This is a painting inspired by our family’s annual Apple Squeeze in Yakima. My Great Grandma, Alice, had an orchard there and now her son and grandson operate it. The picture was taken by me. I painted it in one day. Because I paint faces so much, fruit is a cinch. No green or black was used in this painting. My secret was neon green, turquoise, and Prussian blue.
The reason I stay away from green is: green isn’t green. It’s the worst color of paint. I’m obsessed with the color. You have to make green. It’s like having to make skin color. It’s a combination. In general, use transparent turquoise a lot.
I figured out to use brown instead of mars black or paynes gray. It turns out that the brown compliments the turquoise and red. Three reds were used. I used a sort of “fire engine” that’s not opaque at all, my favorite bright yellowy-orange, and this new vivid magenta that’s very opaque.
This is my starting. I didn’t use the correct background color initially and chose paynes grey. It turned out that brown was a better choice.
I chose to not draw too much detail on the leaves.
I only used two brush sizes.
