Unit II, Lesson 8--30 in 30 Challenge. Day Eight, Pear Study #4

"Pear Study #4" by Monique Chartier.  6" x 6" oil on stretched linen.

This is a Red D'Angou pear, but it looks completely different than the one I painted here.  This pear looked almost bronze to me.  I decided to paint the background a gunmetal grey (Transparent Oxide Red + Ultramarine Blue + Titanium Zinc White to tint) to create a metallic look to the whole painting.

Step One:  Set up the still life.  Not a good picture, and the pear's colors do not really shine through, but it gives a bit of the idea of the light and shadow pattern.

Still life set up

Step Two:  Tone the canvas.  As you can tell, I had too much fun with this.  

Toned canvas

Step Three:  Create a value drawing.

Step Four:  Draw the subject on the canvas.  To keep the colors very clean (to keep the bronze look), I only drew the proportions.  I handled the shadow areas in the next step.

Pear's proportions

Step Five:  Block in the subject.

Block in.

Step Six:  Refine and add detail as necessary.

Smoother with more detail.

Step Seven:  Sign it.

Done!

Day eight of the 30 in 30 is in the books and on the blog!  You can see it on Leslie Saeta's blog here.  22 little fruit paintings left to create.  Here's what's left in my "Grab-Bag of Lessons":

Grab-bag of Lessons

• 7 Oranges
• 9 Apples
• 6 Pears 

You can access all of the lessons in this unit from the Index of Lessons page here.

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