Pineapple

The day that I painted the vegetables just below this, I went to the store to buy some more models to paint. I thought I'd make sure to get some fruits / vegetables with more features, protrusions, patterns, than the tomatoes and green chillies of the morning. So I bought the most fiendishly complicated fruit available, the pineapple, of all things!

Don't ask why it's about to take a nosedive - it's about turning the paper to make it fit; and about being left-handed. It would have looked better if I'd flipped the image vertically, but then the shadow would have been on top.

The pineapple was somewhat skinny and bedraggled, so I painted it that way. I keep having to go back and adding another layer of glaze, because I'm timid about the colours. So then I went overboard on the body of the pineapple, and made it much too orange. I tried to tone that down with a layer of sepia, and the whole thing melted into a blur. And of course, it's more of a symbol of a pineapple than the amazingly intricate thing itself. I enjoyed looking at all its patterns and folds, anyway.