I have been working on this unique pineapple plant I saw while visiting Mounts Botanical Garden in Palm Beach Florida last year. I liked the different colors and tones of pink, red, yellow and purple in the pineapple and the way it was nestled into the plant leaves. It intrigued me because the colors made it so different from the usual pineapples I see in the grocery store.
Using Stonehenge drawing paper, I drew my 8x10" image, adding more details to the pineapple. I looked up what I would call little leaves in the pineapple surface but they’re actually called flowers. Those little flowers are so intricate containing little books and crannies that can get confusing. I began by laying in the darks with in and around the flowers with Prismacolor Black Raspberry. I chose Black Raspberry as a base tone because I saw purple/brown in the colorful darks. I am working the whole area of the pineapple.
Next I chose to lay in the small purple blossoms so I wouldn’t confuse them with other parts. As the base color I chose Caran d’Ache Luminance Manganese Violet. The next step I decided to lay in my lightest areas. I am using the white of the paper for my lightest areas so my next lightest tones are Prismacolor Limepeel & Luminance Yellow Ochre. I used Prismacolor Chartreuse for the top brighter leaves.
Next step I am adding various greens and browns to the flowers to establish medium values/tones and different shades of colors in the pineapple flowers and help them to read as a whole together.
As I am happy with color choices, I continue to work on the lights, darks and colors of the pineapple until I am pleased with how it looks.
I think I skipped a few steps in between, I was trying to take photos as I worked but sometimes get caught up in the drawing process and forget! After working the pineapple I began to draw the surrounding leaves but creating the colors and shapes of the leaves so they would support the pineapple and allow it to be the focal point of the drawing. I started by laying in large areas of color and then shaping the leaves and rendering the tones/values.
Here is a progression of images. My last image is scanned into my computer so the colors are more accurate.
No comments:
Post a Comment