I worked on my pears tonight! One thing I've learned is getting white gouache to look like good highlights is not so easy. (But if you use your imagination when looking .......)
Tonight I concentrated on getting some reds in there and highlights, as well as a background on the one I was happy with previously. Oh, and stems too. Don West made some more great suggestions and I followed them. Thanks again, Don.
Since it's 1:30, I don't have time to make this into a slide show so here they are separately. (note - blogger will not show it the way I'm formatting it and I'm just too tired to keep trying to fix it, so maybe tomorrow.) They're all looking a bit on the yellowish side - I photographed them in incandescent light.
(Above) Here's the original one I was happy with, now with a background. If you look at the enlarged version, you can see red stripe-y lines down behind the pears. I painted in the background with DS transparent pyrrol orange. (I love this orange!) Then I painted on rubbing alcohol after which I painted red lines. Good effect. I hadn't planned on using the alcohol - I"d wanted to paint the orange in, then make some watery stripes. But thanks to a monster cat who was very intent on annoying me, the orange paint dried before I could do anything. Hence, the alcohol. (He sat there, on the table, getting closer and closer, flexing his back paw claws into the table which made sounds like nails on chalk boards, rubbing his head hard on my own, finally laying down almost on the painting. All the while, I tried hard to ignore him, but he made it difficult so he was thrown out of the room with the door shut behind him.)
The bottom is Ann's recipe for gray that I was experimenting with and decided to use here. You'll notice the pears have some red areas in them too. I didn't dare use any gouache here. (You can also see the Arches logo in the bottom.)
This is not the loose background I should have done though. Next photo below will have a background of loose, swishy brush strokes.
(Above) I'm kind of happy with this one! It now needs a background which should be put in tomorrow. Any suggestions for colours? I thought the highlights looked good in the gouache, too.
(above) I definitely do not like the highlights in this one. Can you tell it's one of the first to get the highlights added? ;-)
(Above) No comment.
I kind of like this one, too. It's a bit of a strange little character but unique. Like me.
The greens in the slide show from a day or two ago are much more accurate, colour-wise.
I need to go to bed now.
Badly.
'night.
7 comments:
Look like the highlights were tricky Deb but you finally managed to achieve a great result with that white gouache.
Girl, don't let Moose get in your studio, a pit or something electrified in the door should work for that ;)
Teresa
Good job Deb! Gouache dries darker than when applied. The opposite of Watercolor ;-)
You have to work with it a bit to get used to it but you got the hang of it nicely.
They look good!
Hi Teresa,
Thanks! I'm still waiting to see some pears from you.......
Oh, I like the way you think about Moosie. lol
Deb
Hi Don,
Thanks for the help and comments.
At first, the contrast between the colours and the gouache seemed so high but I'm getting used to it. I'll keep working with it.
The reds aren't done like you were suggesting though, are they? I was trying to keep a loose red 'stripe' but kept blending it in. (Old habits die hard!)
I'll keep working on a few more.
Deb
ps - your Florence Flowers aceo was beautiful!
Poor maligned Moose. You need to get him a beret, a tiny paint brush and his own palette so he can paint with you. :D
Good work, Deb! The red behind those pears really sets them off. You paint very realistically Deb and I like it. I like the rougher gouache highlights too. It added a bit of texture to the areas around the highlight.
So what gray mix did you use in the pear painting with the red background?
HI Ann,
Poor maligned Moose? What about poor cat-abused Deb??? lol
Do you think this is realistic? I was hoping it was loose! Well, do you think it's looser than normal for me?
The gray mix was your mixture that you posted on your blog for your pear underpainting. Cobalt blue, burnt sienna, quin gold and quin magenta. But I didn't have any quin magenta so I subbed permanent magenta. It didn't turn out nearly as soft as your's but I'll keep experimenting.
I recall a while back, hearing of a beautiful gray in Cheap Joe's catalogue, using his brand of peach and something else. I'll try and find that.
Later, I'll post some photos I took last night of more pears for some new reference shots.
Deb
Well, I like them all, Deb, and the red bg ones really are marvelous! Old Moose - yes, a moat or a trip wire or something - he terrorizes you because he loves to do it!
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