HEART HEALTHY BREAKFAST

(Click image to enlarge)

It is always interesting where inspiration comes from. I was making breakfast and standing over my cereal slicing a banana. The colors and lighting were interesting enough that I got my camera out and took some pictures.

I only used a bit of masking on this painting, just blocking out some reflections on the spoon and bowl. I really didn't need to do either as it turned out. I first laid in a wash over the cereal and bananas and then went back in as it was drying adding darker and darker colors and detail (The banana slice in the bottom right looks like it's angry!). Next I did successive washes over the blueberries dropping in a bit of purple when the paint was still wet. Blueberries tend to have both dull and shiny spots as well as light and dark blue tones.

I also did several washes on the bowl's burnt sienna color making sure that the uneven color of the bowl as well as subtle reflections and shadows on the bowl's edge were true.

I didn't have a spoon, napkin or tablecloth in the photograph so I had to add them. I had tried painting a spoon once before with poor results. I like this one as I think I got the reflections clearly defined with lots of contrast. It is easy to both overdo the reflection or make it really muddy. I think I stopped just in time!

I was concerned about how to make the napkin look like cloth. I decided to add some wrinkles and some shadows where the napkin folds and where the edges over lap. I added my daily regimen of pills to enhance the theme of a "heart health breakfast".

Initially I wasn't going to put in a table cloth; but the bowl just floated in space. After thinking about painting a wooden table, I deciding it wouldn't give enough contrast with the bowl. I made up the crochet pattern and drew it in. I painted in the shadows cast by the bowl and napkin before starting the crochet pattern. Finally I painted everything that wasn't the crochet table cloth which meant adding about 300 small squares of black paint (a mixture of indigo and van dyke brown).

This is the painting I will enter in the Lane County Fair this year.