A fellow artist did a painting of some apples - to be specific - Jazz apples. I had never heard of this apple before and emailed him to see if there really was a "jazz" apple." Sure enough they were real!! I set out and the first grocery store I stopped at - all different kinds of apples and one of the bins had a sign JAZZ APPLES!!!!
I hand picked the ones I wanted and set them up in my studio and began to throw some paint.
Now, before we begin, these jazz apples have some really nice color and some very vibrant reds with a bit of yellow thrown in.
I start out with a very quick sketch of the apples I set up off to the side of my easel.
This is not meant to be an accurate drawing but merely a sketch and I will adjust as I go along -I never stay inside the lines - that is way too much to ask of anyone!!
So I start applying reds to the apples and with the light source coming from the left, I of course make the right side of things in the shadows.
I'm doing this painting with brushes - however I load the brush up with blobs and globs of paint and use them as if they were a palette knife - my intent is NOT to have nice pretty smooth strokes but instead strokes resulting in some texture to them.
I use a dark blue color for my shadow areas as this gives some great contrast and actually makes the bright side of the apples look brighter then the color really is.
At this time I also throw in the reflections of the apple onto the surface they sit on
I now finish up the reflections - tweak up the shadow side and throw in a color for the surface the apples are sitting on - it needs to be a color that speaks to "shiny" and therefore reflective.
I do some tweaking of the apples and their reflections
I think in this photo you can see the surface "texture" I've produce in using my brushes loaded with color and in a palette knife fashion
The next photos show slight tweaks in the overall painting
STEMS!!!!!
I LOVE TO PAINT STEMS!!!!!
It's a challenge to paint a stem so it looks like it is coming close to straight out from the apple and out at the viewer. Paintings are not 3D!!!!
Close up before stems
CLOSE UP AFTER STEMS
At this point the painting is finished
"ALL THAT JAZZ"
9 X 12
PAINTED ON HEAVY LINEN PAPER
Being originally from New England - living there for 55 years, there really are not a whole lot of things I like about New England - however that said - and I just said it ------- I like Macintosh apples!!
The jazz apple had a rather non-descriptive taste and it was not juicy - it was "watery"
Sooo for painting in a still life they are great --- for eating NOT SO GREAT!!
I hope you enjoyed this little demo and next week most likely it will be a palette knife demo - OR NOT -
as I always say "Time will tell!"
Don't forget to checkout my ETSY STORE for some great values
JR :>)
