Magnolia Seed Pods: Sketchbook Pages and a Painting Video

As a big fan of Magnolia Seed Pods, I always draw the very first pod I find in a season - this year it was October 16th - you can read more about the beginning of that day in a slightly-smudged ink below. 

And after the first one magnolia seed pods pop usually into my sketchbook for quite some time. Some years it results in a whole series, some it is just here and there between other things - a record of things I bring with me from my walks. And as a drawer of every day - what to draw if not the contents of one's pockets?  

Later I found some more seed pods and made a video of how I draw and then paint them in my sketchbook. I am using an Ackerman pen with a comic G nib and a combination of watercolor and gouache in my palette. I made an 8x8 print out of it to add to my Etsy if you are interested.

Sketchbook #101: Treasures - Magnolia Seed Pod and others

Magnolia Seed Pods Update (I blame the squirrels)

Last week I was drawing and writing about the fact that magnolia seed pods are late this year. I blamed my findings of only old pods on the squirrels. 

But today I got a present - a fresh seed pod! Its end is slightly chewed, so I think I was right about the squirrels. 

Wind brings gifts: magnolia seed pods

With all the rain and winds I 've been finding lots of treasures to draw. Magnolia seed pods have a special place in my sketchbooks - always. Here is one of them. I painted it with gouache and you can see some parts of the process here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CnS0MaWKkkc/

Magnolia Trees Give Me Gifts Twice a Year

Magnolia Trees gift me two seasonal pleasures every year. There us time to draw their Flowers and then there is time to draw their Seed Pods. 

Magnolia Seed Pods are gorgeous and complicated, they can be a reason for a walk (and walking at unusual times means I might need a reason, and my reason this season is to find "my new magnolia seedpod tree). They are familiar, yet never the same, hence can work both as a comfort sketch (when I have very limited time and/or attention or ability to draw) or a reason to experiment (when I have some time and capacity to try materials and ideas). So here are some of the pods that I drew and decided to save in my sketchbook:

My Magnolia Seed Pod Collection

As I mentioned before I picked up a nice collection of magnolia seed pods after the storm and decided that I will draw them all one by one. Slowly but surely all got into my sketchbook through some burst with berries before that happened and others got a little moldy :) 

Some were tiny sketches, some were done with my pentel CMYK brushes, and some were experiments with the texture and ink application (I am collecting a whole bunch of things to choose from for the upcoming "deck of textures" workshop). Others were made with unusual surfaces (though this is lost in the scan so you can never tell) - except if you get to flip through this sketchbook :)

Magnolia Season - Part Two.

I wrote about my adventures of sketching magnolias at the peak of their season in March. The season is over in the sense that the trees are no longer stunning bouquets of pink that make you stop everything and rush out to look. But they continue to bloom somewhat, now flowers are hidden by the leaves. As the summer comes, I will be looking for the next stage in the magnolia saga - when large, heavy-petaled white flowers of the largest Magnolia trees - Magnolia grandiflora. And after that - magnolia seed pods! 

However, I got a few sketches in before all the greens took over - here they are.

Little Everyday Things

I picked up a bunch of dahlias at the farmers market last week and still enjoy their company. There is a little story about this particular pink one - written in the sketch.

Also, there is a shortage of magnolia seed pods this year: I looked at my sketchbook from a year ago and saw that I had plenty to draw by this time. But this year I see only old or half-eaten ones. 

A little video about me painting the seed pods here:

An Odd Year for Magnolias: watercolor, gouache, stencils in my sketchbook.

Seasons can be measured in many ways - and one of my favorite ones is by thinking about what plants would be doing at what part of the year. Since my arrival to California, I enjoyed getting to know many kinds of magnolia trees. They feel very comfortable here and you can find all kinds of magnolias on the public streets, in private gardens, and everything in between.  Their flowers and seed pods visit my sketchbook frequently. There are several trees in the area that I know quite well and know when they usually start to bloom when they reach a peak flower coverage, and when I should go hunt for some magnolia cones. 

But this year all the rules were broken! The tree that I enjoy visiting around Christmas time and send pictures of to my friends in much colder parts of the world as a promise of spring to come was bare on New Year's. The spider magnolia that I often run by did not get the first flower till February seventh. Yet one of my favorite magnolias with dark burgundy flowers was in full bloom at the end of January when usually at that time it was only getting its first buds out. 

I started sketching magnolias in January and just recently say that my neighbor's young tree got the first bud out - this week! I put some comments about materials that I used:

Watercolor and gouache.

Stencils on a tracing paper.

Shadow of a magnolia tree on a fence.

Watercolor.

Watercolor in a pocket sketchbook.

Sketchbook #101: Everyday Life