"Trail of Berries"

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"Trail of Berries"

7 x 5 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Hi everyone, this painting was so much fun to do.  I wanted to have an interesting composition with these berries and I think I've achieved it with this painting.  I kept the background white to enhance the limited colors used.  The more I paint these berries the more I can see how intricate they are within, from their colors to their shapes. 

I started with the usual dry brush approach for the drawing stage, using just a bit of raw umber on the brush.  Then I added the local colors to all the berries, I used cad. red light, and ivory black.

Then I went into the raspberries and added the darker to middle values, I used raw umber and ivory black.  Then when the form is starting to turn I then applied the lighter values using just titanium white.  As you can see I'm working on all the berries at once, this is just to get a general feel of the light source.  I'm essentially doing a gestural sketch with the paints, then when everything is looking just right I start taking each section to a finish.  Of course at times I will have to revisit certain sections to adjust the value or chroma, but those are minor changes.

At this time I started taking each section to a finish, starting with the raspberry and black berry.  Since I have all my information stated I just have to sculpt it into what I want it to look like, of course staying true to the subject matter.  Then I start on the upper half of the berries and do the same take them to a finish.

I then go back into the cast shadows and add a bit of titanium white to soften the edges.  Doing this allows me to push certain berries further back to have more of a focus in the foreground.  As you may have noticed I didn't add anything to the background, its just the white of the canvas.  It was neat just leaving it like that and working around it.  I don't think I've ever done that before with these alla prima paintings.  I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did, thanks for stopping by and viewing!