"Red Cherry Peppers"

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"Red Cherry Peppers"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

This is the second painting I've done of the red hot cherry peppers, the colors and composition made me want to paint them again.  With this composition I was going for a story more as if they were climbing over a wall.  These guys are so much fun to paint, there intense reds, and also subtle values make a joy and a challenge at the same time.  

Just a reminder the course is still open for anyone who wants to learn how to paint alla prima paintings, contact me through email or leave me a comment with your information. 

I started with a bit of raw umber on the brush and no mediums to lay in the drawing stage.  Then I started straight into the pepper with the darker values first, using ivory black, cad. red deep, cad. red, and cad. red light.

Then I added the middle values and used the same mixture as above but not using to much of the ivory black.  As you can see I am slowly creeping up to the lights trying to build up my layers in a controlled manner.  Then I added the highlights using titanium white, I went in and softened the edges of where the highlight edge meets the middle lighter values.  

Then I started on the stem going from the darkest to lightest values, I used ivory black, ultramarine blue, cad. yellow, and viridian.

The I added the wooded base that meets with the first pepper, using ivory black and raw umber.  I then started on the second pepper the same way as I did the first and also the same color mixtures.

When I arrived to the stem I used the same mixture as I did with the first.  When I was done with the stem I moved onto the third pepper using the same mixture and procedure as I did with the first two.

Rendering in the darks and having to deal with so many subtle values becomes challenging, its good practice overall.

After the third pepper was taken to a finish I started on the base using cad. orange, cad. yellow, and raw umber.  Then for the surrounding base I used the same mixture but with some cerulean, and titanium white. 

Then for the background I used cerulean blue, naples yellow, and titanium white.  This is the finished picture, it was neat painting these guys again with there strong colors and compressed shapes.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing my work, hope you enjoyed!