Laurin McCracken has put his skills learned over the years as an architect, drawing, photographing and observing into use as a watercolorist. Let’s follow along with his process for painting this trio of gorgeous pears.

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1. The photograph of the still life of two yellow pears and one red pear on aluminum foil.

2. The drawing – This was done in 2h Lead, therefore this image has been made very high contrast to show detail

3. Wetting the brush – The start of the painting

4. The Pears have received their basic color washes, detail will be added last

5. Masking the highlights in the foil with Daniel Smith Artist Masking Fluid, here you can see that I paint from a large photo

6. Painting the foil – “Inch by Inch”, I cut the photo into pieces so I can get it close to the area I am painting

7. The first foil emerges behind the pears, I remove the masking fluid as soon as possible to prevent any damage to the paper

8. The foil marching around the pears, showing the masking of the next section to be painted

9. I am laying in the colors that are under the primary reflections

10. The foil has wrapped all the way around the pears

11. The folds in the foil are painted using the classic “British Two-brush” technique

12. This is the under-painting of the background with the refection of the pear, note the masking of the other reflections under the foil

13. I masked the pears with light-weight tracing paper to protect them while I paint the background, here I have laid on the black in one layer of thick wash

14. I have removed the tracing paper mask and painted the reflections under the foil by lifting in some areas and blending the masked highlights into the shadows

15. Adding the finishing touches, such as the bruises to the pears

The finished painting –  2 Yellow, 1 Red on Foil