Paint with me - How to paint a pear in 10 easy steps!

I'm going to create this painting in 10 easy steps.  I hope you join me in painting your own pear and post your finished product!

I started with an 8" x 10" canvas and my palette of colors (shown above).   You will need more Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, and Titanium White than any other colors, so put 3-4 times more of those colors on your palette.  Make a mixture of half Ultramarine Blue and half Burnt Umber.  I refer to this as your “dark mixture”.

Using your dark mixture thinned with paint thinner, paint the basic shape of your subject with straight brush strokes.  My pear will be leaning a little, so its basic shape is a leaning triangle.

This step might seem silly, but it is really important because it gives you an idea of where your subject will live on the canvas.  Step back and decide if the shape is too big or small, too high or low, or too far to one side.  It is much easier to make a change at this point than later on in the painting process.  Trust me!

Again using your thinned, dark mixture, establish the shadow areas of the painting.  In this step, you will paint the areas of the background and subject that are in shadow (for example, the darker side of the pear), not just the shadow that your subject is casting. Continue to only use straight strokes at this point.  I like to paint both the right and left sides of the shelf or table edge in shadow, so the viewer’s eye doesn’t follow the shelf edge out of the painting.

Paint your shadow areas using your dark mixture and cadmium colors.  Here I added cadmium red to my dark mix to paint on and under the shelf and in the background and I added cadmium yellow light for the pear. Keep the paint smooth and thin, but you can use curvy strokes now! 

I’m into blue right now, so I wanted a mainly blue background.  I mixed thalo blue with black and white, for the background and for the grayer areas on the table.  I added my cadmium yellows to paint the reflection on the shelf.  I like to allow the brush strokes to show without making the background too busy.

Using earth tones (Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre and Indian Red) and white, paint the light area of the pear.  I also used a little bit of my cadmium yellow light in the mix, but be careful not to add too much.  You don’t want your light areas to be the brightest, most color-saturated areas of the painting.

When painting the light areas, I use thicker paint and more prominent brush strokes.  I load my brush, paint a couple of short straight brush strokes in a circular pattern, then reload the brush.  As I reach the edges of the light area, the paint becomes thinner and smother.

I added a bit of reflected light on the bottom right side of the pear using my light color mix.  Add just enough reflective light to tie the light and shadow areas together, but not so much that it is distracting.  This usually looks a bit odd to me when I first add it, but looks good by the time the painting is complete.

For the midrange, I used brighter, deeper colors just a tiny bit darker than my light area.  I’m always tempted to blend too much at this point.  I try to just tap back and forth between my midrange and light area, then with a clean, dry brush tap between my midrange and dark area.

At this point, it is starting to look like a pear!

Using my dark mix with a little cadmium red light, I cleaned up and darkened the shadow cast by the pear.  A solid shadow line underneath the pear can make it look like it is floating above the shelf, so I used a broken shadow line to keep it connected with the table.

I loaded my brush with a mixture of white and Indian Yellow Pale and gently placed in the highlights.  I hold my brush almost like I would hold a knife when frosting the side of a cake.  When I first put in the highlights, I’m tempted to blend them (and they look a little blurred because this photo isn't the best); however, I remind myself that they will look good once the painting is finished.  Don’t blend them!

This is the really exciting part when the painting comes together!   To complete this painting, I

•  Added the stem
•  Darkened the shelf edge and where the shelf meets the back wall
•  Threw some cadmium yellow light into my background 
•  Added a "halo" around the pear 
• Crisped up some edges and blended out others to create lost edges

These details make quite a difference.  Voila!  My painting is finished!