OIL PAINTING - STILL LIFE - Apples in a Nantucket Basket
(6 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Description - This is a step by step painting demonstration of red apples in a Nantucket basket by artist Cindy Procious. Demonstrates painting techniques such as underpainting, glazing, and how to paint a complex basket weave.
For this painting, my palette was:
Flake white
Titanium white
Zinc white
Unbleached titanium
Yellow ochre
Naples yellow
Cad yellow
Raw Sienna
Transparent Oxide red
Raw Umber
Pyrollo Red
Cobalt Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Sap Green
Raw Umber
Ivory Black
The support is stretched oil-primed Belgian linen.
Here’s the set up:
Drawing on canvas with charcoal.
Then, using paint thinned slightly with turpentine, I begin laying in the background.
Continue until all the background is covered, then start on the tabletop. Keep edges soft.
Next, I start laying in the splines of the basket, in a very basic light and dark pattern. Once the splines are in, I place a darker line on the shadow side of the spline, and a highlight on the lit side.
Then, using a big soft brush, and working in the direction of the splines only, I soften everything so there are no hard edges.
Next, while the background is still wet, I start laying in the colors of the apples along all the edges, so that I can soften them into the background.
Using a stiff bristle spotter, blend the apple’s edges into the background.
Next paint in the rim and handle, then begin to lay in the weaves of the basket reeds.
This part becomes very mechanical - I vary the colors a bit to keep it from being too repetitive.
For the apples, I lay in the color very loosely, working my way across the pile. Once all the color is in, I use a badger bright to soften and fuse all the colors together. At this point I don’t want any hard edges, and I’m not worried about accuracy. Just getting the canvas covered.
Switching to the tabletop, I start the same process with the apples on the table. For the leaves on the front apple, I had to take a bit of the paint off the basket where the leaves are - using a bristle bright dipped in turp.
Big jump to an almost finished apple - with some of the background painted in, so I can focus on soft edges on the round form.
Lay in basic shadow shapes and details on the leaves. I won’t do the two in front of the basket until I’ve finished painting the reeds.
Moving back up to the apples in the basket, I work both the background and the apples at the same time - again focusing on the edges. I’m more concerned now with accuracy in color and drawing.
Finishing up the background, at this point I realise I’d made the right side of the background far too red. I wiped it off with turps and a rag, and painted in the dark green I’d originally intended.
Back to the basket - before I paint in the reeds, I glaze the basket with a little linseed oil and a loose approximation of the local color.
Then I start painting the reeds into that wet paint, and soften them with a fan brush gently stroked in the direction of the weave. Continue all the way around.
The ivory knob gets painted in loosely, the rim and lashing are added, and the handle. At this point, I’m using sable flats.
More reed - left side of the basket gets glazed with a darker color, and the reed worked into that wet paint.
Even though I’m not done with the basket, I lay in the leaves at this point.
I start on the stems and leaves of the upper apples.
Next glaze a cast shadow on the basket, and finish the details on the lashing & rim. Clean up the handle, etc.
Then it’s to the tablecloth. With a big bristle flat, I start loosely laying on the color and basic shapes of the folds.
I missed the shots of the fabric being painted.
Here’s some details of the final, and the finished painting.
That’s it, in a really long, drawn-out nutshell.
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holy moley Cindy - what a demo!!
Right on!!
Madame … Carravagio, he of pseudo-photorealistic still-life basket of fruit, is not fit to wash your brushes. You totally and completely rock.
With Respect (and a few other things),
Phlipper De Phlochart
“Ride hard, die young, leave a good-looking corpse!”
Is “Caravaggio” spelled with two ‘r’s or two ‘g’s? I can never remember. :o(
Two “g”s. Is Phlipper spelled with a “ph” or an “f”? Never can remember that, either.
Heck of a compliment, Flowchart Flipper.
Thanks.
I did send you an e-mail asking if you had done a demo on baskets but as you can see, I found it and what a fantastis demo this is. (I’m gobsmacked) I hope I can print this off so that I can refer to it from time to time, this work of a master artist, or is it mistress,
Thanks anyway….
Thank you so much, Victor. I hope to get some more demos posted soon!
Please feel free to print off whatever you like.
Beautifully done…I’m just learning oils, and your demo is excellent. Thank you for sharing your process!
I’m truly amazed, the technique is great, the execution fabulous…you have my respect too…and I’ll add your demo to my favourites also!
Thanks so much, Dierdre.
Thank you
Beautiful and very informative!
Excellent post - very well done and very heplful. Thanks for posting.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! I feel so lucky to have found this web-site!
Excellent demo, Cindy! Can’t wait for some more!
Marinda
(South Africa)
Thanks, you guys. I need the kick in the pants to get some more demos done.
That is such a lovely painting. Thank you for the beautiful demo!!!
It’s just so lovely to watch someone elses methods and techniques of working and how it all comes together right at the end. Please keep it coming!
Don’t know how I missed this on your blog. Did you do a workshop of this? I’d like to see it if you did, and try it. I did the rose painting workshop and loved it. Right now I’m trying a basket of pears and fighting with the leaves! Yours are beautiful. Judy
Hi Judy - no workshop, I just documented the progress of the painting with photos. I appreciate the compliments.
Wow,
You are truly wonderful and so detailed
Can you give me a tip re glazing, is there a ratio between Liquin and oil paint. I use Liquin as my medium for glazing - I have only just started to embark on glazing and would appreciate any tips you can give.
Kathy
Thanks so much, Kathy.
I don’t use Liquin, but the rule is no more than 20% medium to paint ratio. I try to use a lot less than 20%. Most of the time, instead of mixing the medium into the paint, I apply it directly to the canvas, wipe it down, then glaze on top of that thin layer.
The best advise I can give you is to paint a practice piece solely to learn. Glaze to your hearts content without worrying about messing up a precious piece of work.
Fabulous demo. I’m torn between running up to my studio to paint or running up to my studio to throw all my stuff in the trash. I’ll never be able to paint like that.
But…..the fun’s in the trying, right??
Best
Ralph
Really fantastic painting.
It’s been said before but, “WOW!!” I can’t even imagine painting those basket reeds…unbelievable. I’ll never be able to paint like that!
Well done!
Great job, Great instruction, Do you think you could elaboralte a little on what colors you used where. I can’t seem to even come close to the apples you did. Then again, maybe I never will
thanks waiting for more from you
I just want to tell you that your blog is very interesting, bookmarked
Thanks for the comments, guys. Ron - I can try - at which spots in particular do you want to know which paint colors were used?
Hi Cindy, thanks for answering. You gave your pallette colors, so maybe just in general where you used what. Basket = Basket glazing = apples = background = etc, btw I really liked the background just the way it was before detailing. I did try to paint this, sadly, no where near as nice as yours. I used a different background and tablecloth. Thanks again, I did learn alot painting it even if it isn’t quite there yet. Looking forward to more from you
really cindy….how wonderful …im a beginner in oils…i am head over heals ….my salutations to you…wonderful teacher…cindy you must put a demonstration on painting roses…though we are not able to get it right…its a great pleasure to see the secret unravel…wow…dire shortage of words here….i hope you get an idea of our pleasure…overwhelming…ummmuah…