Paint a pear – YouTube

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Equipment

Fabriano Rough Watercolour Paper and Art Spectrum Australian Dark Green Leaf, Daniel Smith Nickel Azo Yellow and Old Holland Scheveningen Orange watercolour paints. Princeton round brushes 5 and 10, water and a palette.

Process

Using the graded wash as my basic starting point, I dampened the entire area of the pre-drawn pear with water, leaving a couple of patches out – for the shine on the surface. I then made a pool of paint, mostly the Australian Dark Green Leaf (ADGL) and the Nickel Azo Yellow (NAY), and rolled the no.10 round brush in the paint to get plenty on there, then allied the paint to the dampened surface, ensuring that the surface of the pear was evenly covered. Then, using less water, I made a mix of the ADGL and a tiny bit of NAY, and started to add it to the lower left hand side of the pear, going backwards and forwards, slowly fading it out as we went up and right. I added some NAY to the bottom right, warming up the surface, and dropped some orange in near the top. I used some of the dark green for the stalk.

Once dry, I dampened the area below and to the sides of the pear, and dropped Payne’s Grey and Cadmium red in for the shadow. The crimson was added because it is the complementary colour of green.

There you have it, one painted pear! I encourage you to try other fruits with the same process – oranges and capsicums are excellent choices.

Happy painting!