Painting Tutorial: Ear of Corn

Who else is as ready for Fall as I am?! I love this time of year when Fall decor starts popping up in stores, smacking you right in the face with inspiration for crafty Fall projects to make, even if it is still hot outside, like it is here in Sacramento. For me, this time of year symbolizes the start of the holiday season. A few months of one holiday after the next, including my birthday, although that usually gets hijacked by Thanksgiving (is it really too much to ask for a whole day that's all about ME? Haha). So, in the spirit of Fall, I decided I would bring you guys a tutorial on how to paint something Fall-themed. The natural first thought would probably be a pumpkin, but I'm weird, so I'm showing you how to paint some corn instead (that could very easily be paired with a painting of a pumpkin, which may possibly be a tutorial you will see here soon).

Before I get started, I want to first say that I do my paintings on thick cardstock, which I cut out and scan onto the computer. This makes it so that I can open it in Photoshop and use it in multiple mixed media prints. Since I know I will be cutting it out, I tend to be a sloppy - no, very sloppy - painter. So please, oh please, do not follow my lead on the sloppiness factor, unless you plan on cutting yours out as well.

Alright, let's get started, shall we? First, I started by painting a base coat of brown in the shape of an ear of corn. I highly recommend doing a base coat because 1.)yellow paint tends to be fairly translucent, and 2.) you will more than likely end up with some gaps in between the kernels and you don't want white, or the background color of your painting, showing through.

Next, I mixed some yellow and white paint for the kernels. I didn't thouroughly mix the two colors because I wanted some variation in color between the kernels. Starting in the middle at the top, I painted rows of ovals.

Here, I have almost all of the rows finished. I added some more of the base coat color around the edges so I could paint some extra kernels to give it a bumpy texture on the side.

And here are all of the rows painted. Again, you won't want yours to look as sloppy unless you are cutting it out.

Once all of the kernels were painted, I mixed some white with my yellow mixture to get a very pale yellow and I painted a highlight on the upper right edge of all the kernels.

Next, I mixed some of the brown base coat with a tiny smidgeon of black paint and painted a lowlight on the bottom left edge of every kernel. Now we are starting to get some dimension going.

Last step for the kernels is to add just a little dot of white paint to the upper right edge to really make them pop.

Now, onto the husk. I drew out the shape I wanted then painted it with a mix of green, yellow, and white.

Then, I added a little bit of black to the paint mixture and painted where the shadows would be. I wanted to make the stalk shorter than I originally planned, so the shadow midway down the stalk is really the bottom of the stalk.

To add a little texture to the stalk, I used an old brush that had hard, fanned out bristles to add streaks of pale yellow to the husk, making sure to go the direction of the husk.

And for the last painting step, I added some shadows to the corn around the edges where the husk is.

Here's a picture of the corn all cut out.

And there ya have it! I would love to see pictures of what you guys come up with =) Or if you like the idea, but don't see yourself ever trying to paint one for yourself, you can purchase one of my prints here.