A late summer afternoon found me playing around on my porch for some good lighting and a pleasing composition with some freshly canned pickles and a basket of freshly picked summer tomatoes. After a few photos, my pick presented itself to me for its brilliant blocks of color forming a unique composition perfect for a quick watercolor:
I hope you can see what attracted me to this image. I just loved the composition created by intersection of the blocks of brilliant color in varying values. First, there is the silhouette of the distant house (or perhaps barn) that allows the glowing pickle brine to “pop” while simultaneously allowing the sunny blue sky to glow. My focal point was the area of contrast created by the the shadow falling across the basket. I painted in that shadow line right away so I was sure that didn’t get lost.
I chose to underpaint the pickle brine with a wash of red to uniformly desaturate or “muddy up” the green layers to follow. I left the more vivid pickle slices for the purer color.
Painting in the pickles was the most fun, mixing in sharp, hard edges and softer edges where the pickles disappear into the murky brine and being vigilant to observe for all the beautiful reflections of red and yellow.
Finished watercolor:
Here is a sneak peek at next month’s featured painting. It will show my process in trying to achieve a loose and flowing feel in this beautiful fur. I will explain my approach next month, so be sure and check in to my blog again in September.
