How to Paint Peonies, Day Four

Today proved to be a trying one. I had contractors, engineers and inspectors banging all over the house and the constant interruptions had me banging my head against the wall and sniffing paint fumes in a vain attempt to escape it all.

But in spite of all the craziness, I did manage to get a few things accomplished. I had the curtain on the French door behind me open and so had a bit of cool light to paint by. Hence the bluish tint on the left side o the canvas. That shouldn't prove to be too much of a difficulty here as I'm illustrating the last of the flowers in this picture.

I re-entered the painting by first giving a slight blue glaze to the background to cool down some of the yellow tint in the umber background. I'm still not sure of the tapestry look and may decide before painting in the leaves to just make the background solid. It feels a bit distracting to me.
After glazing the background, I finished off the last three flowers. These are still not quite done at this point and I'll get back to them before the close of the session. It's difficult to work out all the values on the flowers until their surroundings are painted in.

Time for the apples. I started with their shadows by mixing in a bit of burnt umber and a touch of yellow ochre for reflected light. Then I was on to the shadows of the apples. I started with raw umber and some Cadmium Yellow Light mixed in. This was further toned with a little Cad Red Light. I mixed this lightly with some toned down Thalo Green for the more colorful spots on the apples. A touch of Yellow Ochre and white for the reflected light becomes evident in the next photo.

Note that an object's truest color will be on the turning edge just as the light on the object turns to shadow. The core shadow follows this. It's easiest to remember this by just noting that light washes out color and shadow obscures it.

The lights are added in here with some Cad Yellow Light, white and a touch of umber to tone the brightness (although that's hard to tell from my camera). The reflected lights are more evident here.
I've also painted in the table top, although this too will be brightened eventually. A bit of Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber with some Naples Yellow lights up the table.

The top right hand corner of the background looks a bit warm here. Some of that may be due to the fact that the cool light from the door behind me is not falling on that portion of the canvas.

In either case, I'll need to reassess in the morning with natural light coming in evenly. I have a skylight just outside the old studio that can be used for this purpose. I use two color corrected Ott Lights additionally, but find that the skylight is best for this. I will be such a boon when the new studio is finished. I have a seven by five foot arched north light window in it. Perfect for this sort of thing.

I've started to put in the shadows for the table cloth. Notice that I've painted out the leaves here. I know where they're going and have decided that it would be best to paint them in over the table cloth. This is always a last minute judgment call for me as I often paint them together with the cloth and background. I've been taking my time here so things are developing a bit differently. Shadow color is a bit of black, Cad Yellow Light and white. I've warmed it a bit with Burnt Umber.

I simplified the table cloth and reworked it several times before I felt I could leave it for a bit and move on to the cut apples. Like everything else, I'll revisit it several times during the next painting session. The cut apples were done much the same as the larger ones. Note that I've gone back and darkened the interior of the other apples.

The lighted table cloth is done with Naples Yellow and White. This is just a slightly warmed mixture of white, not a cooled mixture of yellow. But the temperature difference is enough to make the table top pop. Additionally, I took small amounts and used it on the flowers in a few places where I wanted the light to sparkle on the flowers. That warm light really works against the cooler pink . I know it sounds strange - but remember temperature is relative. My pinks are cool pinks and the white is a warm white.
This is perhaps the best representation of what is happening in the painting thus far. The color is a bit softer in this photo and the contrast not as sharp as in the others.

I deepened the shadows around the flower at the bottom that is drooping off the table edge and heightened the edges so that it stands away from the table cloth. The table cloth and the back of the table itself are softly inferred in the background. A little light peeks in behind the cut apples. I've also taken some Quinacridone Pink glaze and brushing it into the tips of the petals.

There's much I need to do here and I have only three days before they tear into my studio rendering it unusable for a few days. So tomorrow is another day. It's midnight and I've posted this first to my website so I'll copy it over to the blog in the morning. Nighty night.