Second Magnolia Drawn and Polished

Finally finished my last magnolia drawing.

I thought I had finished it last week, but the more I looked at it, the more I was dissatisfied with it.

It was not bad, just not finished the way I thought it should.

Still did not have that bright contrast between the white blossom and the dark green leaves.

Even the "final" polish did not give it the strong look I wanted, so I sat and stared at it.


Evaluating your own work is one of the hardest things you will ever do.

Looking critically at it, I saw the shadows just were not strong enough. Now, this is a white flower, and my left brain kept telling me, "its white, what do you want?" But it was not 100%.

I did work on intensifying the white, but it just did not come together. So I decided to attack the shadow.

Using 70% cool gray on the bright sunny white was one of the hardest things I ever did. But it was necessary. Without the darker shadows, the white just did not look white enough.

So something to remember, White is never white! It is the most reflective color and will always pick up its surrounding color and will totally change with contour and shadows.

Now, with an additional 5 layers of blended color, the work more closely resembles what I saw in my head.