Pink Peonies and Pears, Painting Lesson, 11" x 14"

So here it is Saturday and I bounced out of bed - well nearly, went for my morning walk and came back eager to finish "Peonies and Pears". Not a very inspired title, I'll admit, but when you do as many of these as I do, it's easy to run out of creative ideas for titles.

The first thing I did was mix a glaze of Maroger Medium and Alizarin Crimsen with a touch of Ultramarine Blue. I used this glaze to create the flower pattern on the vase and to deepen the color on some of the petals. It's important to know that form in such a vase takes care of itself once you add the pattern. The pattern or design actually helps to describe the form of the vase. Next I mixed some other glazes for the vase which consisted of Viridian Green with a bit of umber to tone it down. There is also some blue - Cobalt in the flowers as well as yellow. Then using a liner brush, I accented some of the smaller flowers in the design to heighten the sense of detail in the painting.

I used some Naples Yellow and a touch of white to scumble in highlights on the pears (there's a bit of Sienna too) and then used some Naples Yellow, white and Raw Sienna to scumble in highlights on the satin cloth. Some more of the same mixture was used to heighten the stems of the pears and create the stems on the grapes. Lastly, I added a highlight to the vase. Viola! The finished piece. Second session elapsed time, 45 minutes. Phew. The grapes look a bit purple here. Having some trouble with Photoshop today.

"Peonies and Pears"
Click here to bid.

Painting Less on Pink Peonies and Asian Vase, 11" X 14"

Pretty huh? This is the set up for my next lesson. Now the challenge is to paint it. I decided that because it's so complex, I would give myself two short sessions for this painting. I also determined that a little glazing was in order for the vase. So I shook out the cobwebs, stirred up some paint and got down to business.

In the photograph on the right, you can see that again, I have transferred a drawing to the canvas and toned it with a little burnt umber. I used acrylic here after fixing the drawing and just applied a light wash. For most of my daily paintings, I use Fredrix unstretched canvas pads. This is not paper, but actual primed canvas. I just tape it to my board. If the painting sells on EBay, then I trim and back it for the customer's convenience. If it fails to sell, I leave a white border and put it in my print bin at the gallery for sale. I only work on hardboard or stretched canvas for pieces I plan to frame.

Using raw umber, I laid in most of the shadow tones. I did this just using a wash to indicate where a shadow will be. Then in the next step (see the photo below right),I used some cadmium yellow and a bit of Naples yellow to cool the umber for parts of the background.

I like to lighten some of the "air" around the flowers as this adds some atmosphere and lends depth to the space. For the cloth, I just indicated where the darker shadows would be. I left them warm in temperature. On the vase, just a thin wash of umber was used to indicate where the shadow pattern would fall. It's important at this step - and the next - to establish the color of the shadows. This is both cast shadow and the mid- tone of the objects themselves. I use a little of the background color in the shadows and objects themselves as this brings atmosphere to the painting and creates color harmony. I've done this in the shadows of the blooms too. Remember that too much color will quickly overwhelm a painting. Grays and subtle tones will make just a small amount of color sing.

I've also used some of the background color to make the shadow side on the vase. I'm using thicker paint on the lighted side of the vase here but I'm mixing some Maroger Medium into it to facilitate drying. I plan on painting the design in glazes on the second pass tomorrow. I've also now added the deeper shadow tones of the flowers - all but obscuring the details of the petals. These were just a guide line for me anyway. To paint each detailed petal would have belaboured the piece. In order to get atmosphere into the pears, I have dragged some of the background color down into them. The grapes, rather dark at this point, were done with some Alazarin Crimsen and a touch of cad red with a drop of ivory black. "Gasp...BLACK????", you ask. Yes black. Where would Valasquez have been without black. Anyway I never NEVER use black in the shadows. I figure what was good enough for Valasquez and David Leffel is good enough for me.

OK. Moving on. Things are beginning to shape up a bit.

I've added more tones to the cloth and have used a bit of raw sienna and cadmium yellow medium, cooled with white to bring out it's lights. Using Alazarin Crimsen and a touch of Cadmium Red Light, I've made two mixtures for the flowers. One lighter and one half-tone. I used a large filbert to do the petals and laid the paint on pretty thick there for texture. I also went back in with a bit of Alazarin Crimsen mixed with some Ultramarine Blue to put some depth on the the flower on the right. I've inceased the volume and height of the top flower as well. You can also see that I've leveled out the vase, smoothing in the highlighted area. It's tough to see it well,here, but I've also added a bit of glow to the grapes. A tiny touch of Cadmium Red Light to the grapes brings out a nice glow. Don't forget that even grapes have turning edges and a core shadow is useful even on a small object like a grape. I've used some warm and cool highlights on the grapes and the tail of a brush to create some texture. The pears are beginning to shape up. I've pushed back the pear on the right and tomorrow will glaze into the one on the left to bring it around to where I want it. Same for the flowers. The paint is quite wet and thick at this point and I need a bit of drying time to glaze into them. Most of my edges, except for the flower on the right, are soft. The pear still needs work. Elapsed time 1.5 hrs. Drop by tomorrow for the finale.

Changes to "Morning Dreams" Nude

"Morning Dreams" indeed. More like morning light! I went into the studio to look at last night's painting and saw all kinds of things that needed correcting. So out came the brushes and palette. Here's the much improved piece.

The core shadows on the figure around her hips appeared at first to be too dark. I softened the core shadow line and increased and smoothed out the shadow to the left of the core. Now the rest of her needed some adjustment so I darkened and glazed into the other core shadows on her along her legs and arm. This improved things dramatically. I also extended her fingers which are bent and in shadow, but looked odd in the first painting. A little scumbling to the highlights fixed things up just fine. The finished piece is much better. The goodness for second chances.

Painting a small nude

Most of the work my on-line audience sees from me is "Ala Prima". This means work done "all at once" or in a short painting session. I rather consider Ala Prima work to be my bread and butter stuff. It's a great way to learn because you can do a lot in a short while. The brush strokes are retained and the painting looks "fresh". But while this is the work most often visible from me on line, there is a vast difference between this work and my, well, high end, work. I say, high end, because I generally spend many weeks on one of these and can hardly afford to sell them at EBay prices.

Essentially, I'm a classical realist painter. I fell in love with painters like Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Georges de La Tour and many of the Dutch painters while growing up. It's the work I aspire to. Ah well..."aspire" is the word.

Anyway, today's lesson is a small piece that I did as a study for a larger "high end" piece I plan to do. I was inspired by Jacob Collins' "Lisa". I was looking for a link to this painting earlier and if I find one, I'll put it in here. I chose my favorite model "A" for this piece and she posed in a variety of positions. I chose this layout because it's pretty similar to "Lisa", although somewhat in reverse.

I started by transfering a small sketch to a piece of canvas mounted on board. Instead of working the shadows in the way I generally do on an Ala Prima, I covered the entire piece with an "imprimatura" or tone of burnt umber oil paint. "A" is outlined with a bit of acrylic to allow her to show through the imprimatura.

In the next step, I start removing or pulling out the highlights with a brush dipped in mineral spirits. This is tricky step for those not acquinted with this style of underpainting. However, if you can master it, it brings great rewards. I use very soft brushes for this if I want to really refine the underpainting. However, for this study, I kept things simple.

In the next step, I started working in color. I used a little burnt umber + yellow ochre and white for some of the mid tones. I also used a mixture of burnt umber, raw umber and alizarin crimson to get in the turning edges on the figure.

You can see these steps taking form in the image below. Highlights were mostly a bit of Naples Yellow and white. Where the flesh reflected flesh, there were some orangey/red tones and I put these down in the transitional areas. Some of her flesh had pinkish hues where it turned. This was achieved with the same mix as highlights but with a bit of Alazarin Crimson mixed in. I use Maroger as a glazing medium. It allows for long painting sessions and although this wasn't that long a session it still allowed a bit of glazing toward the end.

Here I also started to work in the drapery. I kept it simple but tried to keep the movement of the cloth in the same rythym as the figure. Obviously "A's" face is not the most important part of this painting and so I kept that simple as well. In the last stage, I smoothed transitions and added more highlights to a few places. I also put a nice glow on her hip with some cadmium orange mixed with Alizarin Crimson (love that stuff - fugitive albeit).

Obviously, this is not a polished painting and still falls in the category of "ala prima". But it is a bit more finished than some of my pieces displayed here. I'll be doing some lessons on more layered/polished pieces from time to time, so stay tuned. Don't forget to check out my daily painting blog also!

"Morning Dreams"

Click here to bid.

Peonies...Ala Prima and other issues

I've been dealing with a new problem which, for an artist, is a bummer. Dry eye. Seems I've had it for a long time but it never bothered me much. Lately, however, it's causing me to miss full days in the studio. My eyes become so painful, I can't focus them on the subject or the paint. Thought it was the paint fumes, but even when I locked myself out of the studio for a few days, it didn't improve. Medications seem to affect it and I'm on a campaign to find something that will help besides the usual drops and flax seed oil.

OK. Complaints aside, I did manage to get into the studio for a little while. I consider my ala prima paintings to be my day job. Now that's not a bad thing. I enjoy this work and learn a lot from doing it, but I have to work at getting inspired some days. Here's one I did for my daily painting blog and like before, I'll illustrate a little of how I did it.

First, here's the set up.

As usual, I put a little burnt umber gesso on the piece of unstretched canvas (later to be backed on board)and taped off the 11" x 14" format.

As you can see, I just set off the area I wanted to fill using some dark umber

paint. I then started to block in the shadows and the background. I used mixtures of Alazarin Crimson and Cadmium Red Light to make the flower colors. The shadow color here on the blooms was a mixture of Alizarin Crimson and umber with a touch of Ultramarine Blue.

The details were only a matter of putting in the lights. I find that Naples Yellow makes for a brighter white than just white and that it also warms

the pinks other light areas. I tried to keep the paint thick for the lights. In areas where I wanted the flowers to come forward a bit, I pushed the background back by cooling it. I generally use a sort of green umberish background for my still lifes because it gives a feeling of atmosphere. But here I just wanted to try a little color in the background. I captured a bit of atmosphere by using the background color in the vase and the blooms as well. In the photo above, you can barely see the Asian bell starting to appear. I bring it to life in the last step when I lay in the greens and adjust shadows and lights on the table. Here's the final image.

"Peonies and Asian Bell"

Click here to bid.
See my Daily Paintings Blog