Hi everyone
In this tip video I wanted to show you the stages I go through to paint this delicate
magnolia flower, which is based on a photograph I took. If you'd like to see how I painted
the blue background check out my smooth watercolour washes video.
So I begin with a contour drawing outlining the edge of the individual petals and outlining
the segments in the stamen. Then I use some super watery grey paint to apply with my larger
brush to the darkest parts of the petals, leaving gaps where the highlights are.
Then I use a thicker mix with some brown added to lay down a wash over the branch and buds.
Then I add some yellow and brown watery paint to the flower stamens.
Once that's all dry I want to darken up the darkest parts of the picture, the branch and
buds, so that they will serve as a visual anchor, or reference on the paper for me to
compare the tonal values in the petals to.
I use a smaller brush and alter the consistency of the mix to match the tones I see. On the
buds I apply the paint in lots of little lines to achieve the hairy look they have.
Now that the yellow paint is to ally dry, I use my tiny brush with the thicker dark
paint to mark out the darkest tones in the stamens, the outlines to the segments there.
With the darkest tone in place it's much easier to judge how much darker I can take the dark
parts of the petals. And the petals are now dry so I apply another layer of a thicker
grey mix to the areas that need it.
I also add a very watery pink mix to the pink bud and some watery yellow paint to the base
of it.
Then I use a smaller brush with the thicker grey mix to pick out more details on the petals
like the veins.
The grey paint on the petals dries quickly so I can now add a layer of an orange-brown
mix around the stamen. Once that's darker I can see that the stamen itself needs a little
more darkening so I added another layer of the watery yellow very carefully so as not
to disturb the detail I'd painted there before so it sits on top as a glaze.
Once that's dry I use my tiny brush to again darken the edges of the stamen segments so
that the contrast levels are back in balance.
Then with a final darkening of the transition from orange-brown to grey on the petals, and
a few hairs added with white gouache paint to the buds and it's complete.
If you'd like a full real-time class on how to paint this magnolia, including which colours
and brush techniques to use, it's available via my online school.