Painting magnolias in watercolour

In this step-by-step plan, we show you how to recreate these lovely magnolias using watercolours. Follow along the steps with photos and create your own botanical watercolour painting!

Go to step 1

Create your own

Magnolias are seen as a symbol of dignity and nobility. They can also be associated with femininity and love. The blooming of these beautiful, majestic magnolia trees gives us hope that spring has finally arrived! Their beauty is not easy to capture – how do you make them so stunningly white like they are in nature?

What you need

Van Gogh graphite pencils set of 12
Sakura Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box with 48 colours
Rembrandt watercolour brush series 110, no. 4
Van Gogh watercolour brush series 191, no. 10
Rembrandt watercolour paper

Start with a sketch.

Step 1

Choose a reference photo of magnolia blossoms or make one yourself and make a sketch using the graphite pencils. If the lines are too dark, you can erase them later during the painting process.

Create your background.

Step 2

Wet the background using your water colour brush and water, make sure to avoid the branches and flowers. Wetting the paper gives you a beautiful, even result when working with water colours.

To fill in the background, we chose a dark ultramarine blue colour. This warm blue is perfect to let the white magnolia really shine. Work in layers to build up the intensity of the colour.

Once the paint has dried completely, you can erase any superfluous pencil lines out of your drawing.

Step 2 - Painting magnolias in watercolour

Now let's work on the flowers.

Step 3

Add yellow accents to the lighter areas of your painting, like the upper parts of the branches and leaves.

Add depth using shadows.

Step 4

For the shadowy areas of the branches, use darker brown shades and sepia. Work in several layers to add more depth to your painting.

Time for some more detail!

Step 5

Now you can add details to the leaves and the magnolia blossom. We added green to the leaves and created the orange-yellow core of the blossoms.

Add some depth to the background.

Step 6

To provide some perspective, add several white spots to the background to depict other flowers on the branches in the back. You can clearly see the depth this adds to the painting.

Finally, shape your magnolia leaves using light pink shadows.

Step 7

This completes your botanical water colour painting! We hope this step-by-step plan inspires you to go out in nature and take some pictures of flowers you want to paint. If you do, don’t forget to share your results using #RoyalTalens!