Painting an Iris in Acrylic Inks Step 1. Draw out your flower, showing each petal. Step2. Mix your iris colour. In a small tub, I added a little water and a few drops of purple lake, indigo, and flame red ink to make the desired purple. I then wet each petal, but left the white area dry. While the petal was wet, I added small amounts of the mixed purple ink from the edges of the petal so that it blended into the centre gradually. I then used the rigger brush to add the purple veins over the whit