Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Just Some Garlic

Today's mini-study was this 5x7 oil painting of a clove of garlic resting on aluminum foil. The foil provided some reflection, but getting the color and value of the foil compared to the garlic was quite tricky. I can see that I need to paint some metallic/silver colored items.

The colors on a clove of garlic are very subtle, it's almost like painting an egg or egg shell. I'll be returning to this subject. This one was painted on gesso'd matboard, but with a touch of pumice added to the gesso. This provides a little texture and "grab", so the first paint layer sinks in and doesn't slide around so much. It's nicer to work on, but can be tough on brushes. The key is to add just enough pumice to get the benefits, but no more.


I also spent some time trying to re-work the plein air painting from the other day, but that didn't go to well. Need to do some thinking about what I'm doing wrong.

1 comment:

Jo Castillo said...

Nice job on a tricky subject. Great color, uh, white. :)