Watercolor Spring 2017

Class Project: Farmer's Market Week 5

Because this project has so many little areas to paint, it takes time. It also teaches you to work in, around and through your painting because it can cause problems painting next to a wet area without worrying about getting back runs or blooms. It is also rewarding because you can continue to paint skipping around the painting while waiting for things to dry before you go back in to increase value and/or color intensity.

The first thing I did in the last class was I put masking fluid back on the string lights behind the counter. I really needed it to be darker so not only would the lights show up better but also so that the plastic bags in the front would also show. Remember that you heed to use contrast - light against dark - to create a sense of depth. After the masking dried, I went back over the area - the entire area - with a thin mix of blue and a touch of crimson. Now you can see how the plastic bags stand out against the darker background.

I started the pineapple and finished the oranges.

The pineapple is interesting because the two sides of it's leaves are different. the under side has a stripy variegated look to it almost like chevrons in a pale blue/green color and the top of the leaves is more a solid green. 

While I hadn't intended it to happen, once I got my oranges painted in I realized that because I had made them bigger than the apples by quite a lot, the oranges appear to be on a closer table than the apples, not wrong just a happy accident because it gives more depth to the painting.

Everyone was curious about what I was going to do with those blank tags in the fruit in the front and the tags in the back, well, write on them of course!

Here's the trick when putting written words in a painting especially if they are very small: Find one of the closer tags and write all or part of an actual word or number (see the peaches tag in the front?) then the rest of the smaller tags in the back only need to suggest letters and numbers, the viewer will fill in the rest.


I still have work to do on my painting so I will continue bring my painting up in color and value, adding detail...I probably have a week or two before I am finished.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.