Sunday, August 21, 2011

Work Continues

Sponged in the background with glazes of burnt umber, ultramarine blue, and viridian. Mixed ultramarine blue and irgazine red to try homing in on the cherries--that is, rather than simply glazing. Finally, stubbed in the stems with white, just to place markers.




Simply dropping in the background and firming up the shadows seemed to lend a sense of it all pulling together. Soon I want to model the cherries particularly the stem hollows--that bit of shape that sings cherry.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 22, 2011 at 9:22 PM

    hi john, i've had an old childhood friend visiting so i have been unable to paint. i like what you are doing with the cherries. i love cherries of all type so i'm with you on this one. take your time and enjoy each unique piece of fruit...little portraits of their own.i'm going to finish "Libby with the pearl earring" this week. then i'll be doing set ups for a still life to bring to italy. will talk soon...dorothy

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  2. JohnAugust 22, 2011 at 10:40 PM

    Hi Dorothy,

    I'm leaning so much with this piece. I should have mixed colors close to what I needed rather than trying to glaze my way in, At least, that is what it seems like now. Good advice, to take my time.

    Love to see your Vermeer!

    Still lifes, eh? Well! ;-)

    Yup, talk soon... take care...

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  3. AnonymousAugust 23, 2011 at 12:14 AM

    funny typo in your first sentence. hope your not leaning backwards. about the colors...i would have not mixed colors close to what i needed. i would go to the opposite- the compliment to start , then slowly build up using using a wide variety of seemingly unrelated colors -ochers,earths,then blues, reds and then reds with warmth and finally reds and purples with blues. that would give me the depth and richness and variations that make up the meaty,juicy body of the volumptious cherry. your method is more the local color approach which is not wrong, just different than i tend to do.try doing a cherry on a practice board being creative with your color mixes using unpredicable colors to start, gradually working into the local color.if you don't like the result right away, keep glazing until you get there.sleep tight-dorothy

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  4. JohnAugust 23, 2011 at 8:52 AM

    Perhaps my typo is appropriate! ;-)

    Thanks a bunch for this. I want to give it a try this evening.

    You know, I just realized that I never do practice but dive in with compositions. Nothing wrong with that but it just might hider experimentation. Any ways, thanks again for the advice. Your perspective is refreshing! :-)

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  5. AnonymousAugust 23, 2011 at 9:12 AM

    if life is just a bowl of cherries-then you have to give the cherries life. good idea to practice tonight on one or two. take your time...make it last- because remember that you have to live with results. dor

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