"Leaning Pears"

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"Leaning Pears"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

This is another painting of pears I've done, again experimenting with my technique to see how much I can push myself.  It was a lot of fun creating the textures on these pears and playing with smooth and rough textures.  It really teaches you a lot how to render in different levels.  I also love the play of red and green in this painting, of course coinciding with this holiday season.  It's interesting playing with these two colors since they are compliments.  I've noticed the green pear reflects the color from the red pear but the red pear absorbs the color of the green pear.   Really interesting to say the least.  

I started with the usual dry brush approach using no mediums, using just raw umber.  Once the drawing is established I stated the background using cerulean blue, naples yellow, burnt sienna and titanium white.  

I then start on the first pear stating all the color notes, I used viridian deep, cobalt blue, cad. yellow, ivory black, and titanium white.  I state all the colors first to get a gestural feel where all the colors need to lay in.  Think of it as your doing a gesture of a figure and you get the pose in the initial drawing, from there you start honing down your drawing because you have the essence of the pose already drawn out.  I think of it in the same lines but with color.  I'm also careful not to get too thick with the colors in the beginning stages, I always want to maintain control through the painting.

Once the colors all stated I then go back to the shadows and middle values, and take it to a finish.  I do the same when that area is done and start with the lighter values and highlights.  My goal is not to make it look like a photograph, I want the viewer to get a feel that its a painting.    

Then I start with the second pear applying the same technique as I did with the first.  The colors I used are cad. red light, raw umber, burnt sienna, ivory black, cad. orange, cad. yellow, and titanium white.  

When applying all the colors at once its easy to keep working around the whole painting and never take it to a finish.  It's important that I go from stating all the colors to taking each section to a finish, this expedites the process and allows me to fully concentrate on each section.  After the second pear is done I  start on the base stating the middle and darker values.  The colors I used were ivory black, burnt sienna, raw umber, cerulean, cad. orange, and titanium white. 

This is the finished picture, I stated the darkest and lightest values and brought it to a finish.  Again these paintings are a lot of fun to paint when experimenting with different techniques.  Excited to keep experimenting and pushing myself further with this adventure.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing, hope you enjoyed!