Three Creamers

This is for Rookie Painter March 2011 challenge - Three Creamers. It's oil on 8x10 canvas panel.

The original picture had three creamers of approximately the same sizes sitting in a straight line against a white background and on a white table top. (ref photo) I wanted to change around the composition to make it more interesting. I made the creamers different sizes: the blue one taller, brown one smaller.

I originally painted the creamers with a white background. However, I thought the white background made the whole painting very bright, so bright that I almost had to squint my eyes to look at the painting. So I decided to tone down the background with gray plus prussian blue. I decided on a cold blue gray so that to compliment the orange and brown creamers.

My palette included torrid gray, prussian blue, cadmium orange, Winsor dark red, alizarin, burnt sienna, terra rosa, Indian red, ultramarine violet, ultramarine blue, ceruoleum, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow and white. I also add a touch of Renaissance Gold (mixed in with ultramarine blue and yellow) for the gold handle for the blue creamer.