How to Paint Peonies, A Commission, Final Session

It's been a few busy days. My studio is much further along than the last time we spoke. :-) and I've attended my first atelier class with Tenaya Sims. A terrific day! But I'll save that for another time. Let's get started.

In the last session I stated that I wanted to revisit the background. I felt it was too busy and so the first thing I did upon opening this session was to oil out with Maroger and then repaint the background. I mixed a new mixture with Raw Umber, Cad Yellow and a touch of Cobalt Blue to cool the mixture. It looks a bit warm here but that's the light. As my windows are now completely blocked off with plywood (they took them out to put them in the new construction), I didn't have any cool natural light to balance the overheads. I think in later photos, it's true tone will become evident. Anyway, it looks better. Don't you think? All those swirls in the background were just too distracting. This is just the right amount of atmosphere and light.

I've added some twigs here for interest. Remember that straight lines are much more attractive than lines that are curvy. In this case, the straight lines form a nice contrast to the curves of the petals and help to create directional lines for the composition. These were done with a palette knife. A little trick I learned at the David Leffel workshop. Slide the edge of your palette knife through the pant and then carefully set the edge against the canvas and pull the knife outward in the desired direction. It does take a bit of practice, but it's well worth the time investment.

How to Paint Peonies, Day Two

Well thanks for checking back in today. I actually painted this lesson over two days starting with the background yesterday and continuing with the flowers today. Here we go. If you'd like to read this lesson in a more consistent manner that flows from top to bottom without having to skip around blog style, click here.

The background was the first thing I started on with color. I generally choose an umber background for pink because the slight green tint sets off the pinks in the blossoms nicely. This mix was done with a combination of Burnt Umber and Raw Umber plus a bit of Cad Yellow Light and Naples Yellow. The lighter tones were done with a bit more Naples yellow. I was looking for a light feeling of tapestry here. As the painting develops I continue to work the background. I like to have it slightly wet as I work because that allows me to fade flowers into the background. Again - I apologize for the glare. Not much I can do about it under the circumstances. Each time I pause to take a picture, I have to turn lights on and turn others off. It's a bit tricky and breaks my concentration so I try not to have to do too much in that arena. Also, what looks fine in the camera, often looks quite different once I download the picture.

I worked some darker umber and Ultramarine Blue into the background on the lower left hand side and into the shadows on the tapestry.

For the vase, I used my usual mix of black, Cadmium Yellow Light and white along with a touch of the background color. For the light struck area, I used Cremintz White with a touch of Ultramarine Blue. Some of the shadow color was added as well. This is only a preliminary under painting for the vase.

I vowed this time around that I would try to give more step-by-step on the flowers - so here goes. I used a shadow color which was mixed by combining Quinacridone Red and Cadmium Red Light plus a bit of Cremintz White. The Cremintz White is a very thick impasto white with low tinting strength. Good for low tints and where you don't want to wash out the color. It's also lovely for building impastos.
I brushed this color combo into the areas where the darker richer interiors of the Peony face away from the light. I used a bit of Cadmium Orange to place warmth into those shadows.

When I mix these colors, I try not to over mix them with a palette knife, but instead use my brush and whip them up a bit to where they are delicately blended - like making muffin batter. Too much mixing and the muffins go flat.

For the reflected lights - always a tough call - I used a bit of Quinacridone Pink which has more blue in it. This was mixed with a bit of background color that had been lightened with touches of white to gray it a bit. Shadows are always deeper near to the object which casts them. So I brushed a bit of Raw Umber mixed with Ultramarine Blue into the shadows closest to the Peonies. The vase is still very simple at this point. I'm only suggesting the shape at the bottom where the shadow curves a bit. Later, I'll place some background color to deepen shadows and bring atmosphere forward into the painting. I've also deepened the shadows on the tapestry in the background.

Here's the close up. You can see the brush work is kept light. When painting the inside of a flower, you have to figure that that part of the bloom is receding from you and paint it thinly - just as you would shadows.

Here I've started to put in the highlights on the lit side of the flower. The paint is quite thick. I'm using the same color that I used in the interior passages but lightened with Cremintz White. I'm using a 1/2" DaVinci Filbert Bristle brush. Bristles are best for impasto work because they are just stiff enough to hold the paint.

For the initial strokes I used a 1/4 inch brush but decided that it looked too picky so I changed to a larger one and went to a technique that I'm comfortable with.

I didn't have anyone to take a picture of me laying in the petals so I'll have to describe the technique. After I've loaded the brush, I lay the bristle's at a 30 degree angle to the canvas and starting at the center of the bloom I make the petal using one stroke by pulling the brush outward to circumference of the flower. I apply more pressure at the start of the stroke and lift off the brush at the back end of the stroke. This is a little tricky and takes some practice.
This stroke is more evident in the last two pictures.

Notice that the lights are bright, but there's not enough punch or contrast between them and the shadows. This is because Cremintz is a low tint white. I'll fix that in the end by using a bit of the same color mix but with Titanium White and some Maroger Medium.


I next moved on to the back ground flowers. These were mixed with a bit of Quinacridone Rose which has a bit of blue in it. You can see that color in the flowers facing away from you. Because they are in the background and less distinct, I softened the edges by brushing some of the background into them.

Notice the large bloom in the front and the smaller bloom just behind it. There's not a huge difference in value here so I used a bit of edge control to push the one on the right back by making the edge of the flower in front a bit crisper. I also used little or no detail in the inside of the flower on the right. Less detail, less reason to spend time looking at it. Control your viewer's eyes by the use of edges as well as values.

Notice that I've painted out the leaves. I decided I would rather design them as I go in the last sitting. Those are details that will be a bit demanding and may take more than one sitting to get right so I'd rather not have to paint background around them when I'm done. Instead I'll use some Maroger to oil out the canvas and paint into it with the leaf colors when I'm ready. The background is an easy mix and can also be added if needed at a later point without having matching problems.

OK. I took another shot here to better evaluate the light. For this stage of the painting, I'm satisfied. I can see where I will want to darken some of the flowers on the left. This, however, is best left until they are dry and then I can just glaze into them. I rearranged the shapes of the larger flower and used the larger brush to do the petals. I have two more flowers to paint in the next session and then I want to re-evaluate the background and the overall shape of some of the blooms. Once I've tweaked those, I'll start into the objects on the table.

For the background, I'm considering a glaze with a very thin coat of blue to cool it a bit. I can better evaluate it in the light of day however, and I'll rethink it all in the morning. Good night and I'll continue with you tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

How to Paint Peonies

"The Peony Commission"
Working Title

Peonies are such beautiful, lush flowers that it's no mystery that they are loved by nearly all flower aficionados. I received this commission a couple of days ago and thought it might be fun to share the painting process with you.

The size of the painting is 18" x 24" at the request of the client. I sent her three compositional images and she decided on this vertical format. I'm glad because I'm a bit partial to this composition. Mainly this is because I love drama. Even in something as quiet as a still life, there can be great drama.

Notice how the composition is at eye level. You can basically divide the canvas into three areas. Below the table, the top of the table to the Golden Mein (about one third of the way down from the top, and the top one third where most of the flowers reside.
I chose an "S" composition for this floral as I often do in vertical compositions. Notice how the flowers form a backwards question mark or take an actual "S" direction. I chose green apples to offset the prinks in the flowers. I actually added some cut apples to the right after this picture was taken. They become apparent in the painting.

I first prepared the canvas a couple of days in advance by coating it with a thin layer of under painting white mixed with Liquin to help it's drying time. I did this for two reasons: first, I prefer a smooth surface to one with texture and I like the way paint moves on a surface that has been primed with paint. The white under painting will cause the flowers to glow with an appearance of light emanating from within as the painting ages.

When the canvas was dry, I drew with charcoal the actual placement of the major elements and then sprayed the whole thing with a touch of hairspray. Nice to know that stuff is still useful for something.
Next I wiped on a thin layer of Burnt Umber mixed with Quinacridone Orange and then started to lift out the lights. I like this process of under painting because it allows me to make decisions as I go. If something doesn't look right where I've placed it, I can easily move it by painting back into the toned canvas and wiping out the lights elsewhere. But my drawing was good here and I was pretty happy with the way the flowers were placed. I had made some changes to the flowers you see in the photograph until I was happy. Often, I won't see things that need fixing until I start to get things on canvas. That's why I can't work from photos. Things looked flat in the photo I sent to the client but really started to fill out nicely when I started actually lifting out the lights on the canvas.

Here you can see the under painting developed further. I added a bloom or two to the left and filled out some other areas. I moved the flower on the table further to the right and the small one further to the left to bring out more of the "S" shape I was referring to. The large Peony in the top left of center is right about on the intersection of the Golden Mein, the sweet spot of the painting and where I want the viewer's eyes to go. While it takes precedence now, it will be a challenge to keep it's importance once color is added.

I pulled out lights where the light spills from the left across the vase. You might notice now that there is no design on the vase. That's the last thing that gets added to the painting.
I've filled in some leaves and you can see now also where the apples and cut apples fall. I've brushed in some shadows as well to unify the piece.

OK. I'm about done here. The cloth is not quite finished and I'm thinking I'll change quite a bit on there as the painting proceeds. I often move the light source to provide a few shadows and lit parts on the cloth in the front. I don't want to do that until the majority of the painting is done as once the light moves, it's difficult to get things back where they were. While a purist might say that the shadows will not be true to life, an "artist" knows that what works in a painting is not generally true to life in all cases.

I've lightened the background on the right. This will add more depth to the painting later. It won't be bright, per se, but will be a softly shadowed mid tone to allow the flowers to fade into it. The left side will be darker.

All this, mind you, is subject to change. But for the most part, I'm happy with this first stage. Check back tomorrow or the next day to see the next step. Thanks for tuning in.

If the lesson is difficult to follow on the blog, I suggest you click here to follow it on my website where the type flows smoother. Just click on "Peony Commission" when you get there.

How to paint Magnolias and Brass in Oils

My apologies for not having published here for the past two weeks. Sometimes the necessities of making a living can really keep me busy - or too tired to do anything. I actually started to prepare for a session a couple of times and found myself 1/2 way through a painting before I remembered to take a picture! Well...here I am and I have a good session for you.

Here's the set up. I recently swept into an antique shop and found this beautiful brass pitcher. I'm a sucker for brass and copper. They're both such fun to paint! The set up doesn't look very impressive here but the light in the studio was just perfect when I started to paint. Besides, the rest comes from artistic license and vision. My concept was for the light to pool a the round base of the pitcher and around the first flower. I wanted the rest of the fruit to gradually catch the light and then fade into shadow.

I've recently started working on linen for my larger pieces. I love the stuff. It's a medium grade oil primed linen that comes in a large roll. I ordered it from Art Supply Wharehouse.

I usually paint on boards which I prime myself with gesso or face with canvas. In order to prepare this board, I cut out the linen, primed the board to seal it and then using Golden's Medium Gell, I adhered it to the board and burnished it down with a brayer. A quick imprimatura of burnt umber and cad red and I was ready to paint. I laid in the drawing with raw umber, keeping everything simple. Then I mixed my background color - raw umber, cad yellow and a touch of cobalt blue. The lighter area is mixed with a bit more of naples yellow to lighten it. Next, I brushed in shadows on the table top.

Oops! I got carried away here and totally forgot to take a picture. This easily happens to me and I wised up after this and started setting my timer to remind me to stop and take a picture. The pitcher came together rather quickly. I mixed together some of the background color and some raw sienna. Another mixture a bit lighter with yellow ochre and a third mixture of yellow ochre and cad yellow. I have touches of cad yellow medium which is a sort of orangy yellow also. The highlights were built of cad yellow and white. At this point, the pitcher is in but not completed. I'll save the finishing tuches for later. Oh...black was used in sections around the edges to lose edges against the background and for depth. The black was tempered with umber.

A couple of more tweaks done here to the handle. Highlights with with more of the cad yellow mixture were laid in to the scrolling work.

I also lifted out some of the color where the flowers would be. That's one of the things I found strange about linen - how easily wet paint can lift from it.

I had to keep turning the easel around to take it out of the glare of the window, so I apologize for the strange angle of the canvas in these shots. Here I've laid in the shadow color of the lemons. I used some background color modified with cad yellow medium and cad orange to create the warm shadow color. The tough thing to remember about painting shadow color is that the thing to do is not necessarily try to match the color of the shadow, but the relationship of the color to the list side as well as the other colors around it. That's a trickey thing to do right. Once you understand this, however, you will understand that paint is not light or the object you are trying to represent. It has it's own qualities and laws. Understanding them is crucial to getting your objects to come to life.

Next I made a mixture from cobalt blue, cad orange and naples yellow for the shadow color of the blossoms. I also mixed in a bit of cad yellow for areas where light was shining through the petals. I laid this in carefully wherever there were petals that were showing in shadow.

A mixture of naples yellow and white made up my petals. I also made up a separate mixture a bit lighter for brighter highlights. I laid the petals in carefully - taking my time here to keep each petal separate. It's allright to let the bottom levels blurr into each other. This creates a soft admosphere. But on the upper petals, if you want the flower to be recognizeable, you need to keep each petal distinct from it's neighbor. Don't belabor the petals. Paint them with a large brush and pay attention to their character. Load your brush with generous paint. The underblooms should be painted thinly while the uper ones should have body.

Once the blossoms were in, I laid in the center of the flowers with touches of burnt umber and cad orange. The pollen laden stamen were just tiny bits of naples yellow.

Here's a closeup of one of the blooms with it's colors and all its nuances.

The lemons were next. Using cad yellow light and cad medium, I laid in the lemons. I watched out here for the warm reflected light in the shadows. It's lovely ahd can really help to set off the cool yellow.

I wasn't happy here with the strokes on the lemon. I soon found that if the paint wasn't laid in thickly, I'd be picking up paint already laid in. I intend to go over these tomorrow to correct stroke direction and refine the cast shadows a bit.

The last step was to put in the reflections on the table top and to lay in a few leaves and stems. Colors already on the palette were used here and nothing special in the way of mixtures was used. Tomorrow I may rework the lemons a bit but for now the piece is finished and on EBay.

Feel free to leave comments on this blog. I welcome questions and will try to answer them as best as I can.

How to Paint White Roses

"White Roses on a Rainy Day"
9" x 12" Oil on Canvas Panel

It was raining today and my body hurt from an overkill on exercise (too much racquetball and hiking). I had a bad start to my day and it was raining out. I needed to do a supply run and by the time I got to my studio, I was exhausted and in a rough mood. But work harkened and I answered the call. Actually I welcomed the silence and stillness of my studio today and once the door was closed, I relaxed into my chair and began the piece I'm going to demo tonight while Nalie (Boo Boo), my cat, sleeps on my lap.

I started with a simple lay in of values with raw umber. I usually do more of an underpainting, but felt a bit pushed for time because of my late start so I took a short cut. At first I considered doing my background in a greenish umber so I laid that in and lightened some of the space to the left of the vase by adding cobalt blue and naples yellow.

The cloth was green so I started laying in the shadows with a mixture of sap green and some alazarin crimsen.

There's a bit of quinacradone magenta mixed with the umber wich I just splashed on behind the flowers on the table cloth. Not sure if I wanted this to stay or not at this point.

Here I've just finished laying in the background - right over that red and nothing much has changed.

Except that my Maine Coon, Simba, decided to join me by pushing against the door. After much complaining, I got him a pillow and made him comfortable. Dogs have owners, cats have servants.

I picked up this vase at a garage sale for a song and love it because of the great floral design on it. This sort of thing can be daunting for a newbie painter and even for an experienced painter it can provide a challenge. If you just treat the design as part of the whole vase, you'll have less problems. The design actually helps to describe the shape of the vase. I mixed the colors needed for the blooms with mixtures of naples yellow, cad red light and small amounts of yellow ochre. The greens were mixtures of sap green, alazarin crimsen for muting and darkening and cad yellow light and sap for the leaves on the vase. I tried to pay attention to the values of the decorations on the surface of the vase. In other words, if a flower was in shadow, it was the color of the flower in not the local color of the flower. At this point, the vase looks pretty flat and sort of pasted onto the background. Things are still pretty raw.

Here you can see that I've softened the edges of the vase. With a lightened version of the background color on the shaded side (right), I've laid in the shadow shapes for the roses. For the darker tones on the left side (lighted side) I've worked in some yellow ochre and touches of cad orange.

I thought that it would be nice to warm up the background a bit so I added a touch of cad red and white with a touch of quinacradone violet to the lighter areas of the background and pulled some of it into the vase for atmosphere. I've also started to add in leaf color here too and build shadows under the leaves with darker strokes of sap and alizarin crimsen. You'll notice that I put a little light behind the vase on the right side beyond it's shadow. This gives the illusion of depth to the painting. I've added some details to the flowers on the vase by putting in some dark accents.

Boo Boo came into the studio at this point and also complained mightily that Simba had the best chair and what was he supposed to do? Sit on that cold floor? Hmph. OK. Out came my felt vest and a warm place was made for him next to Simba. At least he wasn't walking through my palette - something he's done on at least one occasion before.

OK so settling in again, I started to add the lights in the roses. I made up a mixture of naples yellow and white and thickened it up a bit with Maroger Medium. Great stuff. Using a small 1/4" filbert bristle, I scooped up gobs of the mixture and laid it in on the edges of the blooms where I wanted the most light. I literally sculpted the flowers. Using a soft 1/2" soft bright sable, I made sweeps to suggest the broader edge of petals as in the flower laying on the table top. I've also pushed in the leaves here as well and suggested some up at the top near the blooms. I made the flower at the top larger to balance the bouquet better. Hmm. Still looking a bit flat at this point.

Well. It may have looked flat, but there wasn't that much left to do. I brightened the background, added some darker notes to the flowers and punched up the details on the vase flowers.

The vase still needed some dimension so I added a few darker notes to it's right side and some lit ones to the left. I created a cast shadow on the vase from the rose that is drooping on the left. Then I added some dimension to the leaves by sculpting them with a palette knife. Final touches were added by putting some lights on the table cloth and deepening the shadow under the vase. A little dab of reflected light on the right side of the vase and I was done. There's a better close up of the flowers on my other blog http://www.susanmartinspar.blogspot.com.

How to paint Poppies in a Landscape in Oil

"Days of Spring and Poppies", 9" x 12" on canvas panel

This was a quick little landscape I did as a commission piece. I was asked to do some poppies in a landscape and so I dug into a bunch of old photos from California days and put this together from memory and references.

I started with a quick lay-in with some raw umber to define where I thought my darker values should go. I just suggested some tree shapes and distant hills in the background. I wanted the clouds to be big puffy ones that reflected the movement in the rest of the piece. You can see those suggested as well.

So here I've worked in the sky with some cerulean blue and a touch of ultramarine blue and white. The clouds are naples yellow and white.

Basically the muted landscape greens and hills were worked out with mixtures of hookers green, cad hellow, violet, and white. I added bits of blue and ochre to tone the violet. Essentially, I started here with muted grayed mixtures which were merely compliments combined with white or yellow as necessary.

I wasn't sure where I was going with the road yet, but I knew I wanted cool shadows and warm lights, so I used some burnt sienna and white with yellow and touches of cad orange to make the warmer lights. The cool shadows were more of the violets and blues. I dropped in the poppies with mixtures of cadmium red light, cad orange and cad yellow medium. I cooled these appropriately as they moved further back in the landscape.

I put in some shadows to show that there was a drop from the grass into the bowl of the road. At this point the road started to look more like a wash and as that is a common site in California, I decided this was a happy accident that should be emphasized.

Here you can see that I AGAIN forgot to take a picture. This is actually the finished piece. But here's what I did. I brought out the clouds with more heavy brush work and paint and then started to work out the distant trees. I kept these cool gray greens on the left and warmed them on the right with olives and ochres. The sun is hitting the trees on the right and while it may be doing this on the left as well, the side most noticeable to the viewer is in shade. I threw in some highlights though to show some sunlit areas there as well. I punched in some sky holes for the birds to fly through and made some branches for the trees. Using a liner, I picked up a thick dab of orange and layed in a "string" of bright orange for the branches of the trees. The wash was starting to look better too and now I had my palette working for me so I laid in the violet shadows on the wash floor and dropped in some white and burnt sienna mixtures for the very back areas - really pushing the lights. I decided this was spring so there should be some water still left in the wash and brushed a bit of blue with white sparkles into the wash to indicate a puddle. I heightened the detail on the left side of the wash where the walls rise up to meet the grass. This didn't take much as the contrast in values did most of the work.

After laying in the poppies in the foreground, I added a few dabs for detail as these flowers are closer to the viewer. This was all that was necessary to make the the rest of the flowers come to life. Lastly, I added some lighter greens with more yellow in them to brighten the distant grasses.

I cooled the hills in the back a bit and then softened the line where they met the sky by running a dry soft brush over them. Phew. Done.

Painting Tips on Peonies in Cool Light

"Peonies and Lemons, cool light"
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Suffering from a major headache, I didn't take a lot of pictures today while working. Just pushed through. But I wanted to talk a little bit about this painting because, despite the headache, I really enjoyed working on it today. I started it much the same as I always do with a wash of burnt umber. I knew I wanted a dark background (I'm a sucker for chiarascurro) so I started with my usual base of umber and then added some ultramarine blue to darken it on one side and some naples yellow and raw sienna on the right to lighten it a bit.

The lemons were executed with zinc yellow and bits of black and umber for the shadows. The peonies were simply done and I was amazed at how quickly they popped off my brush. These were done with Alazarin Crimsen, Manganese Violet and touches of cad red light mixed with, of course white. The centers had a bit of cad orange in them. To push the blooms back, I used a bit of the background and some green from the lemons to gray out the reds.

The vase wasn't glazed but instead I just built it out of thick paint and used cobalt blue for the design. I nocked down the white with umber and a bit of naples yellow.

I'm paying a lot of attention to edge control these days and trying to make each brush stroke count. David Leffel says that a poor brush stroke deliberately made is far better than one that has been just splashed on without forethought. I have to agree with this because some of my best work is work that I have been deliberate and totally present for. It's an act of consciousness and a bit of meditation. It takes tons of concentration, and I generally turn off all music in the studio in order to just be present.

I talked about the discipline of "showing up" in one of my posts and today was a good example of that. There are days when the paint just flows off the brush and all the relationships manage to come together. But if you don't show up, it can't happen. I had a miserable headache and the urge to just lie down with a cold compress nearly kept me from walking through the door. I awfully glad I did. This is a beauty of a painting. Painterly but detailed. I love the cool light and feel pretty good about the color relationships as well.

The area of color relationships is another topic altogether. Duane Keiser says, and who am I to argue with the guru, that mixing the right color is pretty much instinctual. It's color relationships that give students the most trouble. I'm not sure if I completely agree with this. I have a couple of students that are really struggling with the issue of temperature. But most do get it pretty quickly. Relationships, though, that's another story. The questions must always be asked when working from life, "is that color warmer or cooler, darker or lighter than the one next to it?" Also, it's not enough to just question the immediate relationship but also how each color affects all the other ones in the painting. What looks fine on the palette often translates to "agh!" on the canvas. I have my students work always with a color wheel next to them.

Enough of these ramblings. I'll be talking more about color relationships and how to better judge them in future posts.

Oil Painting Lesson on Lilies and Rose.

Well, a promise is a promise. Today I brought my egg timer into the studio with me and set it for five minute intervals. Sometimes that worked out and sometimes it was too soon to show much progress, so every now and then I waited a few extra minutes and then took the picture.

OK. First I started with an initial layin. If you've been watching this blog, then you're aware that I start my layins with a burnt umber wash on unstretched canvas. Shadows are really important so I made sure to indicate where they would fall to give me an idea if the value changes would work. With white petals, they're subtle, so I had to be careful of the overall temperature I would allow the background to take.

In order to set the tone, I decided on a cool background so I layed in a quick wash of ultramarine blue toned with some raw umber, white and naples yellow. I then worked in the beginning of the shadow side of the vase. I was careful here to warm the color a bit but use some of the blue from the background.

In the shot above and to the right, I have started to add the shadow color of the cloth as well as some of the lights used in the vase. Note that the lit side is not very bright at this point. As the painting evolves, a conservation of value will take place and I will be better able to judge the value and color relationships. It's easier to go light over dark, than dark over light. If I go too light on the vase, what will I use for it's highlights? I also smoothed the background. Although I like the painterly look of the brush strokes, I feel that they will conflict with the smooth overall look I'm after in this painting and would detract from the main elements.

Here I've put in the shadows of the flowers, keeping the strokes loose. I've also added the lights to the satin cloth (in the photo below left). I used ultramarine blue and alizarin crimsen toned a bit with yellow ochre. For the shadows on the blooms, I used a bit of the background color warmed with umber and naples yellow.

I'm keeping my brush strokes loose here. I'm also using fairly large flats. So far I haven't used a small brush and will resist that until nearly the end.

In the photo to the left, I've added a few strokes of red to the cloth. I've already mixed this color for the grapes and flowers and want to marry the rest of the painting to these colors.

Next I worked in some reds for the grapes. This is a general massing of color. A bit bright and I decide that it needs a bit of darkening. So I add a bit of alizarin crimsen mixed with sap green in the later stages.

We're almost there. I now added the leaves. Using a combination of sap green, cad yellow light and white, I started working in the leaves. I grayed out the ones in the back and pushed them into the background by dragging some of the background color into them.

Now the fun. Using some white, naples yellow and touches of cad yellow light and sap green, I put in the flowers. These went pretty quickly. Lilies are pretty easy to paint. Just a twist or two of the brush and there they are. You can practice these using a 1/2 inch flat. Lay the brush flat for broad strokes and then twist to a thin edge for the ends.

For the details here I moved to a smaller flat. I put in some of the veins on the leaves and the stems on the flowers. You can see a highlight on the vase now and the darker color in the grapes and rose starting to emerge. I've also added the color of the table top. I decided to leave the edge of the table unfinished as this added to the reality of its appearance.

In the final stages, I added some shadows to the "wall" behind the lilies. Some warm highlights to the grapes. They get a bit pink in areas. I also put in some turning edges and brought the darks into play by adding alazarin crimsen mixed with sap green. You can see the rose has emerged here too. Before I moved to the finishing touches on the leaves, I added the highlights to the cloth. Just more of the same color with a bit of naples yellow and white mixture. I kept it loose in pace with the rest of the work.

I put a few dabs of red into the leaves to marry them to the bottom of the painting and tie the whole thing together. Viola! "Rebirth" was born. Total elapsed time: 1.5 hrs.

Le me know if you've gotten anything from this blog. Comments are greatly appreciated. I'm considering adding a video or two to the blog if I can find someone with a camera to do it for me. My Mercury is in retrograde or something as all my computers died in the same month and I'm completely tapped out for this year's technical budget.

I'm still working out the kinks in the blog send subscription. If you'd like to subscribe, just send me an e-mail with your e-mail address by clicking on this link and I'll put you on the send. That way everytime I post, you'll get the lesson complete with photos and links.

"Rebirth", 12" x 17", Oil on canvas panel.

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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"

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