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C# Forms - How to draw shape over existing panels

Trying to draw a shape over existing panels for a good while, but by now out of ideas. Could somebody help me out, please? It ends up always behind the panels (and pictureBox /the grey one/). I tried 3 different ways, whithout success. this is my code:
namespace DrawingOnFront
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void panel11_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
DrawIt(90, 70);
}
private void DrawIt(int x, int y)
{
Rectangle Circle = new Rectangle(x,y,40,40);
SolidBrush Red = new SolidBrush(Color.Red);
Graphics g = this.CreateGraphics();
g.FillEllipse(Red, Circle);
/*
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(pictureBox1.Width, pictureBox1.Height);
Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp);
int width = pictureBox1.Width /4;
int height = pictureBox1.Height /2;
int diameter = Math.Min(width, height);
g.FillEllipse(Red, x, y, width, height);
pictureBox1.Image = bmp;
*/
}
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
using (Graphics g = e.Graphics)
{
Rectangle Circle = ClientRectangle;
Circle.Location = new Point(100, 60);
Circle.Size = new Size(40, 40);
using (SolidBrush Green = new SolidBrush(Color.Green))
{
g.FillEllipse(Green, Circle);
}
}
}
}
}
Sorry for this basic lama question, probably for most of you it is very easy, I am still learning it. Thanks a lot in advance.

My comments above apply. Here is an example of how to draw onto each control and the form separately:
We best have a common drawing routine that we can call from the Paint event of each participating element, in our case a Panel, a PictureBox and the Form.
The trick is for all nested elements to draw the circle shifted by their own location. To do so we pass these things into the drawing routine:
a valid Graphics object. We get it from the Paint events.
and a reference to the control; we use it to offset the drawing on each control (except the form) with Graphics.TranslateTransform..:
Result:
As you can see it looks as if we painted one circle over all elements but actually we drew three circles, each onto one element..:
private void canvasForm_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
draw(sender as Control, e.Graphics);
}
private void panel1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
draw(sender as Control, e.Graphics);
}
private void pictureBox1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
draw(sender as Control, e.Graphics);
}
private void draw(Control ctl, Graphics g)
{
Rectangle r = new Rectangle(200, 100, 75, 75);
if (ctl != canvasForm) g.TranslateTransform(-ctl.Left, -ctl.Top);
g.FillEllipse(Brushes.Green, r);
g.ResetTransform();
}
Note that the same result could be created with three calls, one FillRectangle, one DrawImage and one FillEllipse :-)

Refresh does not refresh

I made an user control and I draw a rectangle directly in the window, like this (this is a simplified version):
private int rec_len = 200;
private void Draw_()
{
Pen pn = new Pen( Color.Black, WIDTH_LINE );
Graphics graph = this.CreateGraphics();
graph.Clear( Color.Transparent );
this.Refresh();
graph.DrawRectangle( pn, 20, 10, rec_len, 40 );
this.Refresh();
graph.Dispose();
}
public void button_Build_Click( object sender, EventArgs e )
{ rec_len += 10; Draw_(); }
The strange thing is that the second refresh actually poses a problem: if I comment it out, the rectangle is visible, if I let it in the code, the rectangle is not visible. In the real code I have to draw more than a rectangle and I want the refresh at the end, otherwise the background is visible between the moment I erase old drawing and the moment the new one is ready.

The surface of a control is not stored: When you paint on a control, the drawing is not saved and need to be redrawn each time the control is repainted (After a refresh for example). To create a persistante graphic, you can create a bitmap, draw on the bitmap and assign this bitmap to the BackgroundImage property.
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(WIDTH, HEIGHT);
void Initialize()
{
this.BackgroundImage = bmp;
}
private int rec_len = 200;
private void Draw_()
{
Pen pn = new Pen(Color.Black, WIDTH_LINE);
using (Graphics graph = Graphics.FromImage(bmp))
{
graph.Clear(Color.Transparent);
this.Refresh();
graph.DrawRectangle(pn, 20, 10, rec_len, 40);
this.Refresh();
}
}
public void button_Build_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { rec_len += 10; Draw_(); }

Can I draw to a panel on a transparent WinForm?

After seeing that drawing to the desktop is extremely messy, I decided just to research around. I figured out that many people suggest creating a transparent WinForm that is the size of the screen and smacking a panel on there and using that to draw graphics. So I tested it out but ran into many errors. At first, my second form (Form2) wouldn't show, so I had to put it into another thread and put Form2.ShowDialog(); on that thread. After I got that problem out of the way, I actually drew to the panel. Now my form will never show, but I can see it running on my taskbar. Everytime I try to make it the focused window, it never works, and whenever I hover the task I can see the graphics being created. My question is, is it possible to draw to a panel on a transparent WinForm and make it visible? Here's the code I used, it's mostly for looking for errors (drawing the states and stuff).
void Draw()
{
while (true)
{
SolidBrush redpen = new SolidBrush(Color.Red);
Font font = new Font("Arial", 16);
PointF point = new PointF(700, 150);
Graphics g = panel1.CreateGraphics();
g.DrawString(Main.state.ToString(), font, redpen, point);
Main.beginTime.Stop();
Main.TimeRan = Main.beginTime.Elapsed;
string amountOfTime = string.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}.{3:00}", Main.TimeRan.Hours, Main.TimeRan.Minutes, Main.TimeRan.Seconds, Main.TimeRan.Milliseconds / 10);
point = new PointF(700, 200);
g.DrawString(amountOfTime, font, redpen, point);
Thread.Sleep(10);
panel1.Refresh();
}
}
private void Form2_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Draw();
}
Somewhere in my main class
// In a method
Thread F2T = new Thread(FormHandlers);
F2T.Start();
private void FormHandlers()
{
Form2 Form2 = new Form2();
Form2.Opacity = 0.00;
Form2.ShowDialog();
}
Edit: After some testing, I noticed that with the decrease of opacity the letter's opacity decreases as well, can I make it so the panel is transparent but the string I'm drawing to draw inside of it is not?

I guess you want to draw a message on a transparent child form? if that, I think you could do as follow: because the form.Opacity =0.00 makes all the controls in it be transparent, so we can't see anything. Another way, we use form.TransparencyKey to get that. code like this:
public Form2()
{
InitializeComponent();
//hide the border of form
this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None;
this.BackColor = Color.White;
//set the TransparencyKey the same as the back color
this.TransparencyKey = this.BackColor;
}
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
SolidBrush redpen = new SolidBrush(Color.Red);
Font font = new Font("Arial", 16);
PointF point = new PointF(400, 150);
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
string state = "running";
g.DrawString(state, font, redpen, point);
string amountOfTime = string.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}.{3:00}", 1, 2, 3, 11111 / 10);
PointF point2 = new PointF(500, 150);
g.DrawString(amountOfTime, font, redpen, point2);
//base.OnPaint(e);
}
by the way, you want to show message in a child form, I don't prefer to use multi-threading, you just invoke the Form2 in Show() not in ShowDialog(), and set Form2.TopMost=True, than you can operate your main form as well. try it.
my result is bellow:

Why text is not showing in a gradient Button?

I use the below code to set a gradient to a button in a windows form. It works but it's Text is not showing. What should I do to fix it?
Thank you.
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
button2.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(this.Button2_Paint);
}
private void Button2_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
g.FillRectangle(new System.Drawing.Drawing2D.LinearGradientBrush(PointF.Empty, new PointF(button2.Width, button2.Height), Color.Pink, Color.Red), new RectangleF(PointF.Empty, button2.Size));
}

It's because you never actually drawing that text. Currently you only filling button's client rectangle with gradient, but there is no any text within. To show the string with button's text you need to add some more lines to Paint method:
private void Button2_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
Button btn= (Button)sender;
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
g.FillRectangle(new System.Drawing.Drawing2D.LinearGradientBrush(PointF.Empty, new PointF(button2.Width, button2.Height), Color.Pink, Color.Red), new RectangleF(PointF.Empty, button2.Size));
SizeF size = g.MeasureString(btn.Text, btn.Font);
PointF topLeft = new PointF(btn.Width / 2 - size.Width / 2, btn.Height / 2 - size.Height / 2);
g.DrawString(btn.Text, btn.Font, Brushes.Black, topLeft);
}
Here Graphics.MeasureString gives you the width and height of a button's Text property, these values are used to position text right in the middle of a button. And Graphics.DrawString just draws the string with supplied color, font and position.

How to draw graphics to a form upon form startup

Im trying to draw a graphic on a form upon form startup. I've tried putting the graphic components inside the form constructer, but i cannot seem to get it working. This is what i've got so far.
public partial class Form3 : Form
{
public Form3()
{
System.Drawing.Graphics graphics = this.CreateGraphics();
System.Drawing.Rectangle rectangle = new System.Drawing.Rectangle(100, 100, 200, 200);
graphics.DrawEllipse(System.Drawing.Pens.Black, rectangle);
graphics.DrawRectangle(System.Drawing.Pens.Red, rectangle);
}
}
Any and all help will be awesome,
Thanks guys

One solution would be to use a Bitmap, e.g.
Bitmap b = new Bitmap(this.Width, this.Height);
Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(b);
... // Draw
this.BackgroundImage = b;
Otherwise, you'll need to handle the Paint event, whereat you can draw directly to the graphics context each time the form is invalidated. e.g.
this.Paint += Form1_Paint;
...
private void Form1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
System.Drawing.Rectangle rectangle = new System.Drawing.Rectangle(100, 100, 200, 200);
g.DrawEllipse(System.Drawing.Pens.Black, rectangle);
g.DrawRectangle(System.Drawing.Pens.Red, rectangle);
}

private void Form1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
System.Drawing.Rectangle rectangle = new System.Drawing.Rectangle(100, 100, 200, 200);
e.Graphics.DrawEllipse(System.Drawing.Pens.Black, rectangle);
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(System.Drawing.Pens.Red, rectangle);
}