Gallery

Rupshya Dilipraj Artwork Gallery

Rupshya Dilipraj Artwork Gallery


Theme Based Visitors Galleries

The following Theme Based Galleries are a collection of selected drawings from various authors based on a certain theme. I would like you to get as much inspiration as possible for your own drawings.


  And Now It's Your Turn
SHARE YOUR DRAWINGS

Select The Category and Follow The Uploading Instructions

Share your own drawings, sketches or doodles by choosing a suitable category below. You will be guided to the uploading process step by step.


  1. Home
  2. >
  3. How To Draw Flowers
  4. >
  5. How To Draw Carnation

Latest Visitor's Drawings

  1. Imaginary pen art

    Mar 18, 24 05:51 PM

    Here, I tried depicting a candle also.

    see the drawings

  2. Hero of Own Place

    Mar 16, 24 04:43 AM

    Hero of Own Place
    Hero of Own Place

    see the drawings

  3. Imaginary pen art

    Mar 12, 24 06:25 AM

    Night scene with lights and fire on the left.

    see the drawings

  4. Bad patch is over, rise up & win

    Mar 12, 24 06:20 AM

    Bad patch is over, rise up & win.

    see the drawings

  5. Cooper

    Mar 07, 24 10:33 PM

    Cooper lives across the road from me. He is super sweet and really goofy. I hope I have captured these qualities in my drawing.

    see the drawings

  6. Never surrender to time, just conquer it.

    Mar 05, 24 04:21 AM

    Never surrender to time, just conquer it.

    see the drawings

  7. Knowledge is power, never weapons.

    Feb 25, 24 07:51 AM

    Knowledge is power, never weapons.

    see the drawings

  8. Imaginary pen art completed

    Feb 23, 24 08:20 AM

    Isolated place.

    see the drawings

  9. Imaginary pen art in progress

    Feb 19, 24 08:06 AM

    Still concentrating on buildings and artificial light.

    see the drawings

  10. DEFINITION OF LIFE

    Feb 18, 24 03:35 AM

    DEFINITION OF LIFE: Life never a disco but a rugged way

    see the drawings

  11. The Affair

    Feb 18, 24 03:34 AM

    Johnny Mills having a fling/affair with an Italian girl
    This is my drawing of the affair in Microsoft Paint. This drawing is about the 31-year-old British man Johnny Mills having an affair with a 22-year-old

    see the drawings

  12. Imaginary pen art

    Feb 15, 24 06:50 AM

    Again, showing old buildings and night view.

    see the drawings

  13. veterinary

    Feb 15, 24 06:40 AM

    veterinary

    see the drawings

  14. Imaginary pen art

    Feb 11, 24 01:49 AM

    Inside an old style building.

    see the drawings

  15. Imaginary pen art

    Feb 03, 24 06:46 AM

    Depicting a night scene at an old palace.

    see the drawings