Alla Prima Painting (“Onion Study”) and Its Development.
Alla Prima Painting (“Onion Study”) and Its Development.
Onion Study
8” x 10”
Oil on birch panel
2018
Greetings Everyone,
In this post I thought I’d share this latest alla prima (quick study) painting of this study of onions.
At first I began with a pretoned birch panel and then drew in a loose and generalized drawing in thinned raw umber.
While keeping in mind that of course at this stage the drawing isn’t as precise as I need to be, throughout the process of the painting it will be constantly adjusted while aiming for a direct finish.
Now that I finished the block in, I then massed in the shadows and added topical highlights in order to define the parameters of value. In the beginning of a painting, it is always good to establish your lightest lights and darkest darks. That way, it gives you a logical framework in which to work with.
At this stage of the painting, I wished that I was able to get in more progress shots but at the same time its development went much quicker this time.
By breaking down the painting into smaller pieces made it much smoother to move forward. After working in the background with a single pass.
I then moved on to the onion on the right, tiling in generalized color and value so that I can better navigate around the painting with better accuracy. After tightening edges, I then moved on to the 2nd onion.
Due to the transparency of these deeper reds and purples, this particular onion was a little trickier. In a similar fashion, from the onion’s core shadow I then built up form up into the light.
After finishing the predominant subject, with combinations of raw umber, yellow ocher and titanium white I then built up and refined the wooden surface and the cast shadow under its edge.
..Aaaand it’s finished!!
love your onion @jameszenartist. especially the brown onion. You have put in the peel skins. It look so natural. Onion always made me tears when i cut it, until my mum taught me a trick i.e always wet the onion before I cut :p I always bad in color sphere object. and it became flat :p. Thank you for showing us the process on how you did it. It look easy but i am sure when i start to draw it, it will become flat onion :p
How long it took you to finish these onions? Did you cooked it after the painting? hehehehe.
@oliviackl Thank you so much :) It was pretty much done in a single sitting. When you break down paintings like these into smaller steps, it's actually not that all difficult. But no, I didn't personally cook them ;)
@jameszenartist, that pretty fast for you to complete 2 onions only in a single sitting. I never thought of breaking up into smaller steps. I always thought that when I break it, the colors would be disjoint :P. Let me try again with steps, hope I able to get a round object instead of flat one.
PS: I can't stop admire your brown onion. It look exactly similar with my cooked onion. hehehe
Love your onions @jameszenartist. And you drew the 2 different species too, the darker red which is the more pungent species and the brown one which is usually sweeter in taste. I remembered back in school, in an art class, we were asked to paint onions and potatoes and carrots on a table. Mine turned out pretty sad, but at that age, I can't really blame myself :) I am happy to see yours turned out amazing and it brought me back to those days. Thank you for sharing your process with us :) I even like the beginning version where you drew in a loose and generalized way on the pretoned birch panel.
@marblely Thank you so much! Yes, I knew I needed some kind of variety but at the same time I wanted to challenge myself by getting the most out of the circumstances so I just grabbed whatever was lying around the house :)
Simplicity definitely is key. And believe me; I've had my fair share of terrible paintings! To be perfectly honest, I'll probably continue to make terrible paintings. Sometimes there are things that are beyond our control that just fall into place ;D
And it turned out awesome for something you just grabbed lying around the house :) You must do this more often hehe.
Ah yes, I truly agree with you that simplicity is key. I love your sentence:
That is so well said! Thank you for the encouragement @jameszenartist. Time to take out my brushes to give this a try again :)
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As a matter of fact I am! Along with some more long term paintings @marblely I really appreciate the compliment :)
Oo yay! Can't wait to see them :) Happy weekend to you @jameszenartist! :)
Who would have thought that onions can be so beautiful? :) I like that you kept your painting simple as in this case it's the right approach in my opinion. I also enjoy how you painted the light reflection. It's a pity that you didn't manage to take more progress photos but I understand that sometimes the things don't go how we would like to :)
Thank you for sharing. It's simple, clean and nice :)
Thank you @delishtreats :) Yeah as long as all the important elements are there, the brain has a wonderfully strange way of filling in the rest.
If I were to have broken down the steps even further, in all likelihood it probably wouldn't have turned out like it did. Things were just moving along so efficiently :)
I think painting food is as difficult as painting faces or hands. And seeing that someone can do it so easily is impressive. even though they are only onions. It feels like they are real onions. not everyone achieves that effect. Congratulations
Thank you so much! Perception is perception. Understanding and perception work hand in hand, so as long as you're able to understand what your perceiving, you can draw or paint anything.
Wow! I thought I was looking at a photo. I thought the first photo was your base or model photo for your painting.
It is just amazing to think how you turned the brown birch panel into something like a real wall and counter, with two onions from extreme ends of the world that beat the odds and loved each other.
Ahhh, I already made a story of your painting. 😀 I wonder if you indeed have a story behind it?
@macoolette Thank you, but I wish there was something more to it! ;) I just basically went on a scavenger hunt around the house.
It is still a nice piece of art. And that is when you realize that you have this creative mind because you made something out of noting. 😊
The thumbnail made it look like you painted an apple and a potato. I like how you described the process behind the painting study. I don't get to see that effort often on art posts. I myself am guilty of making my process explanations short.
Thank you for sharing your experience with painting with Oil colors. I love the Oil paints because they take long time to dry so you can correct your painting if you need and you really do not to rush only of course if you use a much thinner that make the paints dry quicker. The combination of colors are matching each other very well and you have paid attention to the light and highlights, like the shadows bellow the objects and the wooden surface. Beautiful still life painting.
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