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!