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.