Brasserie

I have a collection of copper and brass pots and an intricate brass tray, that I wanted to paint as an ensemble. This is the set-up:

Using an editing program, I reduced the photo to 16 colours - I call this process the "digital squint" - equivalent to squinting your eyes to simplify an image and better determine the values.

Using the swatch, I chose the initial colours for the underpainting, and scribbled them in with pastel pencils and hard pastels.

Working from top left, I started painting the corner of the tray, and the copper tea-urn. Rembrandt umbers were very useful.

More pots worked on, and the lemon - what's tea without a lemon?

The copper tea-pot on the right had it's own colour swatch and subset of pastels:

Tray background begins to get filled in. I use glassine paper to protect areas already completed as I work.

Intricate detail of tray worked with various pencils and sharpened Rembrandts:

Reflections painted, final tweaks- signature! Pastels used were Rembrandt, Sennelier, Blue Earth and Roché. 

Brasserie - pastel on Pastelmat, 17.5 x 26.5 ins, 45 x 58 cms

Brasserie  © Niall O'Neill