My Latest Still Life Painting (Melons & Berries) and Its Development
My Latest Still Life Painting (Melons & Berries) and Its Development
Melons & Berries
9" x 12"
Oil on birch
2018
Greetings fellow steemians!,
In this post once again I thought I would share and discuss my latest still life (Melons & Berries) along with unraveling its development.
..Here below is a shot of my still life setup in reality.
I was thankful in at least I didn't have to replace the strawberries before they began to pass on.
Using a primed birch panel, I jumped in right away with loose drawing in thinned burnt umber. At this point I am attempting to get the surface covered as quickly as possible as to get rid of the stark white surface. Once that is accomplished, I can accurately judge value and temperature.
In relation to the lighting scheme I had to somewhat define the edges of the core shadow on the watermelon to firmly establish the shadow and light shapes. With light bouncing all around I found myself making an executive decision I felt very confident and precise in making. I then proceeded to mass in the shadow of the melon making sure to keep its underside warm.
Working from back to front simultaneously on the background and the edges of the melon, I made sure to keep those edges soft knowing that it is much easier to sharpen them later if need be than to correct those edges in reverse.
Then from the previously established core shadow, I then began working from the terminator line ( where the light and shadow meet) up into the light all the while attempting to accurately capture the patterns of the watermelon.
Now after covering the background and ground plane, I then moved on to the strawberries completing the initial first pass.
And now that I am able to perceive a greater sense of relativity, I then decided to go back into the shadow of the watermelon and redefine some of those subtle patterns.
Returning back where the edges of the ground plane meet the background, I then worked my way upwards, extending the midtones where in effect I was compressing the entire value range.
At this point I felt that everything has been heading in the right direction, I then decided to refine the strawberries a little and add the highlights on the melon.
..Aaannd it's finished!!
Please feel free to let me know what you think?
Thanks for reading Everyone!
-James Hansen
fantastic Painting Melons & Berries number 1
Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it :)
Very nice rendering of a melon. As luck would have it, I put my own melon painting on steemit yesterday. Well, that's not so surprising, this is the season!
Thank you! It's strange how things like that happen huh? That's what I thought when I was at the grocery store the other day. I figured I could get a few paintings out of this before I eat the subject matter :P
Delicious subject matter indeed!
I also find it quite challenging in that his kind of subject matter has a tendency to suffer from the laws of entropy a lot faster as compared to most of my still life work ;P
After all this time I still have a hard time wrapping my head around how those flemish painters use to paint their florals!
You have done fantastic job. It is really appreciative work. Thanks a lot for sharing your awesome experience with all.
Thank you, I'm glad you like it :) If you keep an eye out I can assure that there will be plenty more where this came from!
I love how you make it so simple and so easy to follow steps. It's a fantastic painting , simple and fresh, nothing messy . It be great to see more of your awesome work. Thanks for sharing your art with us.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it :)
If you'd like to see more as well as my archived work, just click the website link at the bottom of the post.
i thought it was a recipe your work is unbelievable you just made me hungry
Thank you! I'm glad I could help ;)
wooooow its delicious
it turn me so hungry
yummy yummy
@steemlota ha! Thank you! ^__^
you are most welcome
followed you
Thank you, and I did as well! :)
I like this watermelon. He look so realistic!
Thank you, this one was really fun to paint :)
Woow i thought your work is unbelievable
@raah Thank you so much, I really appreciate that :)
GOOD job, good enough to eat!
Thank you! :)
You was showed by 4 different accounts to 18.000+ followers.
18.000+Followers can see you.(@tenorbalonzo,@hakanlama,@cemalbaba,@asagikulak) Send 0.200 Sbd or Steem. Post link as memo for (minimum 15 upvote)
You got a 29.67% upvote from @emperorofnaps courtesy of @jameszenartist!
Want to promote your posts too? Send 0.05+ SBD or STEEM to @emperorofnaps to receive a share of a full upvote every 2.4 hours...Then go relax and take a nap!