10 Minute Art: Painting a Realistic Watercolor Avocado from a Reference

1. Introduction: Hi there creative. My name is Shannon Lane. And in this quick ten minute class, we'll be practicing how to confidently mix colors to paint this avocado from this reference image. If you've taken my previous watercolor basics classes, this is the perfect follow up for you to put what you've learned into practice as we do subbasic color mixing and a bit of blending. So grab your watercolor supplies and the reference materials from the resource section, and I'll see you in the first lesson. 2. Painting the Background: So I have my avocado already sketched onto my paper. I also have my swatch card, and I also have a piece of scrap paper that I'm going to be using to test my colors. The first thing you're going to do is look at your swatches, and you're going to choose the color that is closest to the one that you are starting with. So I'm starting with the background, and that is pink, so I know that I want a very light pink. So I'm starting with queen Permanent Rose, and I'm going to add a lot of water to dilute it. And I'm going to test it on my paper until I get the color that I want. I also added just a little bit of yellow ochre to create more of a yellowish pink, which I felt would match the background a lot better than using just a lighter value of the queen rose. Then once you're finished and you've got the correct shade of the color, you can then paint the background. And I'm not going for too much texture. I want this to be very simple. So I'm painting it in a flat wash of color. Well, the background is drying. I'm going to move onto the next section of this painting. 3. Painting the Avocado: So I'm going to focus on the middle section which is yellow and green. So I'm going to take a look at my swatches and choose the ones that I think would work best for this section. So I'm going to be using yellow ochre and also sap green. Going to be mixing these because directly from the pan they're close to my reference image, but they're not the correct colors that I want. I'm just going to mix them. So keep in mind your complimentary colors in case you need to mute or tone down a color. And also your water to paint ratio if you need a lighter value. And also remember that watercolor typically dries a lot lighter. So you may have a consistency, but make sure you test it so that you can see exactly how it looks when it is dried. Once you have your colors mixed, you can then go in and paint in that section of the avocado. I'm keeping that yellowish color close to the center and I'm going to have my darker greens along the outer edge of this section. Well, that yellow is still wet. You're then going to pick up some of your green and add it to the outer part of what you've just painted. Then I'm also going to pick up a little bit of yellow and add it all around the outside of the seed. You can also mix a darker shade of green and then paint it along the outer edge so that it bleeds into the lighter colors naturally. To get this darker green, I'm simply mixing a little bit of queen rose, which is a complement to green and that will create a darker, more natural looking green colour. Then you're going to allow that to dry and work on the outer part of the avocado. 4. Painting the Skin + Seed: To mix the color for the skin, I have used some green and added a little bit of brown to it. You can, of course, test out different mixes to see which one closely resembles the reference image, and then you're just going to paint in that color, and you want to avoid any bleeding, please make sure that the previous layer that you've painted is completely dry before you start adding the color for the skin. When you're finished with that, we can then head to the center of the avocado and paint the seed. I've mixed my colors, which is a very warm brown, a yellowish brown, and then a darker brown and I'm going to use those two colors to paint in that seed. I've also switched to a larger brush just to make things a lot easier painting this section. Now, if you want to mimic the texture of the avocado seed, you can apply some plastic wrap. Then once it has dried, you can then add a little bit of shadowing to the seed to give it a little bit more dimension. And to really mimic what is happening in the reference photo, I am keeping my darker colors on the left side of the seed so that the right side is a lot lighter where the highlight will be hitting the seed. And once you're finished with that, your avocado painting is complete. 5. Wrap Up: So once you're finished, you can then remove the tape and your painting is done. It's now time for you to take a photo of your avocado and share it to the projects and resources section of this class. Feel free to leave a review so that others who may be interested in this class can know what to expect. Thank you so much for joining me today.