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Friday, February 15, 2008

Belated valentine!

Berry Bowl, 6x6" oil on canvas

SOLD

Belatedly, I'm posting a valentine because it was too wet to scan yesterday. Clearly, I am attracted to strawberries this winter!

Below, I have posted an image of just getting started on this painting. As you can see, I toned the canvas first with a golden yellow. Not much (if any) shows through on the final painting - however it may give a warmish tone to the painting in places - especially the berries. I drew the set up in very light washes of color... that is the purple and blue you can see in places. Also, I used many transparent colors - on the berries in particular... I like the dimension of color that gives as that area gets built, layer upon layer. (On these steps, I used liquin to give a bit more transparency and speed the drying.) My final steps involved deepening the values, especially on the berries and in the shadows behind and around the berries, and working on shadows.
The last step was to add some highlights. They look pretty white here - but in fact the color I mixed was a definite yellowish hue. BTW, the berries were as good as they looked! I ate them at lunch today :)



Early progress on Berry Bowl

7 comments:

Sandy said...

Oh Helen, these berries look delicious. I love how summery this looks! That is what I love about your paintings, they look so real and this one also looks yummy, one of my favorites. I hope you had a sweet Valentine's Day!

Cindy Garber Iverson said...

Helen, those berries look so luscious that I want to eat them! I love red and your painting captured the depth of the red berries so well.

Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage

Helen Read said...

Thanks so much! I love the depth of red in them too - the actual berries had a very rich depth of color, which is why I wanted to paint them.

myonlyphoto said...

Helen strawbarries are always nice for valentines. Thanks for sharing those beautiful pieces of work. Anna :)

MYM said...

Ohhhh, the look so real! Better than real...if that's possible. Yes..it is!

Now I have a craving.

Bronwyn said...

What luscious, biteable true-to-life strawberries! :-)

Helen Read said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
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