This Saturday, Mike and I had plans to go to a coed Wedding Shower this weekend, and I completely forgot to purchase a gift. Luckily, I had free time on Saturday to paint a card for the sweet couple, which filled in as an I.O.U. for a William Sonoma gift card. Since the weekend is my main time to paint, I took the opportunity to make them a card that was relevant, but also to accomplish my goal of creating a downloadable desktop image for April.
I will always love the look of black pen and ink filled in with watercolor, and it's probably what most people think of when they think of my drawings. However, I want to push myself to rely less on what feels safe, and practice using color, layers, and paint to add depth and dimension.
This was the perfect exercise, since I love painting anything related to food, cooking, and baking.
Above, you can see how I used the light washes of color to draw the objects and figure out where everything would be. This was freehand, but usually I would have used a light pencil to sketch it out, and erase after the painting was completed.
In the picture below, I would add layers of color on the various objects after they dried to create depth and substance. For instance, painting the inside of a pot with a darker color to show that it was deeper. I used light washes of color on the outsides of the objects to ground them on the blank white surface. Lastly, I used my tiny brush to line some of the edges of the objects to further define them. I tried to make it slightly loose and sketchy, and retain a limited palette for a more cohesive design.
I had fun creating this and either drawing things that I have and enjoy using in my own kitchen (a Le Creuset Oval Dutch Oven) or items that I am coveting but don't need in my life right now (like a Chemex Coffee Maker).
Here is the finished piece! My favorite things to paint were the measuring spoons, the details on the measuring cup, and the muffin tins. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I hope they liked their card. We weren't there to see them open it since we also did not get a babysitter and had to switch off going to the party, which was actually quite convenient since it was a block away!
I liked this watercolor so much, I have also added it as a print in my Society 6 store here.
