Saturday, November 6, 2010

"Raspberry Cheesecake"

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"Raspberry Cheesecake"
7 x 5 in
Oil on Canvas Panel
Hi everyone sorry for the long delay in posting i've been really busy lately getting ready for a show coming up in a couple of weeks, commissions and also teaching has taken some of my time.  I'm really excited with this show, I'm working on paintings I've been wanting to do for a while and can't wait to show you guys when they're ready.  
I decided to paint this delicious raspberry cheesecake, it was really hard not diving into this creamy dessert while painting it.  I wanted to challenge myself with the complexities of textures this dessert brings, its subtle but very complex to paint in one sitting.  
I started with a dry brush approach using no mediums and just a bit of raw umber on the brush.  Then I covered the background after the drawing was established, I used cerulean blue, naples yellow, and titanium white.
Then I started with raspberry starting the darker values and moving towards the middle and ended up putting the lighter values.  I used ivory black, cobalt, cad. red light, and titanium white.  
Then for the cream I used titanium white and ivory black.  Again starting the middle to darker values and moving towards the lights.
Then I started on the glaze after the cream was completed using cad. red light, ivory black, cerulean blue, and titanium white.  It was a bit difficult getting the glaze to look like a glaze, I had to be very subtle between each value.
Then I started on the cheesecake going from darker values to lighter ones using the same mixture as I used for the glaze.
 Then for the bottom part of the cheesecake I used raw umber, ivory black, yellow ochre, and titanium white.  Then I started stating the darker values of the base using ivory black, and yellow ochre.
Then I added the lighter values of the base using yellow ochre, cerulean blue, and titanium white.  I really enjoyed playing with different textures, its always fun to see how far you can get pushed artistically.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing my dessert alla prima painting!







4 comments:

Jeanette Jobson said...

Good luck with the upcoming exhibition. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've produced for it.

I hope this dessert tasted as good as you've made it look. Beautiful painting as always.

SUSAN RODEN said...

Back to the sweets - always my favorite, which you handle so very well Jonathan.
Good luck with your shows!

Carrie Waller Watercolors said...

Jonathan, what a great job you did on the raspberry topping, you nailed it! All of your textures came out perfectly:) Good luck on your show prep.

Judy P. said...

Best wishes for your show- love the sculptural quality of this dessert, and that clear drip of strawberry glaze in the center is subtly amazing!