This was more for practice than anything else. I watched a video on values and read a chapter in "Daily Painters" on values. I'm also still trying to get acrylics to look like oil paints. I learned a few things by doing this "study." It's hard to see values when the apple changes color on top where the light is hitting it. Dark red mixed with white looks chalky not lighter. Backgrounds are hard to paint when the lighting on your subject is coming from a lamp right next to it. Shadows are not as dark as you think they are and a few other things I can't remember right now, but I hope I will remember them when I paint something else again.
I had a difficult time getting back to doing any painting after another trip to visit my son and family over the holidays. I watched several art videos trying to get inspiration and read an art book, "Daily Painting" by Carol Marine. (recommend it). Then I cleaned up my "studio"--half of a bedroom-- and rearranged it some and put together a stand for my laptop so I could look at a photo while I painted. It took me forever to decide what to paint. I'm so far behind on all the ideas I have, but I wanted to do something new and in acrylic paints. It seemed like I had to learn how to use it all over again after I had been using watercolors and oil pastels, but I was determined to be able to use acrylic paints so they looked like oils. I think I may have gotten that result in "Big Clouds over the Beach." At least I was happier with the results since the last time I tried acrylics. The picture is a little fuzzy because the painting was a little too large for the scanner. I tried to redo it, but it is still a little fuzzy.
