I painted a tomato? I painted a tomato!

Do you remember when I took a watercolor class two years ago and in typical Kim fashion didn’t follow through? I have this issue where if I know I’m going to absolutely stink at something, I won’t even try. It’s terrible and petulant but if you’ve been reading along for a week or so you already know that.

Little by little I’ve been trying to return to watercolors. A few weeks ago I pulled them out to create backgrounds for my June cards. Instead of being overwhelmed by all of the tubes I bought for the class I returned to the small palette I purchased a few years back¹ to mess around.

Today, day four of my caretaker staycation, I had a few hours to spare. WM, who is slowly improving every day but has a long road ahead because ACL surgery is no joke, suggested I poke at my watercolors. I brought out one of the books I had shelved. After successfully working through an exercise on how to slowly mix colors so that they’re not muddy I jokingly had the idea to paint a tomato.

I searched for “painting a watercolor tomato.”

I clicked on the first video I found.

And I learned more about light, dark, and dimension in that short video than I learned in eight weeks of watercolor class.

AND I PAINTED A DAMN TOMATO!

it's a watercolor painting of a tomato. there is an imperfect blue background, but the oangey-red tomato has shadows and highlights. there is shading!

Is it perfect, no. But holy crap, it has highlights and shadows and looks round!

Part of me wants to never paint again because what if this is absolutely the best watercolor painting I will ever make? What if I fail at “coffee cup” or “grapes” or “mountain dew can?”

But watercolor is on my 2025 Vision Board, and since many of those visions are coming true I want to see what happens if I don’t quit because I’m afraid of failing. I subscribed to Prema Watercolor’s Youtube channel and am going to do the same thing tomorrow: a quick techniques exercise from the book, and then follow along with a tutorial.