Classical Oil and Pastel Paintings by  Susan Martin Spar

While I never use photos in still life, I do use them to help me determine the best size canvas or board to use and how best to crop the composition. Once I've played around with it in Photoshop, I just print a small version out and then use it as a guide in laying in the painting.

Let me be clear here. I don't "copy" the photo. But I use it as a guide line in where the placement of objects should go.  Here you can see that I divided up the composition in such a way that two thirds of the composition are filled with the subject, while the top third is relatively empty. The table edge is just below the first third.  This placed the bright spot on the vase just at about the two third's line - the sweet spot or golden mein.
 

I'm working on un-stretched canvas here. I buy Fredericks Canvas Pads for many of my eBay paintings because they give me some options. I can always re-crop the painting or matt and frame it under glass, back it on board or just back it with foam core and put it in my print bin as an unframed/stretched original oil. eBay is a gamble and I'm never certain a piece will sell, so it's nice to have other options.

Once I felt that the composition and all it's attendant shapes were working, I quickly moved on to the oils. 

You may be wondering about this time why I bother with a grisaille. So here's the why of it. If you work out your values early on, that's one less thing you have to worry about as the painting proceeds. "So", you ask, "How do I match the colors to the black and white value study?" Here's your answer:

Squint. That's right, squint your eyes. Now mix the color to as close an approximation of the value as you think you can get. Lay in it. After you've put down one stroke, stop and evaluate. Squint. As you squint your eyes, the color cuts out and value becomes more evident. If the value of the color and gray tone are the same, the color will disappear and melt into the tone. You won't be able to see the color - at least not well. If you can see a difference, ask yourself which is lighter and which is darker. Go from there.

A note here about painting backgrounds. Paint through the objects - not around them. Cut into the outlines of your objects, leaving the lines soft. Not doing so, will leave you with a pasted on hard look to your objects.

The pear went in rather quickly. The green pear was painted mostly from a bit of thalo blue with cadmium yellow and cad red light for toning. The shadow was done with more background color. I exaggerated it for effect. There's a bit of cobalt blue and white with a touch of yellow for reflected light on the pear. I laid a shadow in under it with some burnt umber to ground the pear to the table.

So far I haven't put any color into the fruit, but that's relatively easy to do. I used Alizarin Crimson  with quinacridone violet for the plum color and a bit of my "white" mixture of Naples Yellow for the highlight. In order to round out the fruit, a touch of cadmium red was used with the above crimson mixture to warm it and it was brushed onto the turning edge a bit. A little blue on the lower right made for good reflected light.

The flowers were actually the easiest part of this whole painting. I used two shades of green - actually three: A mixture of thalo blue, cad yellow and red with a touch of white, the same green untouched and some straight burnt umber for the darker toned leaves. These were put it with just a few dabs here and there. The darker tones served to make it appear that the leaves were also in the background. Don't over do the light areas. They should be just enough to give the appearance of light hitting a few leaves. The rest are shadowed by the blooms.

The blooms were done with Naples Yellow and white in three mixtures. A lighter one, midtone, and a darker one where I mixed in a bit of quinacridone violet to make a neutral shadow yellow. I kept it light and varied the size of the petals.

I used to paint very hard edged reflections when I first started painting still life and have since gone to a softer more romantic look. We'll talk more about that as the lesson progresses.

I'm currently unable to paint by natural light due to the fact that my windows are no longer looking out on the world but on the inside of my new, presently unfinished studio. While there's a beautiful seven foot arched window that faces north in there, none of the light reaches my old studio. When they punch through to the old studio, that room will become my new office and I can set up my still life's under the beautiful soft north light that comes in from the arched window. In the meantime, I'm using a plant light that sort of replicates natural light, but still tends to the warm side. Hence, the rather gold looking tones in the silver bowl.

Working on a toned surface is important because it allows you to better judge values (lights and darks). There I go again talking about values. But they're soooo important.

I did the background first and reserved the shapes of the flowers. Note that in ala prima painting, you try as much as possible to reserve the areas where you are going to place flowers because it's too easy to muddy the colors otherwise.

I used Viridian Green, Raw Umber, and touches of Ultramarine Blue in making the background. I chose the Viridian because it's bluish  tint would set off the reds in the flowers without making them too vibrant. The lighter areas were lightened with a touch of Naples Yellow because it's less cool than white. I wanted it a bit lighter where the second bunch of blooms fall because that's where the lightest petals will be and I wanted to lighten the "air" around the flower.

The color of the flowers is mixed with Daniel Smith's Quinacridone Pink. His Quinacridone colors are very intense and don't lose their intensity when you mix them with white. I used a bit of Alazarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue for the shadow parts and Cadmium Red Light for the center petals.

Note that I use the largest brush that can get the job done. I start with a single stroke - beginning and ending the stroke. I don't go back in and belabor it. That's not to say that I don't use smaller brushes for the detail and places where the petals have highlights on them, but I try to use a loaded brush and get the stroke right on the first try. I'm not always successful. But I'd rather wipe it off and try again, than have an overworked flower.

The pot here is started with Burnt Umber and also some of the background color mixed in. This is important to do in order to give the pot the appearance of being part of its environment. Air, so to speak.

Here the second flower is in and you can see how the bloom is a lot brighter. The picture is a bit on the light side here because I have an Ott Light above it. I've made better adjustments for this in the final picture.

I've put some color into the inside of the pot. A bit of Burnt Sienna and Naples Yellow with Burnt Umber for the darker areas. I've still reserved that orangey spot.

The last of the blooms are in here except for two. Nothing much has changed in the pot at this point except I've darkened a band around the rim.

Note the Yellow Ochre in the table cloth. Adding a bit of this or Cadmium Yellow Medium will make a white cloth glow when used sparingly in the shadows where you see light coming through the cloth.

The pot is looking up here. I've rounded the shape a bit and added a highlight to the rim of the pot. I'm starting to see more color in the interior but won't add it until later.

For the handles and foot of the pot, Just some small blobs of Naples Yellow and White mixture on a vaguely painted handle of Raw Umber. Note the shadow of the handle on the left side. This pops the handle and helps to give a dimension of reality. It's these little touches that make all the difference. For a closer view of the painting, click on the thumbnail below. Thanks for stopping by!

Notice how the composition is at eye level. You can basically divide the canvas into three areas. Below the table, the top of the table to the Golden Mein (about one third of the way down from the top, and the top one third where most of the flowers reside.

I chose an "S" composition for this floral as I often do in vertical compositions. Notice how the flowers form a backwards question mark or take an actual "S" direction. I chose green apples to offset the prinks in the flowers. I actually added some cut apples to the right after this picture was taken. They become apparent in the painting.

When the canvas was dry, I drew with charcoal the actual placement of the major elements and then sprayed the whole thing with a touch of hairspray. Nice to know that stuff is still useful for something.

Next I wiped on a thin layer of Burnt Umber mixed with Quinacridone Orange and then started to lift out the lights. I like this process of under painting because it allows me to make decisions as I go. If something doesn't look right where I've placed it, I can easily move it by painting back into the toned canvas and wiping out the lights elsewhere.  But my drawing was good here and I was pretty happy with the way the flowers were placed. I had made some changes to the flowers you see in the photograph until I was happy. Often, I won't see things that need fixing until I start to get things on canvas. That's why I can't work from photos. Things looked flat in the photo I sent to the client but really started to fill out nicely when I started actually lifting out the lights on the canvas.

I pulled out lights where the light spills from the left across the vase. You might notice now that there is no design on the vase. That's the last thing that gets added to the painting.

I've filled in some leaves and you can see now also where the apples and cut apples fall. I've brushed in some shadows as well to unify the piece.

I've lightened the background on the right. This will add more depth to the painting later. It won't be bright, per se, but will be a softly shadowed mid tone to allow the flowers to fade into it. The left side will be darker.

All this, mind you, is subject to change. But for the most part, I'm happy with this first stage. Check back tomorrow or the next day to see the next step. Thanks for tuning in.

I worked some darker umber and Ultramarine Blue into the background on the lower left hand side and into the shadows on the tapestry.

For the vase, I used my usual mix of black, Cadmium Yellow Light and white along with a touch of the background color. For the light struck area, I used Cremintz White with a touch of Ultramarine Blue. Some of the shadow color was added as well. This is only a preliminary under painting for the vase.

I brushed this color combo into the areas where the darker richer interiors of the Peony face away from the light. I used a bit of Cadmium Orange to place warmth into those shadows.

When I mix these colors, I try not to over mix them with a palette knife, but instead use my brush and whip them up a bit to where they are delicately blended - like making muffin batter. Too much mixing and the muffins go flat.

For the reflected lights - always a tough call - I used a bit of Quinacridone Pink which has more blue in it. This was mixed with a bit of background color that had been lightened with touches of white to gray it a bit.  Shadows are always deeper near to the object which casts them. So I brushed a bit of Raw Umber mixed with Ultramarine Blue into the shadows closest to the Peonies. The vase is still very simple at this point. I'm only suggesting the shape at the bottom where the shadow curves a bit. Later, I'll place some background color to deepen shadows and bring atmosphere forward into the painting.  I've also deepened the shadows on the tapestry in the background.

For the initial strokes I used a 1/4 inch brush but decided that it looked too picky so I changed to a larger one and went to a technique that I'm comfortable with.

I didn't have anyone to take a picture of me laying in the petals so I'll have to describe the technique. After I've loaded the brush, I lay the bristle's at a 30 degree angle to the canvas and starting at the center of the bloom I make the petal using one stroke by pulling the brush outward to circumference of the flower. I apply more pressure at the start of the stroke and lift off the brush at the back end of the stroke. This is a little tricky and takes some practice.

This stroke is more evident in the last two pictures.

Notice that the lights are bright, but there's not enough punch or contrast between them and the shadows. This is because Cremintz is a low tint white. I'll fix that in the end by using a bit of the same color mix but with Titanium White and some Maroger Medium.

Notice the large bloom in the front and the smaller bloom just behind it. There's not a huge difference in value here so I used a bit of edge control to push the one on the right back by making the edge of the flower in front a bit crisper. I also used little or no detail in the inside of the flower on the right. Less detail, less reason to spend time looking at it. Control your viewer's eyes by the use of edges as well as values.

Notice that I've painted out the leaves. I decided I would rather design them as I go in the last sitting. Those are details that will be a bit demanding and may take more than one sitting to get right so I'd rather not have to paint background around them when I'm done. Instead I'll use some Maroger to oil out the canvas and paint into it with the leaf colors when I'm ready. The background is an easy mix and can also be added if needed at a later point without having matching problems.

For the background, I'm considering a glaze with a very thin coat of blue to cool it a bit. I can better evaluate it in the light of day however, and I'll rethink it all in the morning. Good night and I'll continue with you tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

But in spite of all the craziness, I did manage to get a few things accomplished. I had the curtain on the French door behind me open and so had a bit of cool light to paint by. Hence the bluish tint on the left side o the canvas. That shouldn't prove to be too much of a difficulty here as I'm illustrating the last of the flowers in this picture.

I re-entered the painting by first giving a slight blue glaze to the background to cool down some of the yellow tint in the umber background. I'm still not sure of the tapestry look and may decide before painting in the leaves to just make the background solid. It feels a bit distracting to me.

After glazing the background, I finished off the last three flowers. These are still not quite done at this point and I'll get back to them before the close of the session. It's difficult to work out all the values on the flowers until their surroundings are painted in.

Note that an object's truest color will be on the turning edge just as the light on the object turns to shadow. The core shadow follows this. It's easiest to remember this by just noting that light washes out color and shadow obscures it.

I've also painted in the table top, although this too will be brightened eventually. A bit of Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber with some Naples Yellow light up the table.

I've started to put in the shadows for the table cloth. Notice that I've painted out the leaves here. I know where they're going and have decided that it would be best to paint them in over the table cloth. This is always a last minute judgment call for me as I often paint them together with the cloth and background. I've been taking my time here so things are developing a bit differently.

Shadow color is a bit of black, Cad Yellow Light and white. I've warmed it a bit with Burnt Umber.

The lighted table cloth is done with Naples Yellow and White. This is just a slightly warmed mixture of white, not a cooled mixture of yellow. But the temperature difference is enough to make the table top pop. Additionally, I took small amounts and used it on the flowers in a few places where I wanted the light to sparkle on the flowers. That warm light really works against the cooler pink . I know it sounds strange - but remember temperature is relative. My pinks are cool pinks and the white is a warm white.

I deepened the shadows around the flower at the bottom that is drooping off the table edge and heightened the edges so that it stands away from the table cloth.  The table cloth and the back of the table itself are softly inferred in the background. A little light peeks in behind the cut apples. I've also taken some Quinacridone Pink glaze and brushing it into the tips of the petals.

There's much I need to do here and I have only three days before they tear into my studio rendering it unusable for a few days. So tomorrow is another day. I'll post this in the morning.

In the last session I stated that I wanted to revisit the background. I felt it was too busy and so the first thing I did upon opening this session was to oil out with Maroger and then repaint the background. I mixed a new mixture with Raw Umber, Cad Yellow and a touch of Cobalt Blue to cool the mixture. It looks a bit warm here but that's the light. As my windows are now completely blocked off with plywood (they took them out to put them in the new construction), I didn't have any cool natural light to balance the overheads. I think in later photos, it's true tone will become evident. Anyway, it looks better. Don't you think? All those swirls in the background were just too distracting. This is just the right amount of atmosphere and light.

Notice the cast shadows from the leaves on the table cloth.

Now that the pant is dry on the other flowers, I'm free to add some modeling to some of the petals by adding more lights and darks. The lights are added with mixtures of titanium white which has high tinting strength and small amounts of Naples Yellow or the Quinacridone Pink - depending on what I'm after. If I add a white/yellow mixture, the petal will round outward. If I add a the pink, it will tend to retreat a bit. Not as much as if I cooled the mixture with green, but just enough to turn the petal away from me.

I've also done some more darkening on the apple on the left.

The stems and leaves are easier to view here.

The paint under the glaze is completely dry so that it's safe to put the glaze on, and if I make a mistake, wipe it out with a brush that has been wet with thinner.

I took the time here to work some more on the petals of the flower resting on the table. I've darkened some of the leaves and created stronger cast shadows from them on the table cloth.

I've also refined the shape and thickness of the blue lines and darkened the shadow under the vase and some of the other objects on the table.

The final design is in. I've heightened the lights on the vase in a couple of places by scumbling in some lighter mixture here and there. The table top is a bit more lit up where the apples are. I'm also finally happy with the peony that is drooping off to the left. It no longer steals the show and tucks back nicely with some atmosphere around it. I've darkened the table cloth toward the bottom of the picture as well.

Well, the painting is done, signed and for the most part, both the client and myself are happy with it. Hope you like it too. Thanks for stopping by.

I arranged the flowers so that they pulled to the left. The composition is balanced by the large cloth on the right and the vase. The two apples on the left lend more weight to that side of the composition. I placed the gold cloth behind the flowers because I wanted to be sure to find the right value for the background - not too dark.

The red tapestry is actually a scarf I purchased for my paintings. I've used it before without actually duplicating the design. I decided this time I would strive to capture some aspect of the design to add interest .

You can see that I've used a wash of burnt umber to do the lay in. The mountain scene is in the background on the right with a waterfall. I'll change that later as the painting develops. I was trying to get an idea of how the light around the flowers should play out. Another way to handle this would be to do a few value sketches with watercolor or charcoal before diving in. However, I had a pretty strong concept in my head and was fairly certain of where I wanted to go. My schedule is so tight these days with atelier training and teaching that I don't have a lot of time for painting my own stuff and have to steal a bit from where ever I can.

I also resolved some of the value challenges. I mixed a background of raw umber, yellow ochre and cadmium yellow. By varying the amount of any of these three, I was able to lighten or darken the value where it worked best.

Where the color melts into the gold background gesso, I used yellow ochre which closely matched the hue of the gold.

Here I've made the first pass for the vase. The vase has a high glaze to it so it reflects quite clearly objects around it.

I first mixed the colors I would need and laid them out in the center of the palette. I used some Prussian blue, raw umber for tempering, and a small amount of cadmium yellow. Some of this mixture I lightened with white. For the darker parts I used a bit of Ultramarine blue and raw umber. You will notice that raw umber finds its way into many of my other color mixes. This is because its greenish hue lends itself nicely as a tempering agent for other colors. It can easily be moved to a cool bluish hue by the addition of blues or to a warmer tone by the use of reds. Yellows, of course, bring out it's green aspects.

Additionally, the use of your background color in either the mix or directly on an object will give a sense of atmosphere to the painting. Marrying the object to it's surroundings and thereby avoiding a "pasted" on or cut out look. I've used just straight raw umber for the core shadow of the vase.

I toned down a mixture of cad yellow and Prussian blue in order to place the reflection of the apple in the vase. It should look like a reflection and not be overtly bright or chromatic.

Highlights were handled by the judicious use of white toned with Prussian blue. I paint under natural light and therefore the highlights are cool.

As always, I paint in the shadow color first. I used some alizarin crimson for the shadow - toned the same as the cloth shadows.

For the apple on the right, I mixed some green from ivory black and cad yellow light. This was cooled a bit with some Naples yellow light. The warmer reds where achieved by adding a touch of cad red light to alizarin crimson. I'll do more to this apple later.

The table top was also painted at this point. I used some burnt umber and a touch of cad yellow for the table top. I cooled the mix with a bit of Naples yellow. The edge of the table was not cooled and I used a bit of burnt sienna and laid it in with a palette knife mixing it together with the burnt umber and cad yellow light. A few judicious scrapes with the end of  paint brush gave just the aged look I was striving for.

Shadows for the apples were more of the background umber mix with a touch of cad orange to brighten them a bit as they moved away from the apples where more light was spilling into them. It's tough to see here, but there is a little touch of the light table just between the two apples which adds a little dept because it give the impression of looking under and beyond the apples where they meet.

For the lights, I used a mix of white and Naples Yellow. I am careful to make sure that edges that come forward are thicker while those that move to the back are thinner and have a little of the background color dragged into them.

I continued to play with the background color around the flowers darkening where I desired and brightening towards the bottom. Even though the top part of the composition was darker, I added touches of Naples Yellow to the background mix around the top most flowers. If you want something to appear brighter, brighten the air or surface around it. Leaving the dark contrast against the white flowers would have made them appear brighter, but it would have flattened them. This way then look as if they have a halo around them. A phenomenon that happens when you look at a brightly lit object against a darker background.

I apologize for the grainy look of the canvas. This type of canvas is not my first choice but as this was an experiment I was reluctant to spend the money on  a whole role of linen and my local art supply store sells unstretched canvas by the yard.

Here I've made the tapestry more opaque with the addition of white to the original mix for the light struck part on the top of the table. Additional passes for the front were made to make it more opaque. I also added a touch of umber to help the opacity.

The apples had another pass to bring them up a bit. I darkened the apples a bit where the core shadow was not evident before and added a bit of a cast shadow on the center apple, darkening it in the area closest to the apple on the left. Stems have made an appearance as well.

For the initial pass on the leaves, I mixed some ultramarine blue, raw umber, and cad yellow light. For the darker areas and passages, more blue and umber were added with less or no yellow. The edges of the leaves caught cool light and I achieved that appearance by mixing some ultramarine blue with white and laying it in just on the edges. The brighter yellowish ridges in the leaves were done with Prussian blue and cadmium yellow light.  These same mixtures were used to paint the orchid stem.

Outlines were done with ivory black. The Gold sections were done with yellow ochre and the duller gold was achieved with the addition of a little Naples yellow light and raw umber. There are orangey sections in the center of some of the designs that was done by adding a touch of cadmium orange. Every mixture on the front of the cloth was toned down by the addition of raw umber and the highlights where gold thread was very visible on the surface, were achieved by the addition of thick pure yellow ochre. This lent a very three dimensional look to the work.

The very last thing I added before the characters were the highlights on the apples. Again cool mixtures of white and blue.

Thanks for sticking with me on this lesson. I realize it was a bit wordy and long, but having not shared in a while, my head was filled with lots of words.