Here's a digital reenactment of an oil painting of a still life using the color red as the main influence. The red will be used throughout the painting and certain amounts of it will be added to all of the colors, as I go. This illustration shows the process of working dark, midtone and light... then, adding the darkest darks and the lightest lights at the very end of the painting.
To begin, I started-off toning the entire surface with Red. I then let it dry for 20 minutes. I then sketched-in the drawing using mixtures of Red and Black (Black=French Ultramarine Blue & Transparent Brown Oxide). Turpentine is used to create these washes.
Tip: Do not use white paint just yet. During your washes, use transparent color and the white of the canvas to achieve a lighter tone. Using white paint in your washes may result in an undesirable or chalky affect. Think of this washy stage as if you're using watercolors.
At the beginning, I'm concerned with large shapes, medium shapes...then, small shapes. After my child-like shapes were sketched-in, I painted the bowl and zucchini, using nearly full-strength, "full-chroma" red. Later on darker colors will be painted over it. See, I know that red is intrinsically a dark color, and, it will be a good under-painting for a darker color. It functions well beneath the blue of the bowl and the dark-green of the zucchini. Tip: the red and grays in this stage were painted with slightly less washy paint. In fact, you may want to add a touch of linseed oil or Liquin Original.
I could have painted the gray shapes of the foreground (triangle) and background in this manner. However, by just going directly to gray I saved a step by I mixing red directly with gray (And, I knew there was already an under-painting of pink/red toned canvas.).
Next, I blocked in the DARKS. I showed restraint by not painting them quite as dark as I could have (for the most part)...oops, maybe a little too dark on that zucchini, oh well. Let's move on...
Now, I'm focused on painting-in the MIDTONES. As I did with the bowl, if the shape is blue, then I paint it blue. If the apple is red, then I paint the apple red. I'm looking for overall impact, color and value of the apple. The next three steps I continue to block-in midtones, or, the overall midtone color of the objects.
I veer on the side of painting a slightly darker tone than I
want to end up with. Later on, I will paint a lighter more accurate value
over it. But for now, it helps to see things simply, in
generalizations. Painitng light tones over dark tones is called, "light over dark". A handy principle when painting with oils.
Basically, I want to understand and see more simply the basic color and value (tones) that these shapes have to offer. Really, this is their major contribution and function to the painting (not their details). I am evaluating their size,
location, color and value (tone)–in respect to the other shape relationships. It will help make more clear their contribution to the painting overall.
I may choose to play-up or play-down the values and colors (based on my own preferences) and based-on what I am trying to say about the relationships or about the painting as a whole...
After my mid-tones are in, I paint-in the lights. These are not the highlights (please don't confuse). They are the simply the light shapes that I see. They just represent the next level of going lighter in the process. Simply, paint the light shapes.
Even with these light shapes, I didn't forget to mix-in the red
color that is present through-out all my color mixing. I also took in
consideration the warmth of the light source and made sure it was
included in my mix, as well.
Next, saving the lightest-lights and darkest-darks for last, I painted the lights on the cut apples (bright yellowish color) and the slight green and orange/pink highlights on the background apples. Then...
Finally, I added my darkest-darks and my lightest-lights to finish-off the painting (not necessarily in that order.
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