"Yellow Squash"

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"Yellow Squash"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

This fruit was a joy to paint changing the way I can arrange the squash on the wooden board was so much fun.  The yellows and subtle greens in this painting made this fruit a delight too paint.  It feels good to paint again I have been out of my studio since friday and started painting again today, it was a fun weekend overall celebrating the fourth and also my birthday was the day after so I had to fight off the itch to paint because I had to be with my girlfriend and friends instead of divulging myself in my painting.  I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and glad to be back painting!

I started with the usual dry brush approach no mediums just a little of raw umber on the brush, and after the drawing's established I start with the top section of the squash by filling in the darkest values.  I use ivory black, cadmium orange, and cadmium yellow medium.

Then I start filling in the middle and lighter values using the same mixture with some titanium white, and naples yellow.  I make sure to take each section to a finish when I stated my darks I needed to state the middle values in order to judge the darks correctly and so on with the lighter values, you're constantly going back and forth nudging things here and there the important thing is to take it to a finish and move onto the next section.

Once that section was finished I moved onto the second half of the squash again starting with the darker values and moving up to the middle and lighter values.  I use the same mixture as stated above the difference is that I introduce some greens into some areas and thats just ivory black, cadmium yellow light and a bit of cadmium orange.  Once my lighter values where put down I start going back into them with more details of indentations to describe the lines in the squash better, this area has to be treated carefully because the lines have to be just the right tone to work with the larger form.

After the squash is taken to a close finish I move onto the base I know after everything is filled in the painting I'll go back and add highlights to the squash where they need to be placed.  I add the darker values to the base and also work on the cast shadow, I use ivory black, burnt sienna, and cadmium orange for the base.  Then on the second pic which is hard to see I added the details in the wood with cadmium orange and cadmium red light.

I then added lighter values to the base using cerulean blue, titanium white, and burnt sienna I also worked on the cast shadow and the reflected lights with in it.  I then added the background to the painting using cerulean blue, naples yellow, and titanium white I also went back into the squash after the background was filled in and added lighter values to give the finishing touches to the squash.  Hope you enjoyed this painting thanks for stopping by and viewing!