Patterns

WE OBVIOUSLY see patterns in our every day lives, some are clearly man made and others are thanks to mother nature.    One of the mother nature patterns that, I for one, have taken for granted is this one:

 

- the pineapple -  

We bought this one the other day and it has sat in our kitchen waiting to be sliced up.  Fortunately it sat there long enough for me to really look at it......and I have to say I was quite surprised at just how lovely the patterns are.  I have sketched pineapples before, but never really LOOKED before. Apparently it got its name because it looked like pine cones  (now there's your useless bit of information for the day!).

Anyway I have taken another stab at sketching one:

For the initial wash - I used clear water to make the outline and before it got too dry I added a wash of Yellow Ochre, quickly followed by Sap Green & Olive Green  individually added and then a mix of the two - just random and spontaneous (in other words, no set rule just do it!).  Towards the bottom I added neat Ultramarine Blue and just let it bleed in.   I then used the Greens for the leaves again adding blue to darken some of them and let this dry completely.

Adding darker tones of the same colours which starts to bring out the detail.  Again I left this to dry completely -  (went off and had a coffee whilst I waited).

finally, adding a bit of shading and that's about it for my loose sketch -
I wouldn't attempt to try and copy the detail of mother nature she has it too perfect ..... 

So after all that studying and painting, 

we shall eat it.....yum!