My grandma planted daffodils along the sidewalk of her house. When I was in junior high we moved back into my dad's childhood home and I was greeted everyday in the spring with smiling daffodils. One of the first things I planted last year after AJ and I bought our first home was daffodils lining the sidewalk leading up to our front door. I love to cut bouquets and bring them inside. They make the room light up and brighten my day.
Today I used my cut bouquet and lemons as my Speed Studies prop. It was fun to paint them, especially with the variety of yellow hues.
Playing with a variety of yellows in light and shadow is as challenging as painting white objects. It took me a few tries to play with the shadow colors before I was happy with the results. The challenge was painting the warms and cools that I was seeing in the shadows. I used a mixture of burnt sienna, lemon yellow, and sap green to create the subtle variations. I used the push and pull technique to create the flowers. I wanted some to come forward and others fall back into space. By painting the positive and negative space in intervals, it allowed me to capture the correct shapes and desired edges. This painting is 11x14 and took about 90 minutes to complete.
My second painting of the day was focussed on lemons. This painting had its own set of challenges as I tried to capture the translucency of the lemon fruit in contrast to the rind. My process always starts with a quick sketch that serves as a map on the canvas. For this piece I used burnt sienna for the drawing. I like how bits of it came through giving the fruit a bit of a glow. After blocking in the shadows I barely touched them again. I spend most of my time building up the texture in the light. This piece is 8x10 and took about 70 minutes to complete.
Want to try your hand at Speed Studies? Join me for a class or workshop. Visit my website to see what classes are offered. www.vancannonart.com/classes
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