'It’s easy to make an apple that glows with colour when you first under-paint with watercolour and then add coloured pencil,' says

Janie Gildow, CPSA. 'The wash of watercolour fills in and tints the fibres of the paper. It also changes the tooth, giving hot-pressed papers and boards just that little bit of texture necessary for accepting multiple layers of coloured pencil.

'Not only does applying a layer of watercolour first speed up the colouring process by giving you the opportunity to colour an entire area quickly, it lends richness to the coloured pencil and adds a new depth of colour not possible with either medium alone'.

Demonstration: Granny Smith Apple

Watercolours required:

• Burnt Sienna
• Cadmium Yellow Medium
• Cobalt Blue
• Cobalt Violet
• Emerald Green

Coloured pencils required:

• Apple Green
• Burnt Ochre
• Cloud Blue
• Dark Green
• Grass Green
• Indigo Blue
• Lime peel
• Peacock Green
• Tuscan Red
• Yellow Chartreuse

Step 1 - Lay a Watercolour Base

Draw your apple using light pencil lines.

Tint the apple with an emerald green, cadmium yellow medium, burnt sienna mix, keeping the colour more concentrated on the shadowed side and thinning the mix with water as you approach the highlight. Let dry.

Mix cobalt blue, cobalt violet and burnt sienna for the shadow. Add a tiny amount of cadmium yellow Medium to warm and mellow this cool blue. Let dry.

Your application of watercolour doesn’t have to be smooth and even. It’s merely the base for the coloured pencil. Later, when you layer the pencil over the area of dried watercolour, your brushstrokes won’t show.

Step 2 - Begin the local colour with coloured pencil

Make sure the painted areas are completely dry, and then use indigo blue to contour the apple and create the illusion of depth. Be sure to colour around the freckles.

Let the local colour show through them. Reduce pencil pressure toward the highlight, on the left edge of the apple, and on the bottom near the shadow.

Then apply dark green over the indigo blue in exactly the same manner.

Use indigo blue to establish the shadow on the left side of the stem. The cast shadow is darkest immediately under the apple and gradually lightens upward.

Use indigo blue to even the application of watercolour and fill in colour. Reduce pressure toward the upper part of the shadow to lighten it just a little.

Step 3 - Deepen the values

Apply peacock green over the mix of indigo blue and dark green on the apple and extend the coverage closer to the white highlight and out toward the edge of the apple.

Lightly apply grass green around the white highlight.

Reduce pressure even more toward the darker areas to gradually blend it into the already applied colour.

Soften the contrast of the freckles on the top half of the apple by colouring lightly over them with apple green.

Use the battery-powered eraser to lift colour and lighten the spots on the bottom half of the apple.

Apply a mix of grass green and apple green immediately under the apple as reflected colour in the shadow.

Add a light layer of Tuscan red to warm the centre portion of the shadow and emphasize the bottom edge of the apple.

Step 4 - Make the Colour Pop

In the lightest areas of the apple (around the highlight and at the bottom), layer a combination of lime peel and yellow chartreuse.

Use Tuscan red to punch up the colour at the top edge of the apple, the shadow cast by the stem, and the valley around the stem. This dark red adds a soft complement to the green.

Apply burnt ochre over the entire stem to complete its local colour.

Use cloud blue on the lightest part of the shadow and reduce pressure toward the darker area to gradually blend and smooth the mix.

Finished painting

Good Enough to Eat, coloured pencil and watercolour on 140-lb. (300gsm) hot-pressed watercolour paper, (8cm x 10cm)