"Three Apples" First Stages

I started this painting without stretching the paper. I did use clear watercolor tape to give me a clean sharp border. I applied masking fluid around the edge of the plate. There is a thin white edge that has a blue stripe on it. Since it separates the edge of the plate & the darker brown table I thought it would just be simpler in the long run to to mask the white. After the masking was dry I put down some pale yellow washes. I used cadmium yellow pale, cadmium lemon and aureolin. When that dried I started establishing some of the shadow areas with ultramarine blue. I also began to put down some of the reds. I’ve used permanent rose, permanent alizarin crimson and Schmincke scarlet red. The paper, Arches 140lb cold pressed, is buckling too much to make me happy. I wetted both sides of the paper & stapled it to gator board to flatten it out.