Artichoke - day 4

It's amazing what a little red can do.  Until today, I was painting with lemon yellow, ultramarine blue and a touch of phthalo blue.  Just two thirds of the color wheel.  By adding red to the pallette, I can now get the full range of color, and a fuller depth of field.  You know and I know there is no red in an artichoke leaf really, but if you study the shape and shaddows, you'll see that actually there's a lot of red!  Red is the complementary color of green, which means it makes a terrific shaddow color for green, and also has the effect of intensifying the appearance of green next to it. (The opposite is true too, by the way, which is why the butcher puts parsley next to the steaks at the meat counter.)  Back to my artichoke, I've used some washes of red to suggest the roundness of the leaves, and indicate where one leaf tucks in behind another.  It is coming along!