Colored Candy

Artist's Statement

In all of these drawings and paintings, it was my goal to show how I could draw the sphere of an object. I found this actually much more difficult than I had expected. With the painting, I chose to paint tomatoes because it was what I had on hand, but I also chose the specific color of the tomatoes. I definitely did not represent them perfectly, as I altered the color a little bit. I found it fun to experiment by adding different colors that I wouldn't normally expect to work, into the painting. Acrylic paints are definitely more difficult to work in some cases but they also make it easier because colored pencils have many more little details that you have to be concerned with. Overall, there is not a lot of depth to the painting because it is more a demonstration of being able to work with different materials, while painting/drawing a sphere.

I used canvas and acrylic paint to make this but I also sketched it out in graphite pencil (6B). I worked with the acrylic colors of crimson, purple, ultramarine, black, and titanium white. I chose canvas because it was sturdier than a Bristol board and it could hold the weight of the paint better. I did not put any white medium down beforehand which might have made paintings smoother but I chose not to for this painting.

I first started with a sketch of M and M’s on a piece of Bristol board. I sketched this three or four times on different pieces and I still couldn't quite come up with the one I was satisfied with. I tried starting with colored pencils and graphite but neither one fit what I was looking for. I was also trying to do this from a picture of M and M's and the wrapper. After a while, I gave up on this and decided to choose something else that did not have a wrapper with it. This turned out to be tomatoes but because they were so dark I made them look more like grapes. Once I decided on this I started using acrylic on Bristol board but then switched over to a small canvas. I like this more because I could put more detail into the work and focus more on the specific colors and shapes of the objects. Once I had finished all of the grapes/tomatoes I added black as a background. I felt that this gave the contrast that I was looking for and helped to make the color of each tomato/grape stand out. My next step could be adding more detail into shading especially on each tomato and within the little areas between each tomato.