Watermelon – The Drawing Board

Layers of Cream and Canary Yellow

The piece has been sprayed with workable fixative so the graphite won’t smear into the colored pencil. I am now ready to apply color using Prismacolor colored pencils.

I applied a wash of Cream to the watermelon. I kept the white of the paper for highlight areas.

I applied a layer of Deco Pink (discontinued) to the flesh. Blush Pink can be used as a substitute for Deco Pink. Then, a layer of Pale Vermillion was added. I included Carmine Red for the darker red areas of the watermelon flesh.

I added Canary Yellow to the rind. These layers are extremely light for two reasons.

First, the workable fixative is slick so not many layers will adhere. Second, I don’t want the watermelon to overpower the drawing.

Layers of Yellow Chartreuse and Apple Green

Yellow Chartuese was added as a layer to the rind. Then, a layer of Apple Green was applied. I used Dark Green for the “veins”. Limepeel was added as a layer. I applied Apple Green for the darker green areas of the rind.

Layers of Dark Green and Scarlet Lake

 

Back on the flesh, I added Poppy Red to the whole area. Then, Scarlet Lake was used in the darkest reds. The watermelon was looking too pale and very unripe, so I added Pink and Scarlet Lake to brighten it up.

 

Turner

Copyright 2010 Valerie Jones

I blended the whole watermelon piece with the Colorless Blender. It was then sprayed with another layer of workable fixative.

This drawing is ready for delivery to the little man who’s eating a yummy piece of watermelon!