Three Oranges

The three oranges were painted for Feb 2010 Rookie Painter challenge. Oil on 9.5" x12.5" Paper.

These oranges were actually more difficult to paint than they look. First, there was light shining from upper right side, then there was light bouncing off the table cloth, and there was light bouncing off each orange to the other oranges. Then it took me two tries to get the right color. First I mixed orange with cadmium yellow, and I just couldn't get the right orange color. Then I realized I needed to mix in a cool yellow, i.e. lemon yellow. It was a "duh" moment for me - lemon, orange, citrus - should have figured.

Finally I realized the background was not all black. There was light coming from the window. So I used a very deep grey to paint in a suggestion of the window in the back. I left the table cloth rather rought since there was enough detail on the oranges so I left the table cloth rather unpainted, except for the light reflections. I was glad the oranges finally looked like oranges.