Star Magnolia - a graphite drawing

 

Not far from my home (five minutes walking) are Star Magnolia trees standing in the residential areas and in Springtime they are beautiful. I have painted these before, but this time I wanted to make a drawing, using materials I did not have when I made the paintings.

Using a tinted paper and my water soluble graphite (tailor shape) I made the drawing. Of course some water was used as well after the first layer of colour was on the paper. After that had dried I applied more graphite, mixing the colours on the paper.

After I had finished the first branch with flowers I added some more to make a more balanced composition.

The result is what I hoped for.

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this drawing and my contact information can all be found in  my Tumblr blog.

Another Star Magnolia painting - as promised

In my previous post I had already promised that I would paint another Star Magnolia after the reference picture I had made in the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum' during our last visit.
One of the flowers in the picture had not opened completely and did really look stunning in front of the dark green background.

I have simplified the background again, in reality there are lots of trees and bushes making this a very crowded scene while I just want to show the beauty of the flower.
In the vicinity of the magnolia trees we had the illusion of snow falling, all the petals of the flowers that had faded were falling around  us. I have used some salt in the wet paint of the background to try to recreate that illusion.

In the past I have always said that I am not a flower painter, and I still think so but by now I am learning to paint flowers 'my way' and I really like the results of the last few paintings I have made.

As I have written before, there were a lot of reference pictures made during our visit in the Tree Museum, so there is more to be painted. But I have painted enough Magnolias for now.

More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com 

Star Magnolia - in the Von Gimborn Tree Museum

Our visit to the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum' gave me the opportunity to make a lot of reference pictures and I have also made pictures of the name tags of the trees that inspired me.
This is a Magnolia x loebneri 'Raspberry Fun' and we call it a Star magnolia. 

At first I have made the picture for the tree's name, as I had painted a magnolia from the area where I live without knowing which tree it was. Looking at the picture I decided to paint the beautiful flowers.
There is only one flower in this painting, so here is my promise: there is another painting planned, but not painted yet.

For this watercolour painting I have really tried to challenge myself by including some of the branches and placing them before a dark background. 
The suggestion of a dark bush in the background is usually easy to paint in watercolours, now I had to keep the branches and most of all the flower white. I have used some masking fluid for the flower, but not on all parts, so I really had to be careful here.

Painting a white flower is also not just leaving the paper white, I had to place the shadows very carefully to be able to show the structure of the flower.
I think I have succeeded with this one.

More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, contact information, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com