Three Tomatoes - Stage Three

G A Austin

You are now onto the third stage. Make sure your previous layer of paint is perfectly dry. Now you have moved from your mid tones to the darker tones. With acrylics just about anything goes. You can start your painting from dark to light or light to dark or any tones in between. That is why acrylics are so much more fun than any other mediums & mistakes are virtually impossible. On your palette mix a very small amount of burnt umber into your crimson paint. Do not add any water to this mix. It should look like the colour of blood or slightly darker than your previous layer. It should not look brown! Now using the same hog brush as previously, with the same technique (drybrush) fill in your areas of deep shadow at the bottom half of your tomatoes. Please don't be tempted to fill in the areas nearer the highlights, or you will fill in all the midtones you've previously painted, and they will then look like cherries! You will notice some fine lines of shadow underneath each vine, this cannot successfully be painted in with the hog. So now it's time to briefly swap your hog for a round soft bristle brush (fine detail Size 0 or 1 watercolour style brush), this will achieve a much finer line. Add a little water to your blood colour, not too runny, so that the paint will flow better on the paper. Apply your shadow lines.

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