Going Bananas

Painting fruit is great, they got the sensual curves going for them, they are also sweet and colourful. You can imagine what they taste like when you are drawing, subconsciously giving your work personality by involving a sense not usually associated with pictorial art: taste.

Bananas come in bundles like grapes and so, an overall shape informs the individual yellow fruit. With the contour, you can work with a flat shape for the form and another flat shape for the negative space surrounding the subject. Furthermore, the cast shadow on the surface is where the two blend together.

With watercolours, it’s good to have some areas where the paint is thin; bright from the white of the paper shining behind the colour but also thicker areas with paint right out of the tube. How you transitions the two will make or break your painting.

I wanted the form shadows, the ones wrapping around the object, to be of a greenish hue so that the Indian red would read as the bruising on the peel in comparison. The green gold I used is evident on the bloom outside of the shape to the upper left. It reminds me of jade. I also used a lemon yellow, a colour that can be quite pricey. Be careful with lower line paints, sometimes the colour on the label is entirely different than what you get. For example, last week I found an ultramarine blue in a tube labelled as Prussian blue which is supposed to be very dark. This was in a Pebeo set that a student had purchased.

It is not always a direct correlation between what you pay and what you get. For example, you can spend a pretty penny on a fuchsia that will mix with blue to create beautiful purples. Odds are, those pigments will not be very lightfast meaning that the smallest amount of sunlight will bleach those colours over time. This is why it is good to purchase UV protected glass for your frame, something that in all honesty I cannot afford.

Accept the loss of control in the early stages, your colours will lighten and the blooms will convey reflected light. It is good to have your paper at an angle and to restretch it if you use tape or clips. In this case, I simply avoided the edges to keep a reference of dry paper fibre. Having a dry boarder helps the paper remember to be flat when it dries. Be careful, without the tape, too much water will make the paper buckle in the shape of a bow like an angry cat but give it time and it will calm down.

If your underpainting or original wash is not how you hoped but is light enough, I would advise to still paint on it. You may be surprised how your intention (thicker paints) reads on a unintentional wash.

For this lesson, focus on painting thick on thin and keep it simple!

One last tip, only use black for your graphic work. For a naturalistic style such as this, make your darks mixing all three primaries or use a Payne’s grey. Burnt umber and ultramarine is another popular combination.

I have a very small group this term allowing for lots of one on one attention which is great!

After a few 5 minute drawings to warm up, this student made a beautiful bundle complemented by a colourful background. If the stems had been higher in the composition, it would have had more movement which may have helped make it better. On the other hand, I am in awe at the exploration of overlapping shapes.

It is such a mystery why some changes of proportions read as mistakes and others, like the tips of the bananas being too narrow here, read as an irreproachable flair. All I can say is that when you are less attached to the outcome, you can come up with snazzy illustrations like this one. This piece is a good example of a graphic result as opposed to a naturalistic one. Notice how the black fine liner accentuates the shapes.

The two students showcased here are indeed a young couple, it is so pleasant to have them with me on this journey. Now that you know this, do you feel the dialogue between the two images? Noticing this kind of thing is what art is all about!

Here are a few more pieces from this handsome pair.