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!
I just love the careful colour-grading in the photo of the tomatoes, Sue. You will have to work fast else they will all be almost red. And the simplicity of the ‘underpainting’ is rather lovely I think – a suggestion of what lies there. I would like to see the individual tomato pics have something that relates the subject to its’ background/setting, even a shadow.
Fabulous – you will LOVE tomatoes when you have finished!
Wow, these look great, like your new under painting technique, sounds like your course was worthwhile. I had to smile when I saw your post as I have just bought my first tomato plants for our season, I hope my harvest is as good. I went for a rainbow of colours with red, yellow and black tomatoes. Karen