"Carrots"

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"Carrots"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I have had the itch to paint carrots for a while and finally got the chance to do so, the staging was a little challenging to do because of all the stems coming off the carrots.  It can easily clutter the painting if not controlled right.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing, here is the process of the painting!

I started with a dry brush approach, no medium on the brush just a little of burnt umber.

Then I went into the darks of the stems, I used viridian, cobalt blue, and ivory black.  I also started to state some of the mid tones in the stems with cobalt blue, and cadmium yellow medium.  At this stage I am unsure how I want the stems to look, remember you are the director of the painting you can take things out that you think will not work with your composition.  At the same time I would not go as far as completely making the painting not look like what I am painting.  

Then I went into the carrots working from mid tones to darks, I used permanent rose, and cadmium orange.  Slowly working into the lights not going to fast you want to be aware of the pressure you are applying to the brush because that will determine the tone your putting down.

Then I put the mid light tones on the carrots, which was cadmium orange, and titanium white.

Then I proceeded to put the local color of the base, with such a larger mass to cover I was not worried with the pressure I was applying to the brush.  I just wanted to cover the base with the first thin layer and work into it.  I used burnt sienna, burnt umber, viridian, and permanent rose.

I then filled the background which was cerulean blue, ivory black, and titanium white.  You can see that I pushed the edges of the stems further back by softening them, this gives more attention the carrots.  I then went into the carrots and started to state the lighter tones, I used titanium white and cerulean blue.

After stating the lighter tones I went back into the mid and darker tones.  Then I started to add more of the smaller details such as the roots of the carrots, and refining the reflection of the carrots on the table.  This is the finished painting, hope you enjoyed this one and thanks again for stopping by!