If you have gotten all your under painting finished, it is now time to start the detail work that will finish you painting.
I need to reiterate about under painting: Just because I call it "under painting" doesn't mean that you have to paint over it all. Quite the contrary, most of what has been called "under painting" will become the shadows or texture or what ever else depending on where it is in your painting, it is very important to the final look of your painting so PLEASE do not paint over all of this good under painting in the process of finishing your painting.
The apples need a highlighted area. This is more than just a white dot if it is too look like an apple. If you haven't already or if need to do more to make your highlighted area look bright enough, mix orange with your red (napthol or cadmium) to make a lighter color. If you mix in white, it will turn your red to pink and that's not the look we are going for this time. Even using touches of yellow will brighten the color. This color goes on the area that is getting direct sun the top "shoulders" of the apples or the sides that you think are facing the sun. this color changes to a darker red pretty quickly as it curves away from the light so blend it into the rest of the apple with your finger or by adding touches or red. If you have any doubts about how light plays on the surface of an apple, if you have an apple or use something rounded and place it near a single light source such as a bright window or a lamp and LOOK at how the light plays off the apple. See where the shadows are. I can talk until I run out of words but unless you learn to see these things for yourself, you will have difficulty painting them.
A problem I saw with many of you was not only using this highlight color on your whole apple but you also weren't getting the shadows down in between the apples. It is hard to get a pile of apples but the next time you are in the store, look at the fruit on display. You will see – even in that bad light – that in the spaces between the fruit is very dark. They are casting shadows on their neighbors and on the fruit underneath them so it is very dark, this is even more pronounced when you have only one light source. You must have dark to show the light, you also need that light to dark to show shape and contour. Look for it and understand it so you will know how to use it in the future.
The green apple gets a mix of yellow, sap green and white for its lightest area but the same rules apply this is only where the sun is hitting it the most, not for the entire apple.
While those are drying, if you put in a handle like I did, you can detail it out by putting on a highlight and a shadow just remember that the shadowed side won't be as dark as the inside of the bucket because it is getting a lot of reflected light into its shadow. You can even throw in a touch or orange or sienna into the shadow as light might be reflecting off the bucket and onto the handle.
You can also block in the leaves at this point if you are putting them in. They need to be dark green so a mix or sap or Hooker's green with blue and/or purple make a dark green for their under painting. We will detail them out later.
If your apples are dry you can put on the brightest highlight. This is white with a very tiny touch of yellow in it just to slightly tint it, it should still look white but with some warmth. This just gets put where you are going to have the "glint" on the apple like the glint in the eye. Just tap it on in a very small area then either wipe out your brush to tap the edges or use your finger to spread it just slightly, then leave it. When it is dry in a minute or so a tiny touch of pure white right in the center of that spot and your apple sans leaves will be done.
To finish the leaves you will need an apple green color which is sort of a bluish/ gray green color. To get this add sap green, blue a touch of sienna to enough white to make it light enough to show against the dark color then paint only the parts of the leaf that will be in the light. That dark under painting becomes the form shadows of the leaf.
Now for the grasses: I used my #10 flat bristle brush to start pulling up grasses around my bucket and my apples. I will do more detail with my liner but this is to get the mass color and shapes in. I used a "flicking" type motion. Holding my brush back on the handle and using my lighter colors (yellows, greens, orange, just light colors because they are in the sun light), starting at the base of the bucket and pulling up the grasses in front of the bucket, you will see how the dark under the bucket works for you by giving contrast to the lighter grasses in front. PLEASE don't cover all of this dark, just pull up enough grass to get your point across nothing more. Work you way thru the apples though the brighter colors will be where the sun hits, use darker colors where it might be in shadow and give some texture to the grass.
Finally, get out your liner brush. If you haven't used this brush much, you might want to practice with it. First off your paint needs to be very inky in consistency. If you tip your palette it should run. To load your brush, wiggle the whole bristle end of the brush in the paint and as you lift it off your palette, roll it between your fingers to bring it to a point. Holding the brush and close to the end as you can, using your wrist to make it go in circles, get your brush moving BEFORE you touch your canvas and keep it going! Touch the canvas or the paper on the up stroke, then lift and move to the next place while you are still circling your brush. You can practice on paper with just water if you want, but learn how this brush works before you get to your canvas and it will do some amazing things for you. Big circles make tall grass, small circles make short grass. You can also dab and touch with this brush to make seed heads. Try making circles in both directions (not as easy as it sounds) and bend and break some of your grass.
You will use different colors for your grasses depending where you are and you will use this brush in both the foreground around the apples and in the background grasses. Use darker, cooler colors in the shadows, warmer, brighter colors in the sunnier areas. I put some darker weeds in the corners to vignette the painting but you will have to finish the painting the way you want it to look.
I may work a bit more on my painting before next week but am ending this part of the project here. I see some things I want to change in mine that may be okay on yours so if you see a bit of difference between now and then, this is only for aesthetic reasons not to "pull a fast one" on you. I am going to show how I got the glow in the original painting we are working from and maybe how to varnish it when it is done. You may continue to work on this painting if you haven't finished it or start on another project. We only have two more weeks before the end of the semester so there isn't any time to work on something else.
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