Still Life, with process shots (SOLD)

 
This is the first time I have taken pictures of a painting at it's different stages of development. This piece is 28" x 22". About midway into the painting I realized some compositional problems, such as the large, bright pink vase on the right having nothing to really balance it out.
However, the main focus of the painting was to have the objects really feel as though they were coming at the viewer, in a 3d manner - specifically the objects as they get closer to the foreground. Hence, why the table is at an angle, somewhat coming at the viewer.
So, the idea was to have more contrast on the left side of the piece - where as the right side/background has less tonal changes and is more out of focus - so the objects in the rear feel as far away as possible from those in the foreground. Looking at the piece now, I see this idea could have been pushed and emphasized in several ways. But this was kind of a first go.

Toned the canvas using thinned down combination of Raw Umber and some Burnt Sienna. Waited for this to dry before moving on.


Painted in the basic shapes using the same colors.


Began painting in the major tones. I started mixing in white to make some areas cooler, just to slightly get into color variation.


Started with the color. My full palette consisted of Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, and Prussian Blue (that's right, 4 blues!). At this point, the paint is applied quite thin, almost like a wash. Also, many of the colors are less saturated than they will end up being later. Basically, I try to slowly build up the tones and colors together, as it can be easy to get carried away and make any one thing too bright, too dark, or too saturated, too fast.


Starting to tighten up certain parts of the various objects.


Finally began really darkening up the background, and still more clarity to the objects, struggling with the structure of the pink vase at this point.

I did not tone the painting "warmer", this is just a photo thing. Working out the patterns on the brown jug in the front. This proved to be rather challenging. Painting patterns/designs on objects, and making them look like surface details, was something I always considered tedious, but not difficult. Turns out, it's both.

  

Finally fleshed out the apples in the background a bit, more struggling with the designs on the brown mug.

 Added the highlights on the jug and chrome metal object, and it's pretty much done (I may go back and tweak some things here and there). This photo is more accurate as to how the piece appears in real life. Probably a bit too dark, but after my last still life I wanted to do one with a dark background for the objects to pop off of.