With the autumn leaves tutorial complete, its time to explore the glorious new season of Spring! My next stop is to investigate the remarkable beauty of MAGNOLIAS, such a heartwarming sight, marking an end to winter over the world.

'Paint Realistic Watercolour and Botanicals - MAGNOLIAS' is a watercolour painting tutorial, placing the spotlight on the gorgeous Magnolia as a subject. Inspiring an undying love from most in botanical painting, the Magnolia is certainly one of my all time favourite subjects to illustrate as well. I can think of no better way to explore the Magnolia subject than with than the equally delicate, romantic and beautiful watercolour medium.... and now is your chance to join me to learn how for yourself!

Following the STUDIO BASICS and the CHASING AUTUMN tutorials, the Magnolia remains a simple yet slightly more complete study of a single botanical subject, and is an ideal subject for us to take out next step together. A beautiful subject alone, it presents us with manageable areas of simple wash, glaze and dry brushing in a harmonious colour combination. It is a perfect opportunity to start stepping the complexity of our techniques up from the previous course into some new botanical painting territory. 

Working in layers, we start the magnolias with some beautiful wash work, then develop this further with the use of basic glazing to develop some beautiful richness and texture to our magnolia painting. Finishing off our work, we will try a little dry brushing to enhance the delicate leathery textural effects of the magnolia petals to completion. It is a perfect transition for us to explore on many levels.

To illustrate the Magnolia in this tutorial, we will be addressing how to approach a variety of components relevant to this subject and its elements. From stems to petals, the intricate flower centre, furry leaf buds and some small leaf details to complete our painting, this step by step course will help you through every stage of the painting process. This is an ideal subject for exploring botanical illustration, the watercolour medium, and for students of any level to learn from.

For those starting out, or who feel a little nervous about where to begin, I have designed and created a series of painting exercises to help you connect with the medium and subject, to familiarise you with the process and to equip you with a clear path and strategy forwards into your finished painting.

For those wanting to get deeper into the nitty gritty of this subject, Ive developed a specific 'extension section' that delves deeper into painting the magnolia centre, one of the most challenging aspects of this subject. Many times a painting is lost in the quality of our details, so here we place the spotlight on this element to help expand your knowledge and painting skills even further. This mini NutShell extension tutorial is called 'Magnolia Centre ~ The Heart of the Matter', and is the first in a new line of mini spotlight tutorials called ~ The NutShell Series. It is botanical painting in a Nutshell.

With so much diversity, the magnolia is a dreamy playground for botanical artists, and a perfect subject to explore on so many levels. Painting the Magnolia flowers explores creating texture using washes, glazes and dry brushing whilst the flower centre focusses on more detailed work using fine line work, and of course dry brushing techniques. These techniques are so critical to the watercolour painting medium and couldn't be more essential to creating successful Botanical Art across the board. 

So welcome to the next online 'Paint Realistic Watercolor and Botanicals' tutorial. I am looking forward to seeing you in the wash!