strings of grapes, a study
these grapes gave me a headache. I was tired of fruit, and actually, much more in the mood to paint cats; to roll up my sleeves and do some work on cat anatomy (given that I live in a city full of cats, it felt like a good investment). but my partner said that cats next to figs doesn’t make sense, and why don’t you complete the fruit spread. he had bought tons of grapes over the last weeks — despite me not being too fond of grapes — and they were just languishing there in the back of the fridge. so I took them out and made a still life plate.
anyway, painting grapes is mostly painting the light and darks of tons of spherical forms. it was a good technical exercise, but I mostly feel like I struggled in this attempt. while I’ve done tons of spherical shadow exercises with pencil, pastel, charcoal, even acrylic and oils — in the backrooms of my childhood/adolescence — I don’t think I’ve ever done this with watercolors and gouache.
the grapes didn’t shine and pop out of the page with the kind of freshness and aliveness I wanted them to. I couldn’t quite layer the lights and darks, and cheated a bit by layering on the white at the end. I will troubleshoot and study some technique before I try again.
after I completed this fruit plate, I gave the grapes to my partner to eat. I think my favorite part of this painting is the color gradients of the green-ish pink grapes at the center, and the contrast between the round forms and the branch-like stems.