A blender was used for this simple demonstration painting to help saturate the plum with colour. A blender is a wax coloured pencil – without the colour. It is used for spreading the pigment out and pushing it down into the valleys of the paper, making the colour look deeper and richer.

Step one

Draw a plum Step1

 

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Outline the plum in cranberry, using a light touch. (The outline here has been strengthened so that you can see it.)

Step two

Draw a plum - Step 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Layer the colours of the plum. Place cream and blood orange everywhere except the highlight. Deep red, loganberry and cranberry go where they are needed.

2. Use the Blu-tak to make a soft edge around the highlight.

Draw a plum - Step 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3

Draw a plum - Step 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now use the blender. Make a scumbling motion – small overlapping ovals – and go over all of the pigments you have put down.

Step 4

1. Build up the colours again. Use dark green to darken the shadow at the base of the plum and in the crease, then cover this with loganberry.

2. Add an overall wash of blood orange and deep red to punch the colours up a bit.

3 The stalk is cream and dark brown, and a touch of white on the lit side of the crease shows some of the bloom on the plum.

Plum in the Middle, coloured pencil

Plum in the Middle, Karismacolour pencils on Stonehenge paper, (25x25cm).

A lot of blending has been done to create the texture of the fruit (left).

Feature taken from the October 2008 issue of Leisure Painter.

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