34th Painting: Unlikely Friendship

This is another quick sketch. A Sweet strawberry and a hot pepper, can they really be friends? I can already picture a chef concocting a smoothie with strawberries and green peppers to contradict my conjecture...

I think the Strawberry looks too symmetrical, it would have given it more personality if it was tilted a little. (Also the painting fell on my palette of paint mixture so I had to save it from all that, if you look closely at the shadows and a few locations you can see the renegade bits of paint).


Size: 4" x 4"

Time Taken: 2 hours (approx.)

Faisal, I am okay with the angle of the strawberry and pepper. I do find that they are weighed slightly low in the frame. If you had just a bit more "air" at the bottom I would find it stronger. But that's a minor quibble, just something I can say besides 'another 2 thumbs up'!

I like that you keep painting. And keep painting. I think that's how one keeps getting better.

(it's so eerily quiet here in the Forum that I will keep talking. Hey, why not?)

My wife and I are taking in a one day workshop this weekend. It is in water mixable oils. Hopefully I will have something to post after that: my practise piece, maybe.

As always, your critique is always great. You are absolutely right about the space thing. I am very lazy about it. I do it quite often... and I should prepare well in advance.

I know it is sooooo quite.. it is just bizarre...

Good luck with your workshop hope you guys have fun..

ftariqtx--Another great painting! The strawberry looks good enough to eat. I don't eat peppers unless they're mixed in a lot of other food.

WMGuy--Have fun at your workshop. Hope you learn a lot.

Yeah, it's freaky quiet at WetCanvas, too!

Thanks Crystal...

Another painting that is well worth commenting on. I agree about the space at the bottom but the painting itself is very well done.

WMG, I'd like to hear about your workshop. I've never been brave enough to take one plus there aren't many opportunities around here. Please let us know how it went & anything you learned!

Thanks Jan....

Yes! Alan, please do share your experience about the workshop.

Jan and Alan,

How do you guys handle translucent colors. i.e. I want dark Ultramarine blue but when I put it on the canvas, the canvas shows through and I want it to be solid... how do you guys work around that...

Thanks

I'm not sure since I haven't done much painting in the wso's but could you add an opaque color under the blue or maybe an opaque black to it?

Strangely enough, just a little bit of Titanium White will make it more opaque. Of course, using a dark opaque color will be even better. Sometimes you need to put it in a thicker layer, or paint 2 coats of the color.

Thanks Jan and Crystal

nice to hear your opinion...


Thanks

Hi guys
I might as well chat here as anywhere... no sense posting another thread.
I haven't had much issue with transparent versus opaque colour, but maybe you could mix another opaque colour into the blue to aid it being opaque, as Crystal suggests. I usually work in layers, with a thinned base layer and then additional layers on top. By the time I finish, there is nothing translucent left.

The workshop was a good one. The painter showed us how she approaches her paintings, by starting with foreground first! Then she paints the background! This is her approach for still life and closeups. That way, she can make the background from colours in the foreground, making the colours more harmonious. She does not use thinner, but starts with mixed paint. She controls edges through careful repainting and tweaking, until she is happy. This may take several layers, painted on top of each other, where she sharpens or blurs edges of existing objects.

Fascinating approach. We are back for more in 2 weeks for another session.

Hi Alan,

Where are you taking these classes?

Hi Faisal
The classes are in the province of Nova Scotia.
The artists, Joanne Hunt, does remarkable work in realism still life.

http://www.joannehunt.com/classesandworkshops.html

She is really good. I love realism and representational art.

Thanks for sharing.