DEMONSTRATION: STILL LIFE WITH SATIN PILLOW

1 Use an HB pencil on hot-pressed illustration board to create the detailed drawing. Consider each part of the composition so there will be no guesswork while painting. Next, paint the basic shapes of the pillow with a mixture of Naples yellow, zinc white, and alizarin crimson. Then air-brush in the folds and highlights with tints and shades of the same colors. Paint in some wrinkles with a rigger and scratch out some with a single-edge razor blade. Blacken a few sections of the Persian rug to gauge the colors. Cover the edges of the pillow with drafting tape to prevent the rug colors from bleeding.

2 Paint the Persian rug with basic colors: light cobalt blue, dusty pink, browns, and off-whites. Outline areas with pure black, and use an airbrush for the cast shadows. Create texture by cross-hatching over the entire rug with transparent watercolors (ultramarine blue and ivory black).

3 Paint the foreground oak drawers with a mixture of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and burnt umber. Use the airbrush to paint the basic patterns of the wood grain and the cast shadows. Paint the fringe of the rug with a dark mixture of burnt umber, cobalt blue, and Naples yellow. The underpainting is much darker than the actual fringe, which helps create an illusion of shadow.

4 Apply a lighter layer of fringe over the underpainting with Naples yellow and burnt umber. Notice that portions of the darker fringe underneath show through. Paint the knobs on the drawers and the keyhole on the right, and then re-establish highlights on the drawers.

5 Complete the highlights on the fringe. Then paint the basic colors of the strawberries and the top of the teapot. Paint the spout with pure ivory black; then finish the tiny knob on the lid of the teapot.

6 Complete all the silver and the three apples. Then paint the flowers. Paint the tops of the strawberries last. Silver is easiest to paint by making the entire under-painting black and then carefully observing all the reflections around it. Silver takes on all the colors and shapes around it, and it usually distorts the shapes.

CREAMER DETAIL This close-up of the creamer and surrounding objects demonstrates the precision that gouache can achieve. Notice that the reflections in the creamer are of the surrounding objects. The opacity of gouache makes it a wonderful medium for building layers of light over dark throughout the painting. Additionally, a lot can be accomplished in an hour of painting because gouache dries so quickly.

STILL LIFE WITH SATIN PILLOW (32" × 40") gouache on illustration board, private collection

7 Shade the strawberries slightly with black watercolor. Then paint the seeds and add highlights with permanent white gouache in the proper areas. Permanent white gouache white is a good permanent hue when used in its pure state but should never be used as a mixing white.