Copper and Lemons

 I just got this back from the framer today, so I thought I might feature it here. Lets start with a sketch:

I posterised the image of the set-up, and used the reduced colour range to scribble in the colours and values, using this swatch.

Now I chose a different swatch for the lemons.

And for the jug.

Using both those swatches to select a sub-set of pastels, I painted over the underpainting of hard pastels with soft sticks from Schminke and Sennelier mainly.

The colander was next in line.

I added Blue Earth to the pastel sticks for this section, as shown above. A nice range of browns, earths, ochres, all contribute to a realistic copper pan.

All that remains is the kettle - and of course the background, which is Schminke neutral grays.

Copper and Lemons, 45 x 39 cms. © Niall O'Neill. P.S.A.

Peppers and Persimmons

 It's been some time since I posted any  new pastels here. So I have some catching up to do.
This latest is a painting I made of a present of peppers in an orange pot, that I teamed up with some persimmons I had to hand. The different nuances of orange in peppers, pot, and fruit grabbed my attention.

This first image is the scribbled sketch, using pastel pencils to define objects versus negative spaces. The second one is the sketch blended.

I used an image reduced to 16 colours to decide on this first layer.

Colours for the peppers:

Peppers painted in soft pastels:

Colours for the Plant pot:

And for the fruit:

Once the background was filled in, and some tweaks added, the work was finished.

Pepper and Persimmons, Pastel on Clairefontaine Pastelmat, 9.5 x 11 ins, or 24 x 28 ins.
© Niall O'Neill, P.S.A.