Pear and Paint Page pen and watercolor

Pear and Paint Page

7" square pen and watercolor

This is the facing page next to Bird and Pen Page, showing the tools I used except for painting the Niji round waterbrush I used for all the painting.

That irregular pear, more ovoid than pear shaped, turned up in my lunch. I love the way it looks and may turn it to sketch it again. It's a bit lopsided and crooked, the less perfect fruits are always the most interesting to paint! It also has a lovely color, a rosy side that's also the flatter side.

Then to fill the page I sketched my porcelain palette set up with a spectrum of American Journey Ultramarine (purple cast blue), Alizarin Crimson (quinacridone) and Joe's Yellow which is about a Cadmium Yellow Medium hue for actual color. Way too orange cast for my taste, the greens all come out olive or grayish. The center has palette mud brown-gray, which I throw bits of primary colors into to balance it more brownish or grayish.

Right now having tested the paints I'm trying to use them up and also come up with the right illustrations to write up the brand. The yellow really is quite a lot like a cadmium because it's also leaning opaque. I tend to prefer more transparent yellows. But that's okay. I may add to the triad later since this brand is reasonably priced and good quality, artist grade, just really needs a lemon yellow and a pthalo blue and maybe either a bright orange or a warm red.