Juicy | 5” x 7” | Oil on Canvas Board
Small still life paintings are very gratifying because it’s possible to finish them in a single session, which is a nice change of pace after having worked on a number of larger pieces recently.
Juicy is an orange (hopefully that’s abundantly clear) backlit with just enough light to see through the thinner areas. I used reference photos instead of an actual still life setup in the studio, but I think it would have been easier with a real orange slice as the subject.
Lesson learned from this composition was the importance of relative values. I initially failed to darken the reds sufficiently, making it difficult to get the transparent light effect through the thin areas. I went back in and tamped down the saturation and darkened the value, which helped a great deal. I need to remember next time that instead of trying to use the lightest value for the transparency, focus first on emphasizing the adjacent darker areas to make it pop.
Stay tuned for more small still life in the coming months… suggestions are welcome!
#orange #stilllife #dailypaintworks #berntx #crashboomzip #oilpainting #art #austinartists
Art Bern 