"Baby Bananas"

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"Baby Bananas"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I ran into these baby bananas the other day at the grocery store and loved the miniature size of them.  Having them upright resembles a crab walking, I was hoping to create that image and movement with this composition.  I really like the subtle colors that these fruits have, the soft greens and yellows make it an easy choice to paint.  Unfortunately after painting them I haven't finished eating all these bananas, it will take me a while to do so but they are delicious so far.

I started with the usual dry brush approach for the drawing stage, with this painting the composition and number of bananas gave me more of a challenge.  When the drawing is completed I started to just apply the middle values and a bit of the darker ones as well.  The colors I'm using for this stage is viridian, cad. yellow pale hue, and ivory black.

Then I apply the middle to lighter values using the same colors.  These two stages of the painting was just to lay out the main colors and not worry about details and rendering it to perfection.  Then I apply the darker values and start to get to the rendering stage, one can say I started to do big form modeling at this point.  I worry about the fall of light and the way light wraps around the form.

I donn't take the bananas to a finish I keep it at the middle stage and start to add the background by using ultramarine blue, naples yellow and titanium white.  Then I added the base first stating the fall of light going from darker to lighter values.

Then I add details to the base and take it to a finish.  Once the wooden base is complete I go back to the bananas starting from left to right and take each section to a finish.  I add all the smaller forms or details and complete the painting.  This process is a bit different but similar to my usual way of painting, I enjoy keeping the fundamental part of my technique and changing the process in minor ways.  I hope you enjoyed this painting as much as I did, thanks for stopping by and viewing.