Once I began painting from life, I struggled to obtain the correct lighting. I tried painting in an unlit room with a light on my subject and another on my canvas. The problem was that if I had enough light on my canvas to paint, there was too much light on my subject so that it lacked drama.
The solution was to use a box! Now I could paint in a well lit room, but limit the light to my subject. Hooray!
We just bought a new printer, which wasn't so exciting, but it did come in a nice box! Because this box is deep, it keeps too much light from reaching your subject from the front. I cut a section out of the side toward the top, which is where I placed my lamp. I use an adjustable photography lamp, which is great, because I can direct the light from any angle.
I chose to paint some basil and tomatoes from our garden. I thought the olive oil dispenser we purchased in Italy would add some height and I balanced the white of the dispenser with some garlic. Unfortunately, I only had a half head of garlic, so I had to lean it against the tomato and improvise a bit.
It looks pretty good, now let's turn the light on...
Wow! What a difference! The tomatoes glow and the basil has become translucent. Much better!
Hint: If you are painting basil under hot lights, put it in water. Next time I will try the little water tubes florists sometimes use for individual flowers. My basil wilted fast, so I needed to improvise and change my composition a bit.
After a half day, "Garden Harvest" looks like this. Hmmm.... Not my favorite. I think it needs a few changes. Check out how I improve this painting next time. Too bad I can't count it as a completed painting yet - still only at 2!
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