I was inspired after my hat sketch to get the paints out. Still in Greece, so these figs were fresh from the tree and I was drawn to the colours and irregular shapes.

Using acrylics at 35 degrees meant I had to work fast because the paint dried so quickly, but I liked how that felt and how it gave the study a sketch-like feel. It also meant I could work in layers without having to wait for anything to dry.

The main source of light was a door behind the figs, hence the strong highlights on the two figs at the back. This has given them a lot of form and they’ve worked out really nicely. There was another door behind me and light was also falling on the near side of the front fig. In trying to recreate this double light source, that front one has ended up looking quite flat. I didn’t pay much attention to the background, which was just the table they were sitting on, but the rough shadows help to ground them.