Today, we celebrate Independence Day in the United States. Most people probably are setting off fireworks to help celebrate our freedom but I decided to paint a red onion in watercolors:
After all, my onion has the color of red, the paper is white and the shading is grayish blue! 😉
In my search to learn more about this veggie (that will likely be sliced and added to a burger by many celebrating this holiday today); I discovered that the red color on this onion comes from anthocyanidins such as cyanidin. Don’t worry, this is a good thing! As it can help protect our bodies from oxidative damage and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. This red pigment is found in many red berries, apples, plums and red cabbage. Did you know that red onions also contain plenty of vitamins and minerals, including folate, thiamine, calcium, magnesium, potassium, manganese and vitamins C, K and B-6!
Cyanidin got to thinking that there was a color called, cyan. According to Wikipedia, “The CMYK color model (process color, four color) is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black). When CMY “primaries” are combined at full strength, the resulting “secondary” mixtures are red, green and blue. Mixing all three gives black.”
Cyan is actually greenish-blue or light blue color. On a color wheel, it would be located between blue and green, making it a complementary color of red.
I found this all rather fascinating and I hope you do too! 🙂
I decided my onion painting needed a little “sweetening” so I added a few color pencils to finish it:
I did find that painting an onion in watercolor is similar to peeling one…both have a lot of layers! Lol!
Happy Painting and Celebrating! 🙂
I’ve always heart red food are heart healthy 🙂 Happy Fourth of July Jilly! Enjoy your day.
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Thanks Jodi! You too!! ❤️🎉😍
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Happy Fourth of July! I hope you are having a great day. Love that onion and all the info you shared.
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Thanks Carrie! Have a happy day!! 😍😊😄🎉🌟
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This is a beautiful onion, and not easy, I bet! Well done and gorgeous colors too Jill. 💜
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Thank you, Laura! Adding color pencils at the end helps me to fix my mistakes. 😉 Enjoy celebrating today! ❤️🎉🌟
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So many interesting facts about such a small onion… and a very nice sketch too;-)
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Yes, I agree! 😍 Thanks Birgit! ❤️🎨
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You nailed it, the color and texture are perfect. I can practically hear the papery music of those first few layers sliding off as I slice it for burgers.
And I don’t wanna hear about ink. I just made an emergency trip across town to go get the RIGHT cartridges for my printer because I was off by one numeral. Sunday was supposed to be my I’m-not-showering-or-putting-on-respectable-clothes-all-day Day.
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Lol! 😉 Don’t you hate it when the printer stops working! 😬 Makes me want to cry like when I peel a strong onion! 😂💦
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Contact lens wearers are spared that agony. Our pupils have built in mini-goggles to keep the propanethiol S-oxide out. Neener, neener.
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What a great onion, Jill! I think you know that I love watercolour and coloured pencil and here it shows again, why. Have a wonderful Fourth of July!!! 🇺🇸🌞💕
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Hi Ann! Glad you like my onion! 😄 Have a happy day! 🌟💕🌈🎉
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Beautiful! Happy 4th!!
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Thank you! Same to you! 🎉🎉🎉
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Nice! It’s looking very realistic, Perfect colors! 👍🏼Happy Fourth of July Jill!
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Thank you, Snehal! 😊 Same to you! 🎉🌟❤️
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Beautiful painted red onion, love it Jill.
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Thanks Sharon! ❤️😃🎉
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That is the most patriotic onion I’ve ever seen! 😉. Well done!
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Lol! 😃 Thanks Carol!! Love the way you said that! 😍🎉🌟
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I love red onions! Perfect for the 4th. (K)
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Thanks Kerfe! ❤️🌟🎉
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This is an awesome choice and so well done!! Happy 4th, Jill! 😍🎉😃
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Thank you, friend! I think I overworked it a bit. 😬 So it helped to add color pencils at the end. I did like using the back of my paintbrush to scratch lines into the wet paint for texture. 😃🎨
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Beautiful painting, love all the interesting information. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you Haunani, I was surprised how difficult it was to paint an onion! I learned a lot! 🙂
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