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Still Life Onions demonstration part 3, the color layers!

You have found the Still Life Onions demonstration part 3. The first part was through the imprematura and umber underlayer. The 2nd part was the dead layer. And now our 3rd part will be color layers.

Here's where we left off

The final gray or dead layer

onion painting

This is gonna look redundant, but bear with me. This customer had wanted from a similar piece, a dark gray background. There is a touch of the alizarin crimson in the gray, but my photography isn't picking it up. I've blocked in color (gray in this instance) to the entire background and foreground except for the onions themselves.

onion painting

Here are some close ups of the paint applied.

onion painting

And here is after I've blended with the small mop brush to soften away brush strokes.

Close ups of the blended color coat. I've pulled the color right up against, but not over the top of my drawing guide lines for the onion.

And here's the first color layer on the onion. This was actually only a glaze of the red, and then a little additional highlights to the left (white) and to the right (yellow) which were then dry brush blended. Now tell me the truth, do you know of any other medium in which you can knock out a red onion like this with these easy steps? I could leave it like this and finish the others, but no, I have a finishing layer to add!

I've also added just a few lines of the red/pink streaking down the onion and blended these.

onion painting

A view further back! This red onion took merely minutes because the dark under layer and light areas had already done the work for me.

And this has yet one more layer to go, yet most artists would say this is finished! I can't wait to show you the finishing layer. But on to our white onion. Some white, to the front, a little green on the side and some of the tassel is put in.

onion painting

The yellow onion with it's tan skin is now put in.

Click the link below to go on to the completion of this painting!

On to the finishing Final Layer of Still Life Onion demo part4

Back to top of Still Life Onions demonstration part 3

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