"Pineapple"

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"Pineapple"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

This is a painting that I have been wanting to do for a while, at this forum people voted for me to paint this pineapple.  I apologize for everyone who voted who had to wait for me to produce this painting, I also apologize for not posting in recent days I have been so busy and finally I am able to get back to the grinding wheel of painting and posting.  With this painting I decided to paint the pineapple in a different view instead of painting all in one composition, which I did my first go around and lets just say this view is way better.  I wanted to have it off centered and also have a sense of fall of light, the textures on the pineapple are really intricate to paint and tricky especially when one is limited on time.  Overall fun painting to make and hope to paint more of these guys in the future.

I started with my normal approach I always use no mediums just a little bit of burnt umber on the brush and draw out the subject on the canvas.

After the drawing is in the stage I want it to be, I went in and stated the mid tones then to the darker tones.  I am just dabbing the colors in the right areas and blending them after however much they need to be blended.  I am also not applying thick paints in this stage they are fairly thin when I start out.  The colors I used in the this stage are burnt umber, yellow ochre pale, viridian, french ultramarine blue, and ivory black.

I then started to form more of the shapes when the colors where starting to come out, I added the darks which were french ultramarine blue, and ivory black.  I went from the bottom to the top of the pineapple just going back and forth with the mid tones and lights, making sure forms where turning.  At this stage I was having a difficult time with the details in the pineapple in the bottom section, they are so unique looking.  It was tricky painting this section but learned a lot in the end when I was done.  I started to introduce some burnt sienna, yellow cadmium light, and titanium white in the mid light tones.  Then the leaves on the top of the pineapple I started to add some of the cool colors for the highlights which were cobalt blue, cerulean blue, and titanium white.

Then I moved on to the background, I used yellow ochre pale, burnt umber, cerulean blue and titanium white.  When I covered the background I made sure to pay attention the edges, It's extremely important to always be aware of your edges in every stage of you'r painting.  Edges can make or break a painting, its something one can easily overlook or over due, if done right it will take you'r painting to the next level.

This is the finished painting, I went back to the bottom half of the pineapple and worked the highlights.  I don't know if I am ready to do another pineapple, they are very challenging to do.  I learned a lot with this guy, struggled in certain stages of this painting especially when one is in a time crunch to finish the painting.  But I think thats what makes these paintings so exciting, to produce a good painting in such a short period of time, one gets to learn from its mistakes and successes and hopefully carry it onto the next painting.  Thank you for viewing, hope you had fun!