In this beginner watercolor painting tutorial, we will show you how to paint a pineapple, which is easier than it looks! Thanks Emma for this step by step guide!
Watercolor supplies used in this tutorial:
Of course, it doesn’t mean you have to use exactly the same supplies 🙂
- Arches Watercolor Paper
- Windsor Newton Cottman Watercolors
- Princeton snap size 10
- 1 Glass of Water
- Paper Towel
Step 1: Paint a Simple Pineapple Shape
Now that you have your watercolor material ready, I’m just going to show you how to do a simple pineapple shape. Good news, it’s fairly easy. It’s very loose and will not look too realistic but it will look cute.
I take a light wash of yellow cadmium that was already mixed on my palette from before. I’m just going to start by creating little rough triangles into the shape of a pineapple. Make sure to leave some white spaces in between.
Use the shape of your brush to create these almost like triangle shapes from the bottom to the top. We’re gonna go back in with some darker color later so you got to make sure it’s still wet. Move fairly quickly and if you’re using some cheaper paper it might dry faster so you might have to re-wet some areas before you go back.
Step 2: Add Contrasting Colors on the Body of the Pineapple
Take your yellow and drop some in there, not overwhelming it too much. Then take some yellow ochre which is a darker yellow towards the bottom and underneath to create a shadow just on one side of the pineapple.
Take a little bit of green and mix it with the yellow to make it really light. Just tap it a little bit there and there. There is no specific way to do that so follow your creative instinct.
I use some yellow over again to get shadows underneath by just tapping the bottom of my little triangle sections. Then I do the same thing with some brown.
If you are using some cheap paper you might get some watermarks which is not a bad thing. It will just look a bit more abstract.
Step 3: Make the Crown of the Pineapple
Now, I do the top of the pineapple. I start to mix some SAP green and make a light wash of it. Then I use the shape of my brush to get the long leaves on the crown of the pineapple. Also, add a bit of darker green and a bit of the bright green you made earlier for the body of the pineapple.
Let it completely dry and then do another layer on top so we can see the individual parts of the crown. If you don’t want to do that, you can also leave some white space to create these individual parts.
Here you go, you made a super simple loose pineapple! I really hope you liked it and you learned something!
