Mandarin Oranges and Crockery - The WIP Corner - SOLD

This is my set up.

Using local color to establish values.

Adding variations of colors within the color shapes.

Click on images to enlarge.

"Mandarins and Crockery"

6"x 7" Oil on gessoed hard board.

sold

It’s been a while since I’ve taken WIP shots as I work. It really doesn’t take that much longer and I know I’ve benefited from and enjoyed viewing other artist’s work stages. So ... I thought I’d share these with you.

Over the past year I’ve experimented with many different approaches to my paintings. I had settled into first sketching the composition loosely with paint and brush. Then proceed to a monotone under painting, usually using transparent oxide brown. Occasionally I use a pencil sketch if a detailed drawing is required or the proportions are critical. This particular composition was dependent on achieving exact measurements. It took me several tries to make it work.

In this next step I changed my usual methods ( in this painting and also my last painting of the three eggs ). Instead of working out my values with the brown under painting, I skipped to color. I chose first thing the main color of each area and tried to paint the correct value of that color. Later I went back into each area and added the darker, lighter, cooler and warmer versions of each color within that shape. I was able to keep my colors much cleaner without an oxide brown grisaille mixing in. If the grisaille was to dry before painting in the color I would not have that problem but I work as close to "alla prima" as possible finishing a painting in one sitting or in two evenings. I work wet into wet from start to finish. I place my painting and palette into the freezer to keep it wet ...yep, it works.

Although the camera can’t represent it, the focal point of the painting is the top half of the upright orange section on the left. The light is glowing through the fruit section to a very intense orange. It looks almost neon in the original but this just doesn’t reproduce. The orange in the background is very clean in color but has a soft glow that recedes into the background. The photo warped at the bottom edge of the table and I couldn’t straighten it digitally. Oh, the limitations of the camera!

Note: I thought I’d create the "WIP Corner" in which to place all my work-in-progress demos. Now you can access these by clicking on that name in the categories list in the side column.