Workshop painting finished

In the last step I softened the edges of the masked highlights, added more darks and more colour to the oranges, added a few more shadows on the cherries, darkened some of the shadows on the table, and finished the fine lines on details. I don't want to add any more steps because the students in my workshop have to be able to paint this over two days and I want them to have fun doing it.

step 6

For the next step it was just more of the same. More glazes of colour on the fruit and darker shadows. I have also removed the masking fluid from the fruit but haven't softened the edges of the highlights yet.

step 5

In the next step I added a wash of reds on the cherries, washes of both shadow colours and orange to the oranges, and softened a lot of hard lines.

step 4

I added another wash of darks on the lid and started picking out little reflections that give the illusion of reflective metal. I took off the masking fluid on the lid as well. I then added darks on the cherries in the glass. I started adding washes of colour in the metal bowl as well as the metal around the glass.

workshop painting step 3

I started laying in the first colourful washes and darkened some of the background values.

for workshop - combined step 1 and 2

I am going to be teaching a workshop in a couple of weeks so I have to paint the project and write up step-by-step instructions for the class as handouts. I am doing a simplified version of the painting I have been working on. So, here is a combined step 1 (the drawing) and step 2 (the first background washes). I'm surprised at how fast this is going since it is so small (about 8x10). This was just about 20 minutes of painting (once the drawing and masking was done).

The missing week

I am a week behind on posting here because I haven't painted since the last update. First it was work and then I was sick for 4 days. I seem to be over the worst of it now and will be getting back to work on my painting soon. However, I will switch to another painting before finishing this one. I have to teach a workshop and I am using a simplified version of this painting as the demo. So, I have to quickly paint a smaller, simpler version as the basis for the step by step instructions. I'll start that one and it will hopefully finish quickly so I can get back to this larger painting. I'll post my progress on the other painting so that you can see the difference.
Thanks for your patience.

Step 6

It feels like there is so much to do on this painting I get discouraged. My favourite part is the last 10% of any painting when I make all the corrections in values and add the details that make things pop. Meanwhile, I'll just keep slogging away at this until I can get close to that stage. I started laying in the first washes of colour on more of the fruit and the bowl, and darkened the values again in the lid.

Step 5

I only had about an hour to work on this so far today. I am hoping to do more this evening. More work on shadows between the objects and on the metal lid behind everything.

Step 4

I am continuing to bounce all over this painting as I see one thing after another that needs correcting. But I realized that part of my problem was that I didn't have the darker values in yet so it was hard to get the background values correct. So, I have started on the cherries and put the first washes on the metal lid behind the set up. Once more of the darks are in I won't have so much trouble with the lighter washes.

back to painting

Thanks for being patient with me not posting progress on this painting for awhile. I attended a two day art conference in Toronto this past weekend and last night was the opening of my first solo show. I haven't had any time for painting lately but that will change and I am hoping to have a new step to post by tomorrow.

Here is a quick photo from the opening last night.