Mandarin Orange with leaves Part 1

When you need it, a clean brush is very important. So whenever it is possible, mostly in my studio, I would like to have two good-sized water containers with clean water for me to clean my brushes. During my painting process, as I need to clean my brush, I usually use the water in one container first. I would then move my brush to the second water container to clean it again. When I’m painting outdoor, I would carry one or two extra water battles with clean water so that I can change my water whenever I need to.

To start this painting of the mandarin orange with leaves, I will start with the background. This is a common approach. Sometimes I start with the background, and sometimes I start with the main object. In most cases, it doesn’t really matter. The importance is to lay the paints in places and ready to be adjusted, which I will use lifting-off to make some areas lighter or use overlaid wash to add new layers of paint to make the color darker to change the color temperature.

I first use a #12 sable round brush with clean water to wash the area outside the orange, which include the leaves. Although I often use a one-inch flat brush to do this task, a big round brush is almost the same. After I wet the background area evenly, I give it time to allow most of the water to settle into the paper while I start mixing a cool gray color with the three primary paints: blue, yellow and red.

As I start to paint the cool gray color to form the shapes of the cast shadows, I focus on the shape and the direction and how they play their parts in the composition.