"Magnolia, the Flower of the South"

This tutorial is best viewed at 1024x768.
Please read my Terms of Use if you have any questions.

At this time I am not allowing my tutorials to be translated
so please don't ask!

All images are the sole property of © Designs By Astro
Do not copy, place on CD, make into Scripts or send
through email without my prior written permission.
A link is always welcomed and appreciated though!!
All rights reserved.

The image/images you make using this tutorial
is your property to do with as you wish.

If you have any questions or need further help you can Email me

This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of Paint Shop Pro, the use and location
of tools and vectors. This tutorial is written using PSP 8.1 but can be done using other
version.

The Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) is a beautiful evergreen tree that is indigenous
to the southern US. It can grow to become a very large (up to 80 feet) and unusual tree, the
trunks of older trees can grow humps (stump sprouts) out of the ground causing a very unique
tree. The blossoms of the tree are very large, the petals are thick but yet they are very
delicate flowers. Once picked, the least touch or bend on the white petals can turn them
brown. The fragrance of the Magnolia is very sweet smelling, it is somewhat like that of a
Gardenia. A Magnolia blossom is not really as white as it looks to be from a distance, it has
more of a yellowy green and brown tinge to it. As a native GRITS (girls raised in the south),
I have always been drawn to the beauty and fragrance of the Magnolia. The Magnolia is the
state flower of Mississippi, girls born here are called Mississippi Magnolias!

Let's begin!

Please be sure to SAVE your work as you go.

NOTE! The Teardrop Preset Shape was an extra shapes download offered by Jasc with
PSP 7 and is no longer offered by them. However, if you do not have the teardrop
shape you can download it here....
Teardrop Preset Shape
Download the file and extract the shape to your Preset Shapes folder inside of PSP.
This is for versions 8 and up!

1.) Open a 500 x 500 transparent canvas. Background color set to white. Preset Shapes set to
these settings...

2.) The teardrop is the perfect shape to start our petals with. Draw out your teardrop in the upper
left of the canvas.

3.) Click on the Pen Tool to go to Node Mode.  If you wish to work without the color showing while you
manipulate your Nodes, then in the Layers Palette click on the eye to hide your layer. Look at the
screenshot below to see how I added and moved my Nodes around. Screenshot is resized to 70% but is
of the full canvas so that you can see the placement of the first petal....

4.) You don't have to make your petal shape perfect just yet. We will leave it as a vector so that we
can come back later and make any final adjustments we may need. Copy and Paste this vector layer as
a New Layer or as a New Vector Selection, whichever way you prefer to work with open vector layers.

5.) Rotate your second petal to the right of the first one. Go into Node Mode by clicking on the Pen
Tool, Adjust the nodes some so that you have a petal that looks something like this....
NOTE.. To rotate while in vector mode, click on the Object Selection Tool . To see your
petal while in this mode you will need to have the layer set to visible.

6.) Continue to paste, rotate and reshape your Vectored petals as you did for petal 2. Do this 6 times
in the order listed below...

7.) Once you have the first 6 petal shapes, make your top layer your active layer, paste, rotate,
reshape and resize a 7th petal so that it is on top of petal 5. Look at the screenshot below to see
how mine looks....

8.) Continue to paste petals on top of petals 1, 2, and 4. Resize, reshape, rotate as needed. Screenshot
below shows petal positions...

9.) Once you are happy with all the shapes of your petals you can convert them to raster and rename
each one.
Note ... you may want to save before converting for a later date to play with again!

10.) Set your background color to #C8C6A5. Use the teardrop Preset Shape to make the center of
your magnolia, it should be kind of shaped like a Christmas light bulb, something like this...

11.) Now comes the fun part, the shading! *L* Add a new Raster Layer to the top of your palette.
Somewhere on this layer make yourself a color swatch of the colors we will be using so that they will
be easy to access as you work. Here are the color codes we will be using on the petals...
#8A6018
#9F8A51
#9A7722
#9E9C96
#BDD15D
#8E9C4E

12.) Chose a petal to start your shading on, I recommend you start with one of the larger bottom petals.
If the petal is one that has a petal on top of it, I prefer to leave the top layer visible so that I can see to
shade darker areas as shadows reflected by the top petal. Start by selecting your petal, once selected go
to Selections, Modify, Contract. Contract the selection by 2. Add a New Raster Layer, set your
foreground color to #8A6018.

13.) Airbrush to these settings...

14.) Make a few light sprays, adjust size of brush as needed. Switch between a couple of the colors as
you go.

15.) Use the Smudge, Push and Soften Tools to mingle your colors together....

Settings for Smudge, Push and Soften tools are just guidelines, adjust as desired.

16.) Once you're happy with the shading on the petal, remove the selections. Use the smudge and soften
tool to lightly blend out to the edge of the petal where the selections were modified but not too much, we
still want that sharp edge to give thickness to the petal.

17.) Continue to select, contract by 2, add a new raster layer & apply shading to each of your petals.
Merge visible the shaded layer and petal layer as you go, rename if you wish.

18.) On petal number 4 (labeled in the screenshot under step 6) I used the Preset Shape Ellipse to make
two small edges on the petal. The screenshot below will show you those edges...

19.) Apply shading under and on top of both of the small edges to define them more.

20.) Next make active the center of your magnolia. Set your background color to #D07286
Preset Shapes to Ellipse, draw out and vector a small shape at the bottom of your center like this...
Convert to Raster.

21.) Set your foreground color to #E0A0AE. Add a new layer. With your Paintbrush set to these settings...

Make dots of color so that they will look like tiny balls on the darker pink around your center. You should
end up with something like this....

22.) Next let's add the small lines that will make up the center of the magnolia. The colors we will be using
for the lines are listed below....

#E8DA91
#F4EDC6
#D7C889
#967F38
#87962D

You can use either the Paintbrush or the Pen Tool to make your lines....

23.) Add new layers as needed and switch between the colors listed above, draw lines to make up the center
of the magnolia. Once the lines were drawn, I added small dots to the tips of some of the lines. I used the
brown to make loops on the top portion. The green should be used to fill in under the brown. Use the push,
smudge and soften tools to blend and soften the colors. Below is a close up of how mine turned out....

24.) I added a new layer and used the brown to add some small scratch like places around the base of my
center to indicate a bend in the petals. When a magnolia petal is bent or torn the "hurt" area turns brown.
It's not unusual that the weight of the petal would cause a small bend where the petal attaches to the
center.
 

That's it! Decorate to your hearts desire with a background, matting, frame or anything else you'd like!
Pretty as a painting hanging in any southern home!

Until next time... God Bless!
Connie