LESSON #10 - Painting Magnolias

[dennis]

Gail you have made an excellent rendering of the Magnolia 
I only have one problem with it though. The main flower's petal on the right is overly large. Please check it again your template or did you draw it freehand?

[wshortstuff]

Here is my feeble attempt at shadows.  Hope I can get the pic attached.

[dennis]

There you go. Now there is depth to the petals 

[Val]

  Nice work guys, fabulous magnolias. 

[C.Bodine]

Nice Job, Wshortstuff!

[GailBrown]

Now that you mention it, it does appear larger.  I enlarged the picture a little to fit my page, so I must have made an error in the transfer.  Oops, it's watercolour so I can't fix it now.  Actually I have trouble with resizing most of the pictures.  Can't resize the pdfs to change the size.  In my own work I normally resize a jpg and print it out to whatever size I need.  Have tried the graph method, but don't have time/patience for fiddling with it.  Wondering if there is another method to resize and transfer without spending oodles of money on light machines.

[dennis]

what you can do is to scan the printout of the template and the save it as a jpg. From there you can resize it.

[wshortstuff]

  Thanks all for the kind words.  Denise, it is amazing how much a little shadow can do.  Thanks.
See you in the w/c pencil class.

[GailBrown]

thanks dennis.  It is an additional step, but considering the fact that this has happened a number of times, maybe worth trying.  Here is a tip for you.  I notice that you spend a fair amount of time using a graphite pencil to transfer your images onto the canvas/watercolour paper.  I have a number of graphite sticks-about 1/2 inch diameter-one 2B and one 6b.  I use them to transfer my images and they are amazingly fast-seconds compared to the several minutes the pencil takes, and you don't need to be that neat.  Short work of a tedious chore.

[Val]

Excellent tip Gail      I've never seen graphite sticks like that. Another addition to the list! 

[dennis]

There is nothing wrong with a dark background - specially for a light subject. The darker the background the lighter the light subject shows up. Your magnolias show up very well because of this. 

Your painting has a very nice fresh look to it. I know that you normally don't see this but I have found that if you add a small white highlight on the center (in the yellow portion of the stamens) it really makes the flower alive. I mention this in  the video.

[C.Bodine]

Martina, your magnolias are marvelous! I really like the colors.

[Val]

  Beautiful Magnolias Matina.  Nice 3D effect, I like the darker background....really makes them pop!

[NHC50]

Martina, YOU GO GIRL!!!! I like your magnolias! 
Nina

[Lillian]

Brilliant!  I like the contrast of the blossoms against the dark background.  Great 3D effect too!