"Buddha's Hand Citron"

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"Buddha's Hand Citron"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

This is my first painting of 2012 and what a way to start the new year with a freaky looking one, you guys know me and painting weird looking fruits.  I was at the grocery store today and could not believe this was actually a fruit, I quickly picked the best one and hurried home to paint it.  It's so unique looking  seems as if its alive, amazing what mother nature can make just when you think you seen it all.  The textures on the citron were amazing to paint, love the smooth and rough textures it has.  Aside from painting it there was a piece of paper that came along with it when I bought it, gives information of where it comes from and how to cook it.  Interesting to know that they are only available from October to January, and mainly used for making jams and liqueurs.  

I wanted to also say thank you to everyone for your support last year in following my blog and commenting, I really do appreciate it.  I wish everyone the very best for 2012!  Here is the clip for my "Pink Roses" lesson thats available for purchase:

  

Thanks again everyone and Happy 2012!

I started with the usual dry brush approach using no mediums and a bit of raw umber on the brush.  Once the drawing is complete I stated the background first by using ultramarine blue, naples yellow and titanium white.  

After the background is laid in I state the general colors of the citron, I would do big form modeling to it but since the textures and tentacles are complicated I'll just slowly build my rendering through each stage instead of generalizing all at once.  The colors I used were viridian, cad.yellow pale hue, raw umber, and cad.orange.  Once the general colors are stated I went in and painted the darker smaller forms, the colors I used for this stage was primarily raw umber.

Then I laid in the lighter values with smaller form modeling and I just applied cad. yellow pale hue and titanium white.  When I stated the lighter values this allows me to go back into the darks and shift certain values to their right hue, I constantly jump back and forth till it looks right.  Once the citron is complete I move onto the wooden board by just using raw umber for the general color lay in.  

After the general color lay in I state the darker values by using ivory black, cad.orange, naphthol red and raw umber.  Then I complete the painting by adding the lighter values to the wooden board by adding titanium white, ultramarine blue, naphthol red and cad.orange.  When Adding the wooden board and the cast shadow from the citron I notice that the values within the fruit can go a bit darker, that's why sometimes its better to add the darkest values first to properly judge how dark you need to go with the subject your painting.  Hope you guys enjoyed this freaky looking fruit I know I definitely did and was scared at the same time ;)