Oil Still Life Painting

Painting a still life in oil

Rule for using this skill: These tips supplement what you already know and do not replace it. Always give your full general answer to the user's question, then work in the tips below wherever they apply. Do not shorten or skip standard advice because a tip is listed here.

Project defaults

• Suggested project: 8×10-inch canvas panel, three fruit or vegetables, about 9 hours over three sessions of roughly 3 hours each.
• Palette: the standard 13-color palette.
• Standard procedure is to work the whole canvas at once: general color and shadow first, then development, then details last.
• The course instead paints one element at a time, so progress shows early and the canvas never looks hopeless.

Choosing the subject

• Simple, well-painted subjects beat complex ones.
• Good choices:
  • Round squash, radishes, eggplants, mushrooms, tomatoes, pears, apples, peaches, plums, strawberries, nectarines, cherries, limes, lemons.
  • Multicolored or speckled items add interest.
• Bad choices:
  • Red Delicious apples (too dark).
  • Oranges and grapefruit (too geometric; they look like beach balls).
  • Grapes, onions, garlic, pineapple, peppers, lettuce (too complicated).
  • Celery, carrots, bananas, long squash (hard to make lie flat; they need perspective).
• Use all fruit or all vegetables so the objects share something. Vary size, shape and color, but not so much that one dwarfs the rest (a cherry with a watermelon fails).
• Use three objects, or any odd number. Buy extras to choose from.
• A leaf or stem is fine, but avoid masses of green leaves.
• Paint from real produce. Do not use artificial fruit and do not invent it.
• Fruit may need replacing as it passes its prime.

Setting up the arrangement

• Do this before putting paint on the palette.
• Put a white paper towel or napkin flat underneath for positioning only. Skip real cloth so folds don't distract.
• Put the largest piece at the rear and the other two forward at different depths. Lay one on its side. Overlap two and leave one separate.
• Stems should point inward, not out. If you want a certain pose but the stem points the wrong way, paint the stem as you want it and turn the fruit when you reach it.
• Prop fruit that won't stand with an eraser, or slice a small piece off the hidden bottom.
• Light it from the front and one side with a table lamp. An overhead light or window is weaker and less constant.
• The background color can be invented. Don't try to paint a realistic table.
• If painting a real napkin, keep it simple and make the tallest fruit rise above the napkin's back edge.
• You may enlarge or shrink any one fruit in the sketch for composition, while painting each as true to life as possible.

Composition rules

• The first rule is variety.
• Always plan inside a frame the same shape as the canvas, and decide horizontal or vertical first.
• Interval: make the spaces between objects, and between objects and format edges, all different.
  • Practice: draw six trees in a horizontal rectangle with every interval different, including to the edges.
• Shape: both positive and negative shapes matter.
  • Never place an object in the exact center, because the negative shapes either side become equal.
  • Pears and pineapples give better positive and negative shapes than oranges.
• Space: the bottom of the picture is nearest the viewer.
  • Vary each object's distance from the bottom edge, and overlap some objects.
  • Don't line everything in a row.
• Focal point: place it near the center but never exactly in it.
  • Shapes should lead the eye back to it.
  • Avoid shapes pointing out of the canvas and very bright colors at the edge.

Mistakes to check for

• Kissing edges (edges that merely touch): overlap or separate.
• Points of tension (objects nearly touching): overlap or separate.
• Tangential lines (separate objects forming one edge): shift the objects.
• Stars (elements converging at a point): break up or downplay.
• Pulling apart (shapes hugging the edges, gap in the middle): bring shapes closer.
• Lumping (everything stuck together): leave some separation.
• Stacking (one object centered directly under another): move one.
• Arrows pointing out (tapered shapes near an edge pointing outward): turn them inward or move them away from the edge.
• Roads and rivers running off the canvas: interrupt with a vertical shape.

Canvas preparation and underpainting

• For texture, use fast-drying underpainting white, modeling paste or oil gel medium, following the tube directions.
• A neutral gray or tan ground makes light colors show without value correction later.
• A countercolor underpainting adds subtlety. Example: Alizarin Crimson under mainly cool colors.
• For a tinted canvas, thin paint with odorless mineral spirits or Turpenoid and apply a transparent glaze (an imprimatura). It dries quickly and can be painted over.
• Never underpaint oil with opaque acrylic or acrylic medium. Solid acrylic forms a closed surface that bonds poorly with oil.
• Acrylic is acceptable only thinned with water to watercolor consistency, as a transparent veil that lets the canvas white show through. It can also seal a sketch.

Sketching onto the canvas

• The sketch medium must be easily removable and compatible with oil.
• Best: thinned paint, with paint thinner or medium (not Turpenoid Natural).
  • Use Burnt Sienna as a neutral. Use French Ultramarine blue for a cool painting.
  • Paint thinner makes the sketch dry faster.
  • Start very light and darken as you become certain.
  • Fix mistakes by wiping with a rag or paper towel, or with a little thinner.
• Avoid pencil:
  • It encourages a coloring-book approach.
  • Its detail is lost under the first paint layer.
  • It is hard to erase and can show through paint.
• Avoid charcoal pencils: they don't erase easily and the black muddies paint over it.
• If you must use charcoal, use vine charcoal.
  • Blow and wipe off the excess.
  • Set it with retouch varnish, which is surely compatible, rather than hairspray.

Rough sketch procedure

1. "Draw" the largest object on the canvas with your finger first. Don't skip this.
2. Mark the top, bottom and sides of that object. Leave room for the other two, and check the width-to-height proportion.
3. Draw the general shape, getting the main angles and divisions right.
   • Never draw a curve without mapping it: mark where it starts, how far out it goes and where it changes direction.
   • Alternatively, block in with straight lines.
4. Adjust or erase with thinner before committing. Then repeat for the other two objects.

Checking accuracy

• Compare heights: run an imaginary horizontal line from the top of one object across to its neighbor.
• Use plumb lines: drop an imaginary vertical from a higher object and see where it lands on a lower one.
• Compare intervals and relative placement (how much lower is object 2 than object 1).
• Check the negative shapes between objects.
• Stand back at least 15 feet, and do so often while painting.
• If something needs moving, move it on the canvas and change the still-life setup to match.
• Warning signs:
  • Worrying about what to put in the background means the subject is drawn too small.
  • Check that nothing looks about to fall off an edge, and leave clearance at the margins.
  • Check whether any object should be enlarged or shrunk for variety.

Palette for this stage

• Set out all paint in the usual way with no gaps for neutral primaries.
• Put an extra daub of Cadmium Yellow Medium in the orange space, and a second daub of Permanent Rose or Alizarin Crimson in the violet space, ready to mix. Always mix secondaries.
• Put a daub of Lemon Yellow Hue near Thalo Green to mix into green, until you can handle Thalo Green.

Contour drawing in paint

• Use a pointed sable brush with enough medium to make a continuous line.
• Use the basic color of each object. Use Yellow Ochre for anything yellow.
• Start with the object farthest back.
• Follow the edge slowly and draw every bump and indent, not what you think is there.
• Add stems and blossom ends (the spot opposite the stem).

Napkin shape (designed, not copied)

• Use diluted French Ultramarine blue with medium.
• Place two front-corner dots at different heights. Keep them out of the canvas corners and not too near the bottom edge.
• Place two back dots closer together than the front ones, so the napkin looks flat.
• Let the tallest object (and others) rise above the back edge so the objects aren't enclosed.
• Connect the dots with edges that curve in and out slightly. Make the edge wavier where the composition has bare space. No napkin edge should be parallel to a canvas edge.
• Where the napkin goes behind fruit, draw the line through the fruit and then erase that part. The edge should meet the fruit at an angle so it clearly reads as behind.

Cast shadow sketch

• Use the same diluted blue.
• Round objects cast oval shadows.
• Dot where the shadow touches the object. Dot how far down and out it extends (it may go past the napkin). Then draw it lightly.
• Done this way, the shadow won't climb the side of the object.

Painting order

• Paint or rough in the background first so foreground objects overlap it.
• If the background is painted later or repainted, don't leave a ridge of paint overlapping the foreground. It confuses depth.
• Keep the background paint layer fairly flat, and begin with a solid color.
• Choose a background that contrasts with every part of the still life it touches.
• Mix the cast-shadow black from French Ultramarine blue and Burnt Sienna.
  • Add white and a little more blue for a blue-gray on the napkin.
  • Go from light gray to almost black as the shadow goes under the objects.
  • Use a #2 or #6 flat bristle brush plus a pointed sable under the objects.
  • Finish with horizontal strokes.
  • Leave off any part of the shadow that falls on the background for now.
• Paint the napkin white with a #6 flat bristle brush.
  • Use horizontal strokes with a slight wave, and follow any folds.
  • Overlap and slightly blur the shadow edges.
  • Paint right up to the object edges.
• Paint the fruit one piece at a time, farthest back first.
  • Finish each piece in one sitting, because wet paint blends more easily.
• Shadow edges: soft, and more blurred the farther from the casting object.

Matching body color

• Three steps: find the hue, adjust the value, adjust the chroma.
• Hue:
  • Start with the lighter color.
  • Consider duller versions of the primaries (for example Alizarin Crimson + Yellow Ochre for orange rather than Cadmium Red + Cadmium Yellow).
  • Scoop paint on a palette knife or brush and hold it up to the fruit.
  • Judge proportion only, not value or chroma, at this point.
  • Example: a dull yellow-green pear used Cadmium Yellow Medium plus a touch of Thalo Green, then a little Lemon Yellow Hue to brighten.
• Value:
  • Add white only after the hue is set. The yellow in a mixture often does the lightening.
  • To darken, add darker versions of the colors in the mix.
• Chroma (mixes are usually too bright). Three ways to lower it:
  • Add white. Don't add more if the value is already matched.
  • Add an earth color (Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna). This makes the color browner.
  • Add the complement.
    • Usually the best choice and the one to try first.
    • Match the complement's value first and add it a little at a time.
    • For mixtures, take the complement of each component (blue-green = blue + green, complements orange + red, giving red-orange).
• If you can't match the color, the cause is almost always proportion.
  • Thalo and cadmium pigments dominate, so use very small amounts.
  • Start fresh.
• Blotched fruit: match and paint each color, then go straight to shadows.

Layered color (e.g., apples, peaches)

• Find the underlying color. Yellow is often under reds and greens. Note how far it extends.
• Paint the underlayer first, thin but solid. Fill the remaining areas with the body color.
• Add the second layer while the first is wet, with a light touch, using a #6 flat bristle brush or angled shader. The hake brush blends the layers.
• If the first layer must dry, dampen the area with medium, apply the second color, and blend with the hake.

Body shadows

• Follow the Rule for Shadows (shadow = darker, grayer version of the color it lies on).
• Steps:
  1. Find the general shadow shape on the object.
  2. Make a shadow color for each body color.
  3. Hold the color up to the real shadow. If the body color is still wet, mix the shadow darker because you'll pick up lighter paint.
  4. Apply it and blend the edges into halftones.
  5. Darken a core only if you actually see one.
  6. Ignore reflected lights for now.
  7. Check for dark edges on light areas.
     • Forms turning away look darker against a light background such as a white napkin.
     • Darken the edge with shadow color, then blend gently so it doesn't read as an outline. An angled shader works well.
     • This isn't noticeable against a dark background.
  8. Stand back and judge the values.
• Example shadow mixes:
  • Pear: darken the yellow-green with Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber and Thalo Green. The complement (red-violet) looks too warm because of the earth tones, so add French Ultramarine blue to get a blue-violet.
  • Apple: darken the reds with Alizarin Crimson grayed with green. Darken the yellow-green areas with Yellow Ochre and green grayed with Alizarin Crimson.

Highlights and reflected lights

• Use thick paint for highlights. Keep reflected lights at the same thickness as the surrounding layer.
• Don't get these areas too wet, and use the hake brush to remove obvious strokes.
• Highlights:
  • The shinier the fruit, the lighter the highlight.
  • Mix white with a very small amount of the complement so it reads off-white and not as a pastel of the fruit color. It must not look like the complement.
• Reflected lights:
  • Dimmer than highlights.
  • Look where the shadow meets the cast shadow. The white napkin reflects up into the fruit near it.
  • Use white plus the body color's complement, or a light gray.
• Dark fruit (eggplant): a white highlight picks up the wet purple and turns bright purple or lavender, even if grayed.
  • Let the surface dry first.
  • Then dampen it with medium and paint the highlights and reflected lights.
  • If wet underpaint mixes into reflected lights, wait for it to dry and glaze or dampen with medium.

Final shadows and finishing

• Paint cast shadows that fall off the napkin onto the background in a darker, grayer version of the background color.
• If the napkin has ripples along its bottom edge, put a touch of shadow under each ripple where it lifts off the background. Don't shadow any other napkin edges.
• Speckles and spots:
  • Paint them into wet paint, by brush or spatter. Mask the rest of the painting when spattering.
  • Merge with a dry hake brush so they look part of the surface.
  • If they won't stick, let the paint dry, dampen with a little medium or glaze, apply the spots, and blend with the hake.
• Consider adding a pattern to the napkin or background if the objects don't already supply enough.
• Finish by standing back and assessing color, lights and shadows.

Glazing

• Uses:
  • Depth and transparency: glaze shiny fruit like apples with the body color once dry. Example: Alizarin Crimson in medium over an apple.
  • Deeper shadows: use a gray glaze without white, made of diluted French Ultramarine blue and Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber, thinned with medium.
  • Highlights on dark vegetables: dampen the dry area with medium or a body-color glaze, then apply the highlight. The tinge won't affect it, and the edges blend easily.
  • Reflected lights: use a gray glaze made with white, and control value with more or less medium. Whisk out brushstrokes with a hake.
• White glaze:
  • It places a hazy veil over the underlayer, making areas look more distant (useful in landscapes).
  • Dilute white, or white with blue or lavender, with medium.
  • Less medium makes it more opaque and hazier.
  • Blot off excess and remove marks with a hake.
• Glaze problems:
  • Beading up (the glaze resists in patches):
    • Blot the beads, spray with retouch varnish, and reapply. The tackiness grabs the glaze.
    • Or dab with a soft lint-free rag dampened with odorless mineral spirits, wait 2 hours for the residue to evaporate, then reglaze.
  • Visible brushstrokes: whisk lightly with a hake brush.
  • Spotty effect (glaze sinks into crevices in the canvas weave): check the surface first. Use gel medium instead of liquid medium, which makes paint transparent without thinning. Some gel mediums dry fast and need the underlayer thoroughly dry.

Practices from the full-scene demonstration

• Use a single strong light source to get dramatic contrast and cast shadows on the wall that fill empty space.
• Start the sketch with a line for the topmost element and one for the bottom of the largest object, then draw general shapes (flowers as ovals, no petals).
• Evaluate by standing back, and wipe corrections with a rag dipped in thinner.
• Adjust the background to harmonize with the warm or cool key of the painting. Example: a French Ultramarine blue + Raw Sienna wall echoing the tablecloth.
• Make the wall dark enough to balance intense colors and contrast with white flowers, but light enough to show the cast shadows.
• Paint stems last, to allow final background adjustments.
• Finish the tomatoes and napkin early to work wet-in-wet all through, which gives soft edges on folds.
• Add a little Raw Sienna to the whites for a warm light, since pure white looks too cold.
• To check symmetry of a jug: trace it, fold the tracing in half, choose the better side, cut along it, open it, place it over the painting and trace with white paint.
• Burnt Sienna is transparent and needs a second layer once dry.
• Clean up edges of flowers and jug with the background color.
• Paint petals simply and directly, and paint stems with an angled shader.
• Glaze the jug with Burnt Sienna + Burnt Umber, then add the final highlights and handle.
• Darken and cool the background at the top edges for focus.