Painting and Drawing Fruits

This week, I share my love for fruits and give inspiration for fruit-themed paintings and drawings.

Here’s one of my newest paintings called Jupiter’s Bowl. This oil painting is a part of my series Linnunrata – Milky Way, where I explore planets and outer space. (See previous work: Uranus here, the Moon here, Mercury here, Neptune here, Pluto here, the Earth here, Venus here, and the Sun here!)

Fruit Storm in a Magical Bowl

The idea for this painting started from the orange storm that the planet Jupiter has. But then I thought about the Finnish saying “myrsky vesilasissa” which is “storm in the water glass” in English and similar to the saying “storm in a teacup.” It felt playful and funny to compare the planet to a small bowl and make a still life that doesn’t look still at all.

The first layers were very different from each other, and it felt like there was still more to come. The final version has brighter colors and juicy fruits that burst everywhere. Here’s a closeup of some:

I love lemons and oranges. I think they are one of the most attractive things in the world. Their smell, taste, and look captivate me. And they are not difficult to paint or draw either!

Decorative Slices in Black and White Drawing

Here’s a line drawing from 2018 when I participated in Inktober for the first time. The slices were fun to draw, especially because I treated them like Faberge eggs: filled with jewelry and other decorative elements.

Back then, I was finding out things that I really like and bringing them together in my drawings.

Intuitive Fruit Painting in Gouache

In 2019, I made a gouache painting (see the video!) that reminds me of Jupiter’s Bowl. It has fruity and fresh colors and some stormy vibe too.

I was a bit clumsier painter back then, but the idea of refreshing fruity burst is evident.

Fantasy Fruits in Colored Pencils

This year started by making a new class called Fun Botanicum. The second lesson of the class is about fruits and berries. Here’s my example from the class, made with colored pencils.

I wanted the spread to look juicy with my own fantasy fruits. Practically, you can draw a circle, add shadows and decorations, and it will look like a fruit!

Juiciness vs. Fruits

When I took pictures of Jupiter’s Bowl, it was late May and grass and tulips were in full bloom. There’s a lot of juiciness in summer colors.

My suggestion is to focus on the juiciness when drawing or painting fruits. If you think about how the fruits look in reality, the result gets stiff more easily. If you let go and focus on the juicy part, creating is much more fun and the result more expressive. Anything can have the spirit of the fruit, and art can be juicy without presenting the actual lemons and oranges.

Tell me, which are your favorite fruits? Do they appear in your art too?