The real grisaille pears

Now that I've got the test grisaille done and (reasonably) to my liking, I started on the biggie. Well, 1/4 sheet's not THAT big but bigger than the test one. I may do another after this in full sheet size but first want to see how this'll come out.

It's done on Arches 300 lb cold pressed paper, 1/4 sheet (which is approx 10 or 11" x 14). The gray paint for the underpainting is Ann's recipe of French Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, viridian and a touch of prussian. A beautiful gray!

Here's the reference shot. I took the photograph myself specifically going for strong reflections in the table. Not mirror reflections but close. (I actually shot a lot of pear shots on that day so if interested, contact me and I can send you a pile - for use as reference shots only.)

Drawing, which had to be darkened a lot to show the lines. The reflections aren't perfect in the drawing but I'll fix that as I add paint.

Below, I had problems with the left pear's bottom - it was too flat. I didn't notice until almost finished adding the gray. So, in the shot after, I've fixed it by making it rounder. These are slightly darker to show the grays. I may add more paint to make them darker. I found in the test pear that when you started adding colour, it tended to mute out the grays and I want them strong so I may add more. I was going to add the cast shadows in now but thought I'd wait to add strongdarks once the colour is on. (A touch of WN Blue Black was dropped into the core shadows.)



























I did this late last night but was too tired out to post it. (After a day of washing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees, lots of housework, and the very successful feat of removing the winter cover from the pool without getting a drop of the swampy water/leaf matter from on top of the cover into the clean water underneath! Sure beats the mess I had to clean out of the pool last spring! Wait for it to fill today, "open" the pump and lines, a quick vacuum and it'll be all ready for a swim! But I think I'll wait for that pleasure until the water warms up a bit.)