Acrylic – Apple Turnover Week 2
By this time I hope that everyone has their under painting finished so we can add the basket, there are a few things that we need to do before we start painting in the basket and apples the key thing is to be sure that we have a good dark area behind the basket and the only way to find that out is to draw the basket in with the chalk or charcoal. Here's the thing: you want to make the dark grasses behind the basket fit the basket, not the other way around.
When you sketch in the basket and apples they should be dominant in the painting probably around 40% of the painting will be covered with the basket and apples. Keep the basket heavy to the left side and let the apples "spill" out in front and across to the right side to the painting. If you need to, extend the dark area behind the basket to it is slightly above the top of the basket. You need to have dark to show light. We will add back the highlights to the weeds later.
Next, in the area of grass that is behind and to the right of the basket is s sunny area, using yellow, orange and touches of white (gesso) and sienna I added some highlights using that same patting stroke I used the first time. I brush mixed my colors with this patting stroke to give more variation to the area.
Once these things are done, now we can start basing in the basket, re-draw it if you have to. The light is coming in from the upper left side so the top left of the outside of the basket will be light and the lower right side of the inside of the basket will be light, the apples on the inside will be mostly in shadow. I want to work wet into wet so I will keep moving down the outside of the basket, I started on the outside top of the basket with blue, sienna and white on my brush and following the grain for the wood I started filling in the top of the basket, thanking these colors down a little more than a third around the side, mixing on the canvas (brush mixing), it becomes a warm gray color. Without cleaning my brush, I picked up just the blue and the sienna on my brush and starting just below the first color and still following the grain of the wood, I applied these colors then first worked down a bit then worked up into the still wet previous paint to create a soft blend between the 2 areas. Wet into wet allows for these gentle transitions from one value to the next. The next section, I wiped out my brush but didn't clean it so there may still be some white in it but I picked up more blue and sienna and repeated what I just did, gently blending the colors together where one meets the other. The last and darkest color I first rinsed my brush to get out the white, then I picked up the blue and sienna but this time I added a touch of purple to make it very dark. You always follow the grain of the wood and remember to keep all your edges soft.
On the inside of the basket, I started with the dark – since it was on my brush – and with a similar technique, I worked to the light area. Please look at the reference photo and the painting from class if you are having trouble visualizing this, it will save a lot of repainting.
If you have alizarin crimson on your palette, you can use it or the napthol red will work for the apples with a touch of purple or blue, we are just basing in these things so don't try to be exact, just get in the mass color, next week we will start picking out the individual apples and start on some of the details. If you are going to put in one green apple, your Hooker's green and purple is a good color for the under painting just be sure that red or green, even though this is just the foundation color, you need to follow the shape of the apples with your strokes.
I may make some changes to my basket next week so you can see that changes are not difficult to make with acrylics. See you all soon.
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