Sub-lemon-al

11x14
Oil on Canvas.

Learning Points

I set this up in the studio and attempted a trompe l'oeil. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

1. The texture of the thin plastic bag alluded me at every turn, but I kept going and it got better. The colors drifted from blues to yellows refflecting from the lemons is was challenging to paint what I was seeing. I think the blue is because the walls in my studio are blue (I really need to paint them a neutral color)
2. Painting from a single light source. I wanted to have one light source. I paint late into the evening so I set up a daylight table lamp and turned off the overhead, but it was too dark in front of the canvas; so I set up another lamp behind to me try not to cast too much light, but I found myself still switching the overhead lights on and off...on to look at my subject, off to look at my canvas lol!
3. Different textures of the bag, the wood and the lemon. I struggled with the edges on the lemons being inside the bag and trying to stay true to the colors. I used only cadmium yellow, white, yellow ochre (with just a dot of cadmium red), and burnt sienna for the darkest shadows. The wood grain was much easiier than I thought it would be. The crate/box I used had the wood knots on the same side. I liked the look of them and wanted to include them, but it seemed out of balance, so I moved one of the to the other side.
4. Contrast of light and dark shadows. I found myself darkening the darkest parts in the furthers shadows after I "thought" I was finished and photographed it and looked at it in photoshop and was not happy. I really required a lot of contrast. I think I originally painted the back part of the box and the shadows too dark from being cross eyed from switching the lights on and off lol!

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Comment by Ruby on February 22, 2014 at 8:56: really nice work

Comment by Carolyn Brunsdon on February 17, 2014 at 4:51: Pandalana this is a wonderful result to a tough exercise. Your painting steps/points are great. Besides the challenge, the well rendered lemons, box, that tricky plastic bag (!) you've topped it off with an artistic and fun title. Sub-Lem-On-Al, you are cooking with gas, girl!

Comment by Richard Michael Taylor on February 17, 2014 at 2:13: I wonder if someone makes a glazing medium for Water Soluble Oils that is similar to Liquin? Maybe someone in the group can shed some light on this.

Comment by Jessica Futerman on February 16, 2014 at 19:14: Beautifully painted!

Comment by Pandalana Williams on February 16, 2014 at 17:07: Thank you :D

Richard, I have not tried the Linquin Fine Detail because I use Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Soluable Oils (they have a stand oil for that with these paints), and because these are all daily paintings and I complete them all in one sitting. So, for my learning points on all of these, I am also learning Ala Prima. I have tried using regular oil mediums with these paints and they do work with them. But, I contacted Winsor & Newton to learn more about the mediums that go with the Artisan ones and am learning to "apply" what I have learned from their rep. My primary medium that I use with these is 3 part fast drying medium to 1 part thinner. The painting is dry to the touch with some colors in just a few hours and with the longer drying ones like white, in about a day.

Comment by Cristina Mihailescu on February 16, 2014 at 16:40: I agree with all the comments below, great job Pandalana!

Comment by Silvana M Albano on February 16, 2014 at 11:54: Excellent!

Comment by Christine Lewis on February 16, 2014 at 4:40: Nicely done,Pandalana! I think I may just have to try to challenge myself to do a plastic bag too. This is great!

Comment by Richard Michael Taylor on February 16, 2014 at 2:57: Well done. Have you tried Liquin Fine Detail medium? It really helps with creating smooth transitions on "realistic" renderings. Not something that you would use with a painterly piece, but for a trompe l'oeil piece you might find it useful.