Tutorial: Magnolia Blossoms

Hello again lovelies!

Per requests over at Instagram, I've put together a roughshod tutorial on how to make magnolia blossom nail art. I was doing this rather late at night, so I hope you'll excuse the less-than-stellar photo quality!

The list of materials is at the bottom, under all the photos (where it usually is), and to try to cut down on the size of this mammoth post, I will write the steps as a caption to each photo. Here we go!

We start out with our supplies: brushes (one-stroke, detail), paints, palette, small amount of acetone for clean-up, base polish, topcoat, glass of water, napkin.

The first step is to paint your nails. I used butter LONDON's Fiver last time; this time, I used Tough as Nails Lacquer's Salute my Shorts (and it is so, so, so perfect and amazing). Give it a good topcoat once done.

And here is our completed nail, cleaned up around the edges and topcoated.

This is not a step, I just want you to see how awesome this polish is.

On to the painting! I've got a blob of white, a blob of alizarin crimson, and a blob of the two of them combined to make a deep pink. I then load up my one-stroke brush as though I'm going to do one-stroke flowers, BUT I DON'T. (If you need help knowing what I mean by loading up the brush a certain way, just YouTube one-stroke flowers.)

The first petal goes on. As you can see, I'm not doing one-stroke, it's more that I pull the brush slightly sideways and then downwards. It's a squiggle motion.

Second petal. I usually make it thinner than the others. To do this one, I pull the brush vertically and slightly left, lift off, then do the same but pulling slightly right.

Third petal! The reverse of the first one.

I've switched to my detailing brush now. The smaller the detailing brush, but better. I've added some darker pink spots near the bottom for depth.

I then use my detailing brush to beef up the white as needed. (After all, magnolia blossoms are usually more white than they are pink!)

Then I get into the branches. Magnolia trees like to grow horizontally, so I keep the branches moving that way. The blossoms are always perched on top, and frequently sort of in the middle of the branch, so that's where I put them. For this, I've used my detailing brush with pure Van Dyke brown, with highlights in a mix of white and brown.

The last painting step is to add the leaves. I usually keep the foliage sparse, because my favourite magnolias bloom when the leaves have barely passed the budding stage. I use pure sap green and a mix of white and green for this step, plus my trusty detailing brush.

Wait a good long while for your acrylic paints to dry (especially if you're using the same brand as I am; I love them for their workability and fluidity but they do take longer to dry), topcoat your creation, and you're done!

Supplies used:
Base coat of choice
Base polish of choice (used Tough as Nails Lacquer - Salute my Shorts)
Topcoat of choice (recommend a thicker one, like Seche Vite or Poshé)
Acrylic paints in: white, deep pink, brown, green
Brushes: one-stroke, detailing, plus a clean-up brush if base polish needs touching up
Glass of water to clean brushes
Paper towel to clean brushes
Palette for mixing paint

Let me know if you have any questions, I'll try my best to help! Let me know also if you'd like a tutorial for anything else I've done, I'm happy to give it a shot. :)

J.