Watermelon! We ate this watermelon this afternoon and I took a picture of it so I could paint it tonight.
The picture is a little blurry, but it's the best I could get. I tried to stay pretty true to the colors on this, but I still think it looks washed out. Maybe it's the subject matter, but yesterdays fish was pastel-e too.
I've noticed that most of the time I use the same brush from start to finish on a painting. On this one, I used two brushes. LOL. At least that's a start. This was my first time trying to paint anything metal, and while I find it very lacking ... at least I can tell it's supposed to be a knife!
Technical Note: a couple of days ago (when I bought the new canvases) I bought a bottle of fixative. I'm using that instead of hair spray now to lock down my pencil sketch before painting. But one thing about the fixative - it really smells! So I take the canvas outside to spray it. That helps cut down on the smell in my work area.
It's funny to me how I have to battle my preconceptions in my painting. On this one, I really had to "look" at the painting and resist the urge to paint the flesh "red" and resist the urge to make the melon perfectly shaped. And this was a seedless watermelon... I also had to resist putting "seeds" in it.
I can really see the difference in my work now. There is no telling how long it would take me to get to this confidence level if I weren't painting every day. It's not a chore or a duty, it's a delight to escape from everything else and paint even if it's just an hour a day.
