As promised, below are a couple progress shots of this little 5x7 painting I recently completed. The pic below shows pretty much my view of the subject as I sit at my easel. The surface for this is a hard, pre-primed board that I taped to a piece of black foam-core so I can paint the entire surface to the edges. What is behind that, is just an extra easel that I placed there to keep from getting blinded by my spot light hitting the subjects as I look at them. I didn't use a box for this set-up and my eye sight isn't great so I like to sit as close to the subject as possible when painting from life. This 5x7 board has been around my studio for years - Notice the lines of another still life which I never went forward with drawn under the paint. Centuries from now someone will x-ray the finished oil painting, notice that, and scholarly essays will be written about it... O.K. probably not!!
Below is the initial color block-in. I like dark rich backgrounds, so that old sheet in the setup became dark and rich. The pear is plastic, and I'm using that as my excuse for it looking more like a light bulb at this stage. The truth is, I am sadly out of practice drawing with my brush. I would much rather set down a loose but accurate pencil or charcoal under-drawing and go from there. I wanted to try something different this time and not do that. I would have loved to finish this piece in one sitting. I really respect painters who can do that. However, my working method over the years has been to go back, rework, and glaze certain parts that need tweaked.
Below is the final oil painting. Perhaps I will be happier with this result once I "oil out" the painting, which will make the sheen uniform across the entire surface. Basically that process consists of putting a bit of Winsor & Newton Painting Medium on a foam brush and quickly brushing it over the whole surface making sure it is all covered evenly.
Notice the odd looking areas of the background to the left of the cup handle, and to the right of the pear. Uneven application of painting medium when I was reworking those areas caused that. "Oiling it out" should fix that. Finally, in two to three months it should dry completely and be ready for my solo exhibit next October.
