Dark vs. Light

These are two very quick studies (yes I've moved on to the next fascinating member of the fruit world - the lemon) of the same still life. Both done on 4x6 panels and I spent less than an hour on each. The first is done on a light gray background, and the second is done on a black background.

The other difference is that the first one I sketched out with graphite and the second I painted directly on the canvas. I learned a lesson with this exercise - don't sketch with graphite, or at least heavy, dark graphite. It doesn't stay put on the canvas and when you add paint it blends and turns the colors muddy. I did kind of like how it showed through on the edges (like the cut lemon) so I might try sketching with a dark acrylic color just to see what happens. Acrylic dries really fast and won't bleed into the oil.

I like the composition of this, so I want to do a longer painting. I think I might like starting with the darker background - but I'm going to do one with a red toned background because I think that will give an interesting tone to the lemons and bowl.


The other thing I focused on here was holding to the tenet that I should put a paint stroke down and leave it - no blending if I can help it. I really have a hard time with that - but I was more successful on the second painting (dark background) - especially the bowl. I really like how that turned out.

Final (sort of) nectarines in a bowl

I worked on this yesterday - really improved the shadows and made the background more violet (not sure if I like that but its hard to tell in this photo because of the glare0. The background is much darker on the right side, but the glare that screwed up the photo.

I wish I had done this on canvas rather than paper.

Things to fix: the pointy nectarine shadow. Also, I was going for a "glowy" thing with the nectarines that are in the light because the light was so bright, not sure if I pulled it off.

Is it distracting?

So what's with all the fruit?

I've done a few nectarines and still haven't moved to canvas. This is on canvas paper and I'm still working on it. My friend asked me "So what's with all the fruit?". Good question. No real reason accept that it's easy to get, comes in all colors and shapes, and I can easily set up different arrangements. You'd be amazed at how long fruit will last in my little studio refrigerator while I work out a painting. I wouldn't try eating it though.

The fruit is just a tool to help me learn about color, tonal ranges and... well ... how to paint.

I'm in a battle once again with the shadows. The shadow area of the bowl is not right - at the last minute I changed it completely and used a violet made up of alizarin crimson and cerulean blue. It doesn't relate at all with the shadow cast on the table cloth, or really with the bowl, but I'm getting closer.

I'm using Kevin MacPherson's book "Fill your Oil Painting with Color and Light" (it is open on a table next to my easel as I paint) but I'm failing miserably at his suggestion that I put a brush stroke down and leave it. Maybe after another twenty paintings I'll get closer.

More work to do on this: the bowl, background and shadows need work.

Nectarine or Apple?

Here's the latest.I like where I'm going with the fabric - the best part is on the left where it drapes down and sort of fades. Love that. I'm struggling with the nectarine because it looks like an apple to me. But I had a revelation in one of my many endless work meetings while I was doodling.

Nectarines aren't perfectly round. If you look at this nectarine you can see the seam and the uneven outline that the seam causes for the fruit. What came to me today while doodling was that there should be a corresponding seam below the stem which should cause the fruit shape to be uneven. So I'll go back tomorrow and work on that.

The strange lighter streaks in the upper right background is actually a reflection off the wet paint.