Gala Basket - Final Step

Here is the completed painting. I must admit that being I have not framed it I added a little bit to the painting. I kept looking at the painting and seeing some final touches that it needed. This is something that I need to start doing as often I don't see what it still needs until after it is framed. On a few occasions I've actually taken the painting out of the frame in order to make the needed additions.

As you can see I've added layers of red to the apples. I used mostly Scarlet Red, Quinacridone Red and Alizron Crimson. The apple in the front on the right gave me such a hard time. I tried to cover the green area with red and I just made mud. So I had to lift the color and add a couple more layers of the red.
I left some of the lighter areas and lifted the others.

I then added more darks to the basket. Mixing my my reds and greens to get the color I needed. I added more Paynes Gray to the cloth putting part of it in the shadow. Then I went back and added some more dark to that side of the basket.

I really enjoyed the process of this painting from setting up the still life and photographing it to putting on the finishing touches. I must say that I am pleased with the results.

If any one has any questions please feel free to ask me. You can make a comment to the post or email me at katsart01@yahoo.com.

Gala Basket - Step Four

Here's the next phase of the Gala Basket. I've added the beginning stage of the cloth. I very carefully put the stripes in with mixtures of Alizron Crimson and Paynes Grey and Hookers Green and Paynes Grey. On the left side I painted around the stitches to leave the lighter color showing through. That is so much fun to see the "stitches" appear. It is one of the major differences in watercolors than in oils or acrylics. You leave your lights (at least most of the time) rather than painting them in on top of other values.

At this phase of the painting you can see it developing and you can see where it needs to go. I see that the apples are calling out for more color so that is where I'm going next.

Gala Basket - Step Three

I almost forgot to say that I added the background in my previous post!

I often have beginning students ask when do I paint my background. When I first started painting in watercolor I always did my backgrounds first. Then I moved on to decide whether to do it first or last. The background works best if your doing a landscape or a painting with a light background and a busy foreground. But I started doing many of my backgrounds at the end of a painting. This way I was able to use colors from the foreground in the background to have my paintings more "color coordinated!" Now I often get to a point in my painting when I want to see the background or at least the first layer of the background. So my answer to this question is that I paint my background whenever I feel it will work best for me based on what I'm painting.

With this painting I got to a point where I felt the need to have paint on the whole painting. I knew I was going to do the background dark so I wanted to get the feel for the darkness around the apples.

I mixed up some of my red and green mixture but used alot of paint and only a little water and added paynes grey to it. The paint was wet enough to flow a little bit on the paper and not so dry that you have difficulty pulling the paint where it needs to go. But still had a dark value.

Try mixing up paint with different amounts of water and see how they look and what they feel like when painting. And DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK!!!

Gala Basket - Step Three

In this step I started working on the basket. I mixed sap green with quinacridone red, a little to the green side to create the neutral base color for the basket.

I often mix complementary colors to create neutral colors or to tone down the intensity of a primary color. For instance if I'm painting a yellow rose and it has some areas that are bright and other areas that are not so intense I add a little purple to the yellow and it tones it down. I generally use fairly bright colors as I love the look of them but there is variation in the intensity of the colors or else it would have only one degree of brightness.

I also can get into trouble with mixing complementary colors which I will go into in a few steps.

In painting the basket I used some darks in the creases of the basket and then I softened them into the lighter area. I also lifted some paint where it needed to be a little lighter. I will definitely go on in my development of the values as I work more on the painting.

Gala Basket-Step Two

In this step I've started to put in the underlying washes for the basket and cloth. For the basket I put down a very light wash of new gamboge and for the cloth I put down a thin wash of paynes grey and then when it dried I made it progressively darker in the under folds next to the basket. These were the beginning steps that I used to build on.

I had such anticipation for getting on with more painting but I used my patience to set the stage before the performance. For me I think that having patience goes hand in hand with watercolors. But some people do not have much patience and they can use that trait to develop their own style or they can learn to become more patient with their painting process.

When I teach watercolors I can only teach from my own experiences. Of course I do read alot and watch DVD's and look at others work. But I always try to encourage my students to be willing to try new ways of doing things and accept that they have and/or are developing their own style. I make rules and then tell my students to go ahead and break them. This allows them the freedom to see how things work or don't work for them.

I'll be back soon with step three of the Gala Basket!

Gala Basket

My inspiration is often a visual one as it was with this basket of gala apples. I brought it in for my intermediate class to paint and was so attracted to it that I knew I had to paint it. Then as soon as I got home I immediately started photographing it. I must say that I am not the best photographer in the world but the more pictures that you take the more you have to choose from. As soon as I saw the photo I knew it was the right one.

I blew up the photo to fit on my paper which was 12 x 16 and transferred the outline onto the paper.

I then layed an underlying wash of very light new gamboge over the entire painting. Unfortunately you can hardly see this wash in the photo. I often do this when starting a painting. I feel as if this ties the painting together right from the beginning.

Then I started working on the apples themselves. I painted them wet on wet and I layed down clear water first and then dropped my aurelin yellow and a touch of thalo yellow green as well as new gamboge into the individual apples. Then while still wet I began dropping in my reds. I used scarlet red, quinacridone red and alizron crimson. At this phase I was just playing with the colors as I knew that they would all be covered up with later layers.

While painting this painting I was a little obsessed with it. (For lack of a better word.) I had been working on another painting and I pushed it out of the way. I worked on it every chance that I had. I also went in to look at it and think about what I needed to do next, what I liked about it and what I wanted to improve on. It was like I lived the painting. I do not get this way about all of my paintings but I wish that I did!

My New Studio

I want to welcome you to my new online studio. This is something that I have been planning on doing for a long time. I hope to be able to share with you some of the steps that I take in my artistic journey. How I give life to my art from inspirtions, through the joy of creation, over hurdles until the painting emerges with a life of its own.