Coloured Pencil–Red Pepper

Here are a few photos showing a coloured pencil drawing of a red pepper.  As I showed in the last post. I start with a tonal scale to work out how to get a gradation from light to dark.  In this particular case, the scale from light to dark is not just one colour but several colours that range from pale yellow to orange to orange red to different tones of red for the pepper.  This is not just a tonal gradation but also a colour gradation following the colour wheel.


I chose to work on grey paper because of the dark background of the composition and I also wanted to experiment with the use of lighter colours on a darker ground.  The coloured pencil process is one which starts with relatively light tones working towards darker tones.  Many layers of colour are added progressively on top of each other.

The basic shape of the composition is drawn in and the lighter colours are added using very light pressure.

I continue to add the lighter tones of colour on the pepper, stem and background. I use light pressure and I am weaving one colour into another to create a smooth transition.

I have focused on the lighter tones of the pepper using the oranges and red orange colours. Once enough of these colours are applied  and the background colours are added, I can start to slowly darken the shadows of the pepper.

This is the finished study.  The darkest colours were added during the last half of the drawing process. Colours are constantly layered one over the other to get smooth transitions. Working is layers is a slow process that demands much patience.  The pay off is that layering dark over light creates a more dense and rich depth of colour.

He Just Doesn't Get It

oil/canvas, 10 x 12 inches

There are many reasons to paint the still life which is why I think artists have been drawn to it for such a long time.  Personally,  I will sometimes paint them for the challenge of trying to depict a specific form, colour or sense of light.  Sometimes I go back to them because I get tired of working with photos and I need to work from direct observation.  What is fascinating however, is how these inanimate objects take on a life of their own and start to communicate their own raison d'être.

The opposing directions of these two little bottles made me think of an argument or a breakdown in communication.  Funny how simple studio props start to personify the ideas that we are trying to express without intentionally starting out that way.

White Teapot #1

oil/canvas 9x12 inches, 2010

White is a fun challenge for a painter. Since white is not a colour, but a value,  it can be rendered with any colour.  What is important is a good tonal structure. Another great challenge is to paint using a limited palette. I painted this old teapot using just ultramarine blue and orange with white of course and a small touch of yellow.  I structured the colour using the concept of warm versus cool.

Here is a detail:

Still Life: Scherzo in Yellow

11 x 14'', oil/canvas, 2010

I love to work with yellow.  It is the colour that I most associate with light. This is a study using the yellow family of analogous colours.  It was done with my Impressionism class.

When I studied art history at University of Toronto, one of my professors described Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting as a mastery of the colour yellow.  According to him, yellow was a difficult colour to work with.  Does anybody have a particular colour that they find hard to work with?