Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Love, Georgia



#062

This was a fun one to paint. I painted an artichoke the same day; both with the back lighting. It was interesting to see how the shadows kind of wrapped around the peanuts. And yes, these really are from Georgia. I have friends here who made their living growing peanuts. They call their home the Nut House! 

Below.... steps to painting this. Have a great day!

Starting with a neutral background, I did a loose sketch (which was easy because, hey, it's 5 peanuts) and "grounded" the peanuts right away with the darkest shadow to give me a better feel for my composition.

I decided to paint the background first. By painting into my peanuts, I was able to get a smooth subtle background across the entire background. Painting the peanuts first would've made it hard to get that effect.

After mentally "finding" my peanuts again, I started blocking in my neutrals, working from warm and cool neutrals I had premixed. I kept these in the mid value range because the darkest values were only in the shadows.

The highlights came next. This is where to detail comes from. I worked from the darkest to the lightest lights (if that makes sense). My light values were actually just "whitened" or "yellowed" versions of the warm and cool medium values I had already mixed.

Finishing touches amounted to accentuating the shell of the peanut in the foreground, and working back into the painting with less detail (to set them back).

Any questions, just let me know!

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