Vintage Fruit Matchbox

Here’s a cute little MB that almost missed being posted.

I am typically quite critical of my work but at least this time, there is a point to it! I didn’t notice at the time but I am now seeing that the strawberry is completely lacking in highlights which doesn’t match with the other fruits. Also, the shadow is on the opposite side. While I didn’t plan it, I just coloured them, it does look odd all together. I’m actually happy with the cherries, the bright shiny highlight suits the smooth skin; the peaches have softer highlights because the skin is fuzzy muting the brightness of the highlight.

Strawberries are hard to colour because you have to colour around the seeds and that can throw off the best plans you might have for shading, shadowing or highlights. I don’t consider the yellow area a highlight, that is supposed to be where the berry isn’t quite ripe yet which often happens on the side away from the sun. The highlight would actually be on the opposite side, facing the sun at the same angle as on the other fruits. I know that some people like to colour over the seed then reclaim the colour with a colourless blender and then add the yellow for the seeds. I’m not stuck on that technique but I think I might have tried it here because the sees aren’t really showing up as a different colour.

So here’s what I would do if I were colouring this again. I’d make sure the highlights and shadows were consistent on all the fruits. I’d darken the shadows and add some serious highlights on the strawberry and try to add some more life to the leaves. I’d really work to make the seeds yellow. The peach leaf needs more blending to make the leaf look smother.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Fruits-Flourishes, text bkdg-not sure, maybe PTI BB:Hearts?
Ink: memento black, cocoa-SU!
Paper: white CS-Taylored Expressions, cocoa CS-SU!
Accessories: vintage lace-stash, Dew drop, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Copics-sorry, I don’t have the colours, this was from September