"Dipped Strawberry"

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"Dipped Strawberry"

5 x 7 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Today my girlfriend had three wisdom teeth pulled out and truthfully didn't think I would've had time to paint.  I went to the store and got her some yogurt and liquids and then ran into the pastry isle again!  I ended buying this strawberry dipped in chocolate with cream lining designed around it.  I was going to paint the chocolate itself but couldn't fight the urge and just bit into it, when doing so noticed the mess I created and really like the shape and design.  Before painting it I had to make sure my girlfriend was doing fine and be attentive to her while painting this delicious treat.  She encouraged me to paint because she was doing so well from the surgery so that gave me the green light to paint!    

I started with usual dry brush approach for the drawing stage, I wanted to go over a little bit about this stage.  I usually get emails about this stage asking how I get the drawing right off the back.  I used to do sight to size method but now I just do comparative measuring, this allows me to measure shapes visually through angles and similar shapes.  The other thing to one has to just practice for a while to get the drawing aspect down, it's not easy getting the life of the painting down which is the drawing stage.  Drawing is the quintessential part of any painting, if a painter is lacking in draftsmanship it definitely shows.  One must always keep up there drawing abilities no matter how much you paint.  I started with the middle and darker values of the stem and leaves of the strawberries, I used ultramarine blue, yellow ochre pale, cerulean blue, and deep viridian.

Then I added the lighter values using the same palette including titanium white.  Then I did the big form modeling and also included the local colors in the strawberry.  I used cadmium red, cadmium red deep, cadmium red light, and ivory black.  In this stage I just concentrated on getting the overall light wrapping around the form or big form modeling.

Then I added the smaller forms or details to the strawberry, before adding the smaller forms I added lighter values to the form to enhance the turn.  After finishing the strawberry I added the chocolate and cream.  I essentially did the same procedure as I did with the strawberry, I modeled the big form and concentrated on the smaller forms for the finish.

Then I added the base and background using cerulean blue, titanium white, naples yellow, yellow ochre pale, and burnt sienna.  Then I added the pieces from the chocolate that fell off on the side to the painting.  This painting was quickly done and fun to do especially in the strawberry.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing hope you enjoyed!