Saturday, May 22, 2010

Strawberry Painting

I think when I first started to paint reds were the most difficult for me to work with. It I am working on a long term painting project where I have the luxury of letting it dry for days between painting time I can use the old masters technique of glazing to get it just right. My small daily paintings are done "alla prima" so I work on Value, Intensity and Temperate right from the start.

When I look at the strawberries I see red so I put down a light wash of red to get some of the general color in. Intensity goes from light to dark in most colors you can lighten them by adding white but if you do this red you get pink. Pink strawberries are not what I want. After I have the general color I put in the darkest dark and last the lighter color, yellows and oranges work to lighten the value.

Once I have the general colors down I move on the intensity of the color grays and browns are at the low end while orange is at the high end. The most vivid red of the strawberries are the area that is closet to me. That would be the bulge of the berry.

I now look at temperature. Red is a warm color so the shadows will be cooler with some reflected general color.

I am always working on my red trying to get them just a little better. Well at least the berries are not pink.

Rich romantic Red, strawberries
Rich romantic Red, strawberries, painting by Delilah Smith

About This Painting:
Rich Romantic Red,
5x7
oil on canvas mounted on hardboard

Media: oil painting
Size: 7 in X 5 in (17.8 cm X 12.7 cm)
Price: $70 USD

How to Purchase:

Buy this painting on PayPal
Price: $70 USD plus $10 USD s/h
Or, send me an email


post A the comments"or email me at delilah@artbydelilah.com,,Thank You,Visit my web site Art by Delilah http://www.artbydelilah.com

2 comments:

Claire Beadon Carnell said...

Beautiful painting of strawberries, Delilah. I just painted a small section of a strawberry plant in my garden today, and learned very quickly that there is so much more than just reds in that berry! You really did these wonderfully.

Delilah said...

Thank You Claire,
I hate the drying time of reds, they are always the slowest tot dry sometimes taking two weeks.