Coming in from hanging out the washing I saw this wonderful display of tomatoes laid out to ripen.  They really caught my eye and I noticed with what care they had been arranged.  My next project I thought!

I have just recently worked on tomatoes with Ann Swan so I thought I would like to have another go, and this would allow me to practice tomatoes at all stages of ripening.

I already knew what colours to use so I was able to get started quickly, was not bothered too much about composition as I was happy just to work with the tomatoes in a grid formation.

I trialled a green and a red tomato using the underpainting technique I learned and using the transparent Pro Marker to dissolve the colour into the paper.  This meant that the base colour application is much quicker, I tried underpainting the green tomato in green Pro Marker but the colour was too dark.

Happy with both my trials I cobbled together a light box with a sheet of glass, a cardboard box and a desk lamp and traced onto good paper; then I had a happy afternoon putting on the base colour underpainting, now all I have to do is colour all those babies in!  I suspect I won’t be as fond of tomatoes when I am finished!