Whenever I paint from still-life I plan a few things...
1st. I think of a theme.... so "in the style of Cezanne" is my thought.
2nd. What are my Painting-Drawing materials going to be?
3rd. What is the location of my painting session, and what is my lighting going to be like?
4th. How long do I have to paint, and can I leave my set-up where it is? Or does it need to be taken down at the end of the day?
5th... WHAT SURFACE WILL I PAINT MY PICTURE ON? For this exercise, I used "GLOSSY POSTER PAPER"... Yes folks... a 5 pack of poster paper from the 99c store....
I paint the Acrylic directly onto the board...
The advantage of the above photo is that I truly limited my colors... Blue is the only bright primary. A variety of reds, oranges and yellows are combined to create the apples, croissants and bread rolls. The challenge was trying to create the bread rolls and croissants in textures and colors that are believable and realistic. This is difficult with the tones truly being so close...
Using the watercolor pencils allows me to add shade and texture, and then use a little bit of water to blend and soften the colors if I choose.
I used this same technique on several other paintings that I've done...
How do you paint a picture of a moving object? Still - Life is something that doesn't move... how about this Seagull at the Redondo Beach Pier? I took a photo first.... then brought it back (the picture) to the studio to paint this picture.
