Strawberries in China Bowl

I thought I'd post some snapshots of the painting process for my most recent studio still life painting, Strawberries in China Bowl. I'll post a higher quality scan of the finished painting in a few days.

This is the initial value drawing, on a toned ground which I had applied earlier. This is mainly to nail down the shadows that anchor the image. I used a mixture of burnt sienna and cobalt blue for this stage, with alkyd medium, which improves flow and gives a nice translucence for mid-tones. It also speeds drying.

Here I've added some color to the background plane. This will be mostly covered with a translucent white later on, but I wanted the warm tone beneath. This is a mix of (I think) Naples Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Orange and Zinc White.

After the value drawing was dry, I began laying in local color, starting with heavily applied areas of saturated color and then lightly dry-brushing in the areas that transition into full shadow. Sorry for the awful color. This is an iPhone snap.

First layer of translucent green (chromium oxide + a little naples yellow and maybe a touch of burnt sienna). Again, poor color.

Here I've begun to pick out the lit areas of the leaves. These were built up in half a dozen different color layers, warmer and cooler.

I've roughed in the dish, but the edges will need quite a bit of refining and there are a number of important variations needed in the shadowed areas, where there is some terrific, subtle reflected light bouncing around.

And the finished product. The highlights and reflections on the strawberries came together pretty quickly. Truth be told, I sat down - just for a minute - to look at the unfinished painting this morning, just to get my brain stirring, and sure enough, I found a little something I thought should be tweaked right away. One thing led to another, and I finished it about 3:00 this afternoon, still in my pajamas. Welcome to my world.

This is the best color I have, at present, but these are all just snapshots. A scan is coming.

Comments

[William Luse]

Thanks for posting. I love watching these things unfold, and it's beautiful.

[J Phillips]

Wonderful...what a talent you have...thanks for sharing.