The hardest part of painting a strawberry isn't the red. It's the seeds.

My first strawberries looked like they had chicken pox. I painted every seed the same size, same color, same sharpness, and the fruit went flat.

What fixed it: I stopped painting seeds and started painting the little pockets they sit in. Each one is a tiny shadow on the side away from the light, with a speck of untouched paper on the opposite edge. The seeds come last, and only the ones in the light get full detail. Toward the edges they soften and almost disappear.

That's what makes it look round. Not more detail, but less of it in the right places.

What detail do you always overwork?

#Watercolor #FoodIllustration #Illustration