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Starting a Painting
Very important reminders for beginning your first fruit painting.
Look at Your Subject.
Most important rule. Look at your fruit more than your canvas.
General to Specific
If it looks good on your first coat, you're not doing it right. It's called an underpainting because you won't see it when it's done. Get darks and lights. Don't worry about highlights, reflections, or details. More about this.
More Contrast
Don't be afraid of the darks!
White Rules
Don’t use white unless you see a pastel color. (Think of an Easter egg.) Skip it on your first coat on the fruit, but you may need it on the background. You will use it for highlights.
Easy on Medium.
Unless you're drawing out the fruit, only use enough Liquin to get the paint to move around. You can cover with a coat as undiluted as the right mark if the paint flows well enough.
Use Your Sphere Skills
Keep the lights light, the darks dark. Blend a smooth transition between light and dark with strokes going in all directions.
Soften your Edges
Blend sharp edges with a dry brush, preferably while they’re both wet. Read here for more details. It’s that important!
Look at Color like it's a Swatch
Don't go blind because you see objects. Look at color like you did during our color mixing exercise.
Background Depth
Don’t over-blend your background so that it’s smooth and flat. Objects look more three-dimensional with a blurry or choppy backdrop, even if the variation in value or color is slight. Your subject will look like a cut-out (like a person in front of a green screen) without a little variation behind it. You can mix a few similar colors to achieve the mottling of this depth technique; just don’t blend them on canvas to the point where they disappear into each other.