Copy Practice Pears

I fell back to some work on the pears. That background is actually a large melon with a string wrapping. More string to come.

From Luis Melendez Master of the Spanish Still Life:

The melon is wrapped with a string ending in a looped handle and tied to the stem, indicating that it was hung up high and stored away from the heat and damp of summer for preservation over the winter months.

I'm picking up new tricks all the time. This evening I learned to turn form with subtle mixes with white. There is little to no real white in most Old Master paintings. Some artists will mix a "string" of a color with different values, having the set ready to build convincing form.