Nothin but forks 6"x6" oil

Decided to just paint forks today, because of the shadows.  It has been in the back of my mind to document my painting process for this series.   Some of the techniques are the same but there are a couple that are specific to this series.   I finally thought to do this before I started so I could capture the beginning.

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I took a photo so you could see the set up.  

I start with a gessoed masonite panel and paint it with a grey/green mixture of acrylic.   Then block in the silverware with a medium/dark grey and used a grey/blue for the shadows so they stay separate.  I keep all this rather loose and it takes about 10 minutes.

Because the panel is a medium value I go ahead and loosely paint in the lighter background so the whole panel is not covered in wet paint.

As you can see on the left side I have started to carve out and form the tines and details of the forks, paying attention to wether it is cool or warm.   Here is where I get so confused.   I tell myself each time that I am going to paint the forks a warm color and keep the shadows cool because the light source is warm.... makes sense right?   But when I am stareing at the forks I see cools and warms in the shadows and cool and warm on the forks!!   So I nix the plan and go with what I see... sort of.   Maybe someday I will be brave enough to go with the plan.

Now you see that I have completed the more complete block in on the forks.   At this point I am about half done as far as time.

Here is the completed painting and as you can see I finessed the shadows, added more detail to the forks, put in more cools and warm tones, and finished the background color with the brightest being in the upper left corner.

My blog: http://claudiahammer.blogspot.com
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