Best watercolor method for realism

In this video we'll look at the stages I went through to paint in watercolour this 3D pear, ready to pick up and eat. Hi, I'm Anna Mason. In this mini class I'm going to show you how I painted this pear, which is available as a free, much longer step-by-step video class at naturstudio.com right now. Here's a quick overview. I begin as I always do by creating an outline drawing. With the free class there's a printable outline you can trace, and at the start of the class I demonstrate how you can trace yours, in case it's been a while. Next, I started the painting by using a very, very watered down, yellowy-green mix, matched to the colour and tone of the palest highlight, and applying it everywhere on the pear. I was looking back and forth between the painting and reference photo. My brush strokes followed the direction of the pear's shapely curves I observed. Painting in the direction of form like this helps to build up a 3D effect from the beginning. When that was dry, I then painted a pale version of the stalk, matching to the lightest version of each colour I observed in the reference. Taking care to leave some little gaps of unpainted paper where I observed lighter details in the photo, I used the tip of my brush to create a crisp edge to the stalk. Still working with very watery paint, I worked on the shadow next, trying to create a soft and natural looking transition where it fades into the paper. Once the painting was completely dry, I painted another pale layer over the pear everywhere except for the highlights, which then isolated them. As I did this, I used a stippling technique with my brush to start building up the mottled pattern on the pear's skin. With that dry, I then moved on to the next stage of the painting, which was to paint the very darkest tones in the composition, first on the stalk, and then in the recess of the shadow, watering the paint down to create a gradual looking fade. Next, I cleaned off my palette, mixed an olivey green colour, and stippled this colour into the areas of darkest tone on the pear's skin. I held off from painting all the way up to that right edge, which gets much paler as the pear curves away from the eye. Paintings always look disjointed at this stage, but once you've come to trust the process, you learn to hold your nerve and keep going. When that had dried, I then worked into the mid-tone areas on the pear's skin, which were a more yellowy green. I stippled on top of the darkest tones and outwards into the mid-tone areas to create a gradual transition, and adjusted my paint mixes to match the hue where I noticed subtle colour changes in the reference photo. With a more watery paint mix, and once the paper was dry, I continued stippling into the areas of mid-mid-tone, which were about halfway between the lightest and darkest parts of the pear's skin. I then worked into the lighter mid-tones, and I was trying to blend and soften any edges to the mid-mid-tones to create that gradual transition effect. Observing tone, how light or dark an area is, and hue, what colour something is, soon becomes second nature when you practice observational painting. The next stage of the process is to assess the painting as a whole and look for areas that need to be darkened, neatened, or more detailed. My painting needed the shadow to be darkened. Then I continued making subtle adjustments, darkening the pear's skin, stippling but leaving gaps to the paler colour underneath. In the reference photo, there are lots of green spots in the mid-tone area, so I added those, and carried on with this subtle darkening. When that was totally dry, I painted a watery yellow-green colour over the pear as a glaze, which made it brighter and gave a smoother look to the mottled pattern. Now the painting was looking more cohesive and solid, it was time to add some more details in the final step. With my smallest brush, I painted tiny dots on the pear to recreate the speckly markings I could see in the photo, making sure I distributed them randomly rather than in an unnatural looking pattern. The temptation can be to stop painting here, but the extra realism and wow factor really happens in this last step. I added more details around the stalk, darkened the shadow some more, and then worked into the edges of the pear. All of these micro-corrections can seem insignificant on their own, but collectively they add up to a realistic result. Stepping right back again, I could see now that the pear needed a brighter glow, so I made a hue adjustment by applying a yellowy glaze to the dry painting. I added some more dotty details, defined the edge a bit more, and kept stepping back to look for areas that stood out as appearing too pale. Then with some damp kitchen paper, I dabbed a little colour off to adjust the shape of the highlight and added a few more details. Finally, once I could no longer see areas that were standing out as needing to be darker, it was time to put down my brushes and call this pear painting finished. Hop over to naturstudio.com now to sign up to take the full hour-long class of this pear painting. It comes with an outline drawing you can trace, a reference photo, and a list of supplies. I show you every stage in masses of detail, showing you not only how but why to make each mark so that you get to learn a reliable method you can apply to other subjects too. Taking this pear class has inspired thousands of people who've been amazed by their results and have gone on to grow their skills even more and become the artist they always wanted to be. So what are you waiting for? Sign up for your free class now and come and paint along with me.