Guacamole II

"Guacamole II"

Image size 11" x 18"

Watercolor

This probably looks very familiar to you because I've painted it before.  I wasn't happy with how all of the values were in the middle range so I painted a second one with a very dramatic background.  I masked the subjects so that I could get a very smooth background and used colors that lift so that I could soften the edges after I removed the masking.  Unfortunately, since they were liftable colors and I didn't get the darkness that I wanted with my initial wash, when I added more washes, the color lifted.  I don't usually use an airbrush, but for this project, it worked perfectly to achieve the darkness and the variegated background.  After removing the masking, I wasn't able to soften the edges anyway so I'm not sure what was happening - suddenly, the liftable colors weren't lifting.

I really like my idea for this painting but I can't really say that I'm thrilled with either version.  I like the value contrast of this one but I should have used a different background color.  This is too much green, even for me.

Here is a picture of the first painting:

 I would love to hear your honest opinions of these two paintings.  

Guacamole

"Guacamole"

Image size 18" x 12"

Watercolor

I thought the ingredients for one of my favorite foods would make a fun painting.  I stuck a stick through the tomato, avocado and onion to stack them and created my still life composition.  I hope I'm not leaving out any major ingredients.  Of course you have to add salt and pepper to taste but I didn't feel like I wanted them in my painting.

It feels good to be back to my watercolors.  The paintings from the last few weeks have been a good warm up and with this week's painting, I feel more in the old groove.  I did most of this painting on saturated paper.  I'm still experimenting with this technique and don't think that it's easy for me yet but I am enjoying the process.