Queen Fresh Market

Sketching from a parking lot

 This perfect little grocery at the top of my street has super produce and other necessary ingredients, which inspires healthy appetites and good cooking. Morning light makes the sign and the oranges glow, so I screwed up my courage and went out to make a sketch. Using the photo I was able to isolate those wonderful blacks on the iPad. The underpainting will be cool- a mixture of burnt umber and Prussian blue, which will dry fast.

Cropped and sketched from photo

Amazing how three dimensional it is already, just wiping out underpainting!

A nice sketch, but the perspective on the awning needed correction.

The Bachelor

 The apples keep getting better. The video is terrible-I’m too busy painting! The series would have been four but I would like to keep going. Student grade acrylic works well as a ground if cut 1/4 into gesso. I picked up a quantity on sale not really knowing how I would use it. At first I thought them useless as they are shiny and transparent. The Bachelor was made with regular heavy body acrylics whereas triplex was Golden Open acrylic, which are both transparent and precious feeling. Small tubes, perhaps?

Triplex

 How do you like these apples? This one is done at home using two lamps. The plate colours are dark and intense. I like where this is going, and aim to make a set of four with dwelling related titles. The 6x6 format is great for my skill development.

Acrylic Apples: Quarters

 What a difference light makes. Today I’m working without lamps and a bay window at my back, with barely enough overcast daylight to get shadow, highlight and reflection. My regular acrylic palette has  burnt umber, phthalo blue, alizarin, cad red, Arylide yellow medium, pale lemon and Titanium white.

Compare these two-such a small adjustment stroke to the background made such a difference in spatial dimension.