Tomatoes and Peppers

Someone left some vegetables on the table in the studio where I teach watercolor classes so after my students left I did this quick watercolor. It's very Charles Reid-ish. It's very satisfying to sometimes work quickly and get something on paper. Charles Reid promotes contour drawing which is an excellent way to improve your drawing skills. He also teaches watercolor without doing a lot of layering (which I also agree with though I do a little more layering on my paintings.) The point of that is to get the values of your paint correct the first time so you don't disturb previous layers thereby keeping your watercolor fresh. You can do this by testing your colors on a scrap and comparing them to a value scale if you need to. I dampened my tomatoes and painted the reds with fresh pigment from the tube. I only went back with a second layer to put some shadows in. Colors used: Scarlet lake, Winsor red, Alizarin Crimson, Winsor Green, New Gamboge, Burnt Umber