I feel so stupid when I have to tell the grocery store people to be careful with my produce so it will still "look good" when I get home. I can't say how many times I've said "I'm an artist - I paint still lives," thinking maybe they'll be impressed, and they just look at me like I'm crazy. Oh well.
These persimmons (finally found some that looked pretty good) are very square-ish, hence the title. I actually started this one twice. The first time I painted in the blue background first and when I tried to paint in the orange it turned to mud. So I wiped it all off and restarted with the orange first - much better. I've decided that so much of painting is about putting the paint down in an order that works well. So far I've only seen some vague patterns that I haven't yet analyzed. I swear I will soon so I can teach it!
Someone asked me recently to talk about cast shadows and reflected light. I think these two things specifically should be as accurate as possible. Many other things can be exaggerated, but these two things ... it is so impressive to have these things look REAL. And how do you make them look real? Really observe them, and paint what you observe. It CAN be as simple as that.
