Saturday Pears

You know how much I love pears so I thought I would torture myself a little bit this morning and paint from a "still life". My lighting was not great but I just needed a reference. I taped it off, drew it out and started painting. I do love watercolor and I think I have gotten the hang of painting a pear. The secret is laying in the shadows first as I indicated on my last post.

I threw in a little table salt on the blue

and used one of my favorite stencils from Mary Beth Shaw.

My stencil was actually smaller than this link I have added but that's the stencil that I love. I probably should get it larger too.

Here is another pear with many layers of glazing. I added in a purplish shadow first and then starting the glazing process. I never understood the glazing process very well until I took Karlyn Holman's class. Now I understand. It's all about harmonious transparent watercolors. Pretty simple once my pea brain got it.  I also used the same stencil and grundged it up a bit. 

She swears by Arches 140lb cold press paper and I love it too. But I was here at the house with only Arches 140 hot press. It is much harder to work with because of the waterlines it constantly makes.

I need to bring some hot press home with me.

I love pears...