Work in Progress Image 4---another section of the Wall Shelf

Click to enlarge:

Here's another section of the 30x24" painting of the wall shelf. This may still need a little more work on the leaves, but I'll go back and do it at the end when the other sections are finished and I can better judge how it works as a whole. The image above was photographed with a very yellow light overhead. The color is actually closer to the image below:


Many have asked me to take progress images on the sections, which I keep forgetting to do! I remembered to stop for one today. It usually takes me three "passes" to complete a section. The first pass is a basic color stage, where I block in the main colors, lights and darks. Here's an image taken at the end of that first pass. I usually stop then and take a short break, let the paint set up a little, and then work over all the elements a second time, pushing the lights and darks and starting to add more detail. On the third pass, I make sure the highlights and dark accents are strong enough, and tweak anything that doesn't look quite right.