Watercolor: Tangerine

This painting was inspired by some yummy tangerines we received in our organic produce box one week last year.

This is the photo that I painted from. I've really grown to love taking produce photos and have quite the growing collection, which gives me a nice selection of images to paint from. Produce is a really great subject to paint - colorful and full of texture.

The painting is one technique away from being finished in this photo.

I cut a mask from some old cardstock to block out everything except for the tangerine. I spattered the surface with watercolor by loading paint onto an old toothbrush and running my thumb over the wet bristles to release the paint. Spattering paint is messy, but totally fun and worth the mess!

I'm really happy with the results of the spattering. Lots of awesome texture that adds loads of interest to the surface of the tangerine.

p.s. This painting was completed following a lesson from Watercolor: The Complete Course by Stan Smith. I think this book may be out of print, but I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on a copy.