Painting a Pomegranate
September 22nd, 2008 by Leora
I finished my pomegranate watercolor. But I will post the watercolor in another post. This post is about the process. After printing the photo of a pomegranate from Wikipedia (thank you, Ilana-Davita), because I haven’t yet seen one in our supermarket, I taped some watercolor paper down to a board and made the painting just a little bigger than the original photograph. I like doing small watercolors because they fit in nicely in my scanner. I put down a bit of masking fluid in the spots where I want the paper to stay bright white. And I drew with pencil an outline of my painting.
It is important while working on the beginnings of a painting to squint. One needs to know where the darkest darks will be; we are now looking for values. Before applying any paint to the pomegranate, I painted the darkest areas with a blackish-blue color. Where I needed the dark to be lighter, I put it in more water. In watercolor, one often uses water to tone down a color.
Here I painted some of the leaves and branches. How to get the blues of the sky was a little tricky. I watered down some blue paint a lot, but I had to be careful it did not mix with another color. Also, once I have darker colors around the light color, that helps the light part look light.
Finally, some red paint is applied to the pomegranate. But one could see the shape before I added the red, correct?
I added some yellow to the pomegranate, because I saw some yellow in it. But you will see in my finished product that I toned down the yellow, because in this version I felt it was too strong. I also removed the masking fluid with an eraser.
I hope you will come back tomorrow (Tuesday) when I post the finished watercolor.
Leora: A beautiful start to an interesting painting.
Very interesting. You know you’ve made it look as if it were easy, which I know it isn’t.
This was really fascinating. I enjoyed reading about the painting process and can’t wait to see the finished product.
What a fascinating process. Thank you for sharing it. I can’t wait to see the finished painting.
For a totally non-artistic person like me, it’s very interesting to see the different stages that a painting goes through before it’s finished. The colors are just lovely.
wow that is amazing …..can’t wait to see it finished!!! I used to be an amateur artist when I was younger but I haven’t attempted anything for YEARS….you really make me want to start again!!!!!
Thanks for sharing this! I love the way it’s coming out and am looking forward to seeing it when you are finished.
How long did that process take you?
And the watercolors remind me of the paints I use with my clients–dip in water, dip in paint and go….
Not that my preschoolers can do what you’re doing.
Ilana-Davita, at this point in my life, the hardest part by far is finding the time to paint. It has to be a time slot when I won’t have too many interruptions.
Baila, I did this on Sunday morning, so it took about 1.5 hours, the painting part, anyway. Today, when I went to scan it, I decided the shape looked too much like a red lemon instead of a round pomegranate, so I added some touches. I also added some more blue for the sky today.
Thanks to everyone who writes a comment; it helps motivate to paint more!
You know.. I have never asked my Mother about her process. I need to do that..Thank you Leora…
I really enjoyed the step by step with you Leora. You make it look so easy… perhaps one day I will give it a try, meanwhile I will stay tuned in to you and learn.
I would send you some, if only I could… our tree has about a million. We (and all our neighbors) can’t eat them fast enough… and there are several trees on the block!
Thanks for sharing the development of your painting…. I love watching the process.
Michelle, yes, would love to hear more about your mother’s art.
Carol, my pleasure!
ALN, would love to visit your pomegranate tree in person. Sounds marvelous.