Author: martinnc

Another attempt at a tangerine. The alazarin crimson is better for the shadows but I put too much on and it dominates the vermillion.

It struck me that the shadows would be done better by alazarin crimson than burnt umber. I’ll try that on this sketch.

This time I painted the background to give the fruit more context. I did the left-hand side one first and it’s the crudest – it’s the most overworked and I forgot to leave white space for the highlight. The one on the right is better but I haven’t got the colour of the shadows right. It’s just pure vermillion. Also, I don’t think it’s as well sculpted. I want to have another go to see if I can do better.

Again, I didn’t fuss over cleaning up the lines. You won’t see them through the paint.

I think cadium yellow light and vermillion come close, with a touch of burnt umber for the shadows. A hint of sap green works for the touches of green on the skin. I’m not very happy with the dark to light transition – the burnt umber doesn’t look quite right.

I tried not to overwork the paint but that’s difficult when you’re mixing the paint on the paper. The two right-hand peaches have a freer feel.

Just preparing for a painting of three peaches. I’m not tidying up the sketches as much as I normally would.

I tried the colour mixes straightaway. I think they worked okay. I added a little white to suggest the bloom on the skin. I lost the shape of the peach, though. I was in such a hurry to apply the pain that I went over the outline. The clear separation between the red and yellow parts of the peach were actually the same on the peach, but they look clumsy in the painting.

I decided that alazarin crimson and cadmium yellow would get me close. A touch of burnt umber and black would work in dark shadows. The tricky bit is to get a smooth transition in both colour and tone from shadows to highlights.

Two horses in a field, but they didn’t keep still for more than a couple of seconds! I’ve never drawn a horse before, and I find I don’t know what they look like.