"Creme Brulee"

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"Creme Brulee"

5 x 7 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I wanted to stay on the subject of painting pastries and desserts.  Other than trying to paint there textures I do love eating them when I'm done, it's a guilty pleasure but worth every bite.  What attracted me to paint this dessert was its subtle color shifts in the brulee, I've been wanting to capture more subtle values and how to render them.  The deep reds that are in the raspberries where also an incentive to paint, I did miss painting them especially after painting golden raspberries.  What I try to achieve when I paint is painting light and texture on the subject, to me thats fun part of painting.  

I started with a dry brush approach to the drawing stage by just using raw umber.  When the drawing is completed I moved onto the raspberries, the colors I used are cad. red light, cad. red, ultramarine blue, and ivory black.  For the beginning stages of the raspberries I wanted to get the value shifts of the colors, I basically thought of it as modeling the bigger form first.  I state the obvious colors first shifting from lights to darks, I'm not worried about stating details yet just getting an overall color shift in modeling the bigger form.  

Then I go back to the darks and start adding darker accents where they need to be and also start to add a bit of details.  I do the same when I get to the lights, I do this in moderation to build up the two areas together.  For the lighter part of the raspberries I us cad. red light, cad. orange, cerulean, and titanium white.  At this point I'm stating the details in each area but I'm still keeping true to the big form modeling, making sure its working with the light wrapping around the form.

Then I move onto the next section doing the same stating the local colors first and the shift of its values from dark to light.  When thats working I start stating more details and make it work with the overall shift.  When I state the local colors and the details I'm making sure I start thin with my paints and build up where they need to be.  The colors I used for this section is cad, yellow light, naples yellow, cad. orange, raw umber, ivory black, burnt sienna, and titanium white.

Then I move onto the cream doing the same stating the local colors first and modeling the bigger form.  I used ivory black, cerulean blue, and titanium white.  

Then just added the details and made them work with the bigger forms.

I then moved onto the rim of the brulee using the same colors and getting the overall color shift, once that was stated I just added the subtle highlights and darks to finish it.

This section is a prime example of what I mean about doing a general statement of colors and stating the bigger form.  Once that was working I then started to add a bit more detail to it, and making it work with the light and how it wraps around with the form.  

When I got to the end of this section I was just adding subtle details and highlights to take it to a finish.  As you can see I always keep true to the overall form and how it works with the light.  Then I stated the base and its cast shadows.

I took the painting to a finish after stating the background, I used ultramarine blue and titanium white.  I was very happy with the completion of this painting, not only because I was done but because I was able to finally eat the creme brulee.  I was also happy because it was nice to get back to basics with big for modeling, sometimes I like to skip these steps and get to a finish which is not the best way at times.  It's good to get back to what works and understand how it can better your paintings.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing, hope you enjoyed this one!