Onion-ness

Well, they were still sitting there on the table...so I did them again using a different method. Since the other illustrations I have made for the cookbook are drawn first with pen, I decided to do that here too, but I used a sepia-tone pen instead of black, since the colors of the onions invited that.

Drawing with pen before you paint allows you to define some areas using more than color, which can be an advantage...but it also takes away a little from the subtlety of the movement of color itself. So, for instance, it's much easier to delineate the lines running through and around the onions with a pen, giving more directionality and volume, but it doesn't allow for the fine gradations between areas, since that space is taken UP by the line of the pen. I scanned the drawing first in case I want to use just the drawing for the cookbook instead of the full-color version.

I also got a little carried away with the shadows today, and I'm afraid they are distracting from the subject of the onions, especially that wiggly bleed line between the purple and white onions, which I will have to go back and blur out a bit. I went into this too often, trying to get the colors right, and that was the result, proving it's good to know when to stop while you're ahead.

But it was fun to do this two different ways. Which of them expresses inherent onion-ness?