In the design of this painting we remember to put the horizon line of the table on the first lower third of the painting. We also preplan the one third of a contrasting colour to the other two appears and to the background. We use overlapping and interlocking shapes. I have chosen a background which includes blues. Blues recede due to their cool temperature. .
Barbara shows you how to paint the lacy table cloth, with pleats and folds in the cloth, and how to differentiate between the two.
Making a good drawing in this exercise, is important.
We prepare our colours before starting the painting. We then prewet each pear and paint them one at a time. We concentrate on keeping an area of light, it’s important in watercolour to have some areas very light transparent paint, or white, as it’s the white of the paper, not tube white.
We learn about reflecting colours, where the colour of one object, reflects onto the adjacent object

What you will learn.

  • Barbara shows you how to built up the tones, and build up the shapes.
  • Have all the colours ready, prepare some washes. Then we strengthen the pigment.
  • Here we paint the raw sienna first, adding other colours, usually paints from warm
  • colours to cool colours.

  • After we have painting the first pear, but while it’s still wet, we sand the coloured pencil onto the pear to create tiny speckles of the new colour. Very fine texture and very fine, minute, textural spots. If we have allowed the paint to dry too quickly before sanding, the pencil pigment hasn’t anything to adhere it to the paper.
  • We complete all three pears. Barbara guides you through each one.
  • We paint gentle shadow colours on the white table cloth, creating folds and pleats in
    some places. We bleed in a little colour from the pears onto the cloth in the shadows. This is to avoid the look of “paper cut outs”! Observe little areas of interest in the details.
  • Then we do a lovely dark background wash, first the smaller area under the cloth. Then
    mix a generous amount of the green/blue for the upper background area. Paint the stalks.
  • The most important thing, is to have fun!