Fruit Slice Painting

In this video I'm going to give you some tips on how to start your fruit slice painting. First, to gather your materials you'll want to make sure that your paper that you are painting your slice on is on top of your painting mat. You'll need your paint palette with paint and you'll need paint brushes and a cup of water as well as a paper towel. To get your paint you can use the paint bottles and an actual plastic paint palette as long as you are willing to be responsible with the amount you're pouring and cleanup. When choosing your paint you're going to want to choose the colors necessary to paint the fleshy part that you eat of the fruit first. So if painting the grapefruit you would want to have red, yellow, and a little bit of white. So first look at your picture and decide what two or possibly three colors would be best to mix the perfect color for that flesh of your fruit. When looking at the reference photos if it's challenging for you to focus on your one slice of fruit you can always put some other papers or paper towels on top of the other slices so that you can just focus your attention on the one slice that you are choosing to paint. To start painting mix up the color of paint that you plan to use for the flesh of your fruit. Start by just laying in that color all over that area of your picture. You can ignore details at this time. Looking at the picture there are two values of color needed for the rind. A lighter value which will include yellow plus a lot more white and then a darker value will be needed later for the very outer layer of that rind or skin. Remember the different brush strokes that were practiced in class. Sometimes using stippling will be beneficial, sometimes a dry brush, other times you'll want to blend colors for gradients. You'll just need to look at your photograph and really make choices based on what you see. After the flesh and rind have been painted you can start focusing more on detail. In the flesh you will see some shadows and highlights. Capturing those shadows and highlights by mixing up different values of your flesh color will really make your fruit slice look real. You're not expected to put the highlights and shadows in the exact same places as you see them. Sometimes it helps just to make an impression of what you see. Look at the quality of the lines. Are they short, long, wavy, straight? Are there seeds in your fruit? This information will help inform your decisions as you apply color. The final part of your painting will be the background. You can paint your background with any color you choose and you can create designs in your background or gradients as well if you want to. You are also not expected to finish your painting in one class. However, having a base coat could be helpful so that next class you can refine your work and add more detail. Now for cleaning up. You will want to put your painting, which is on top of your painting mat, on your class's drying rack. Then if you used a plastic paint palette you will need to wash it in the sink. Turn the water on gently. Make sure the is not on high when you begin rinsing your palette or it will splash you. If you cannot clean up your palette properly you will not be able to use a palette again. Use your paintbrush under the stream of water to loosen up the paints in your paint palette. It will take some work to clean out the palette. Again, if you can't handle cleaning out the palette properly you will not be able to use the palette and you will have to do your work by mixing colors only on paper towels that you can place on top of the palette or a paper plate. You will know your paint palette is clean when all of the paint has been removed. Sometimes a stain may remain but you will know that there's no more loose paint still on the palette. Then you can rinse your water cup and clean your brushes. Return your cleaned paintbrushes, water cup, and palette as directed and then check that your table has been cleaned off as well.