In Living Color 11 - Fruit & Vegie's

I wasn't quite done working with fruits and vegetables and in the process of doing a few more I had several new challenges.  Let's start with Cantaloupe.  

Cantaloupe - Still Life

Can you imagine trying to paint all those veins on the skin.  I couldn't but Louise had a great way to do it.  First I put a wash over the entire skin area of the cantaloupe with the color I wanted the veins to be.  Now the fun part.  I took a white candle and drew all the vein lines onto the area just painted once it was dry. To complete this area I put the final washes over it and only the unwaxed portion picks up the final colors. In the waxed area you get a mottled look due to the texture of the paper causing the wax to rest only on the raised area where it repels the paint.

Cantaloupe - Watercolor

Next in line was Eggplant and Green Beans.  Gary and I don't eat egg plant but I loved the color and thought it would make a nice contrast and compliment to the green beans.  

Eggplant & Green Beans - Still Life

I didn't really learn any new techniques with this one but found it a challenge to get the reflection of light on the eggplant and also put on enough layers of paint to achieve the deep color without removing the previous layer .

Eggplant & Green Beans - Watercolor

Last but not least was the Strawberries and Eggs.  Okay I know that eggs are not a fruit or a vegetable but it was what Louise wanted us to try.  The purpose for this painting was to show the reflection of the strawberries on the white of the eggs.

Strawberries & Eggs - Still Life

Now the challenge of this one was not in painting it but in being able to draw the picture and start painting it in a three hour class.  Knowing that I wouldn't accomplish that I decided to draw the still life the night before at home so I could start the painting when I arrived at class.  I would still need to have the still life set up in the classroom so I set it up for the drawing and when I finished I taped the eggs in place and put them back into the refrigerator.  The next day I just had to take the dish with eggs in place and add the strawberries when I arrived.  As you can see in the picture above the eggs were sweating due to going from cold area to a warm room.

Strawberries & Eggs - Watercolor

Louise gave me a wonderful complement by asking if she could use copies of my completed eggplant, strawberry and fox fur pictures to show her students in another class she was teaching  how it helps to learn the skills of drawing prior to painting.

Again, unfortunately, all the above watercolor pictures were framed prior to taking pictures so the picture quality is not the best.