"Cherry on top"

Sold

"Cherry"

7 x 5 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Back to painting delicious desserts, I noticed at the store they started laying out new pastries that look splendid.  Of course when they look more beautiful they come with more challenges in painting certain textures.  What I like about this painting is that the cherry is in a way framed to be the main subject of the painting.  It gives homage to this beautiful and delicious fruit, needless to say after painting this one I indulged in this dessert.

I started with the usual dry brush approach for the drawing stage, I used a bit of raw umber on the brush and no mediums.  Then I filled in the background with with burnt sienna, cerulean, naples yellow, and titanium white.

Then I started with the cherry, I used cad. red light, burnt sienna, raw umber, and a bit ivory black for the  dark accents.  As you can see with these pics I start pretty thin in my initial layers, then I start building up more paint where it needs to be more opaque and also to have smoother transitions.  I'm also building up to my lighter values and highlights.  

Then I put the lighter values and highlights on the cherry by just using titanium white.  I then start on the whip by stating the middle and darker values, I used ivory black, titanium white and a bit of yellow ochre.  Painting this section is really challenging because of so many subtle values are within, I make sure to really work towards my lights and preserve the white of the canvas for that. 

Then I added the highlights to the whip by using titanium white and a number 1 brush to really give a harder edge within the whites.  I've also gone back into the cherry and added the reflected lights from the  whip to tie the two together.  Then I started on the chocolate area of the pastry or the body of the pastry, I used burnt sienna, raw umber and ivory black.  As you can see in the second picture in this section I build up to my values, I don't like putting excess paints which will become uncontrollable or make the colors muddy.

I kept building up my values until I got it just right and made the form turn.  Then I added the lighter values which are next to the whip by using burnt sienna, titanium white and naples yellow.

Then I added the base, I used yellow ochre, naples yellow, cerulean, titanium white, and ivory black.  I made sure to go to the horizon line of the base and soften the edges to bring the pastry forward.  It's good to go back all around the painting when you'r done and check if you need to push some edges softer or harder to get the look you want.  At times we get too locked into an area and don't see these things.  Hope you liked this one, thanks for stopping by and viewing.