Paint Along With Nancy Kominsky; 109; Still life with vegetable

. . . . . Hello again, this is Nancy Kaminsky and today we're going to paint vegetables. We're going to paint a lovely soup terrain in bird orange. I think you're going to like it very much. I'd like to think you're going to make me this journey today, but it's not a cooking class. Here we go.

We're going to stain our canvas as usual with a little bird umber and an solvent, or a medium. Not too runny, because it will be difficult then to have you drawing, um, stay on the canvas and we'll start sliding if it's too runny. Don't worry about getting it too perfect, it's not important. A little problem here with the canvas, which is sizing is very rough. There we are. Fine, now let's do our drawing like this as usual. I think you've noticed that when we have a canvas that's horizontal like this, we have five lines across and only three vertically.

Do this. Always in quarters first, like that. I will start with our drawing. We're going to put in of course the largest object first, which is a soup dream, and then we build the vegetables around that. Let's start with a square. Again, putting our object in a large square. This way, we get it pretty well even on both sides. It saves a lot of aggravation of trying to balance the sides of the bowl. I had a marvelous top to it. Let's do this first like that. Now we're cutting out the bowl in the square like this. Don't forget the bottom has to be curved downward, the same as the lip.

Both curved exactly the same. This has an interesting lip effect right here like that. Let's put that in right now and extends out over the sides of the bowl like that. Now we have a marvelous top like this. Again, we have to put another line, probably won't show, but we do it anyway. Remember that, do all your drawing even if you don't see it. You must put it there. Even if you paint it out. Now we have a little top that goes on like that. Don't worry about that. This has some interesting handles. Now as a beginning painter, it may do you in. So don't worry about it, but be a little careful of it. Let's assume this is an Italian pot and it's handmade and Italian pottery. The charm of it is that it's not perfect.

Anyway, that's a very good reason. You can always use that. I'm giving you that. Like that. That's why they look like ears, don't they? There. That's, of course, the most careful drawing in the hell painting that we must do because it's important. And it's the star of this painting, this pot, this tree. It's a very exciting piece actually. It's beautiful. Now let's start with our vegetables. We go to the next largest one, which is an eggplant. It's like that. Be very careful that your vegetables are lying down and not standing up. So be sure that they are this way, almost, almost horizontal, not quite. Because in keeping them slightly on an angle, you go into the painting that way.

It creates depth in the painting. However, we can't have the vegetable standing straight up in the air, not at this angle. Oh, fine. Now we have some wonderful zucchini here, as I told you, with a ministerony. That's my Italian influence. But they have wonderful Italian food here, even in our, in the United States. I've noticed that it's really fantastic. There we are. I'll be very careful because these can be the shape of carrots, cucumbers, and what have you. However, that's another painting. Be very careful. I think that when you do it, why don't you put a line like this so that you can keep straight? Because you will have your vegetables without even trying. They will go off or will stand up. So be very, very careful about that.

There. Now we have a lovely tomato here, like that. That's a bit large. I think the thing I really love to do, which I'm going to put in in just a moment, is a celery. That was such fun to paint. So that's what we're going to do next. Actually, I should have done that first, but I got busy there. This is the first time I've painted celery, and it is marvelous to paint. The color is beautiful, and it's kind of a fun thing. I hope you'll find it saying, like that. The interesting thing is the way we're going to paint the leaves of the celery. Now, for now, don't delineate them simply. Just put a suggestion of leaves. And don't forget that celery has stalks, separate stalks. Now, as we paint, I will show you how we will do that. Fine.

Now, over here, we have some mushrooms, like that, this way. And then we have one going this way. Just a second. I think I have a little differently. You see how easy it was to erase that? That's the marvelous thing about this sort of thing here. We're seeing the underneath part of this, mushroom like this. So we're seeing the bottom of this stem and the bottom of a little hat. Now, we're doing one in reverse, so you're seeing it the other way. However, only the shading will tell us the difference. Fine. There's some little button ones down here, but don't fuss with those. We have some lovely peas, and they're right here, like this. I have one crossing over this way. And we have some garlic, and little pieces of garlic, like that. Now, I think that's all the drawing we're going to do.

Let me straighten out the celery. It looks a little strange right here. I have some bumps, celery that actually doesn't have bumps. Let's leave that for the moment. There we are. The drawing is finished. Now we're going to shade it and decide where the light is coming from. Of course, that's always the most important thing after the drawing. So we're going to take our brush with our umber wash, not too dripping, please. Dry your brush off a little like that, and then go to your drawing. Now, the light in this painting is coming from the left, so that means we shade our terrain this way. Very lightly, please, because you can lose your drawing if it's too messy. Like that. And, of course, the eggplant. I have to change, or am I going to use a saying, Obergine in England? Now, I have to say, go back to using eggplant.

I have to change everything around when I was making a series in England. Now, I find I have to go back to my beginnings, as it were. They're shade that's not like that. And the celery. Now, they're the soup-tree and cast a shadow on the celery, so it will be very dark in here. I would like you to shade that. Don't lose that. You see, I almost lost that top. Be very careful about that. Now, and the highlight on the celery is actually down here, where it catches the light. You see? I don't want to fuss for this too much, because I actually will do it in the painting on the bottom of your zucchini, which are courgettes in England. And we put little hats on it, but we can do that later. And the peas.

And we have little small, you know, little peas like that, actually. Let's leave that for the moment. There we are. Now, we're going to paint. I think I've got everything in fine, very good. Now, we're finished with the drawing. Now, we're going to start painting. This is, of course, always the fun part. And remember, we start with the dark and work towards the light. So, the light's coming from the left. We start with the dark color on the right of the canvas, like this. I've used this actually on your palette, an ugly color. With the other colors, it's the perfect background for the greens and the reds and the burnt orange. And this is what you must always think about. Sometimes, when you mix a color, it looks terrible, but you must remember that you must see your painting totally. You don't see each color separately. It's putting them together that creates the effect. So, when you see a color that says, my goodness, that's a terrible color.

And you start fooling with it. And, of course, that's where you're really in trouble. Because you're seeing that one color out of context and away from the others. These are the things when I was learning to paint. There were so many pitfalls that way. And I never finished painting. It was so busy playing with the color and thinking, my goodness, that looks strange. That looks terrible, you know, and so on. And by a guy before I was through, it did look terrible. I was still playing with it. There we are. Scratch around your objects so you don't lose them. Don't worry about our little thing of the jigs down there.

They'll be all right. Go right back to them a little later. All right. Now, let's go to the middle town. Leave that for the moment. Just like that. Don't fuss with it. You can go back over it. Go to the middle town like this. This color is called Grey Down Dark Green. And we grey this green down or cool it, as I say, by adding purple and red. Get the middle town in there like that. And these are the things you learn as you keep painting. How to tell to cool your color and keep it from dominating the rest of the colors in the painting or the objects. Now we go to the light town. Watch your little soup for me.

I don't think you're exactly anxious to go ahead and keep drawing it. So try to be a little bit careful with it. You probably could make this soup fast and I can paint it. Can we trim the handles like this? Oops. There. I'm very fond of saying if you can cook, you can paint. I can't cook. If you learn to paint, you'll probably learn to cook. Now work your dark town into the light town a little bit like that and vice versa.

To give it a little excitement and a little interest. And also to relate the painting. I think we're going to work a little burnt orange and what have you in that. A little purple on the right side. I would like to keep this rather dark over here. It's a very exciting thing when it's rather dark. Let's get our shadows underneath our objects right now. Be careful at the bottom of your pot like this. I still think my little squash is sitting up in the air. I'm going to try and change that a little bit. If there it is. Go right across underneath. Such objects look like they're lying down on something and not suspended or floating in space. Score it for reflections.

Now leave it for the moment. Let's go to our celery. It has a beautiful light green in there, but let's start with that. This is the middle green. It's actually not quite that dark. There you are. We're going to add a little purple in just a moment. Your strokes will tell us that this is not smooth and has little ridges. As you well know, I'm sure you've all seen celery worked with it. Eat it. So you know that it does have little ridges and is not smooth. So we do not paint it smooth. This again is a lesson in textures. This is very important. Let's give it a feeling that there are three stalks there like that. Let's go into the foliage.

And this is the way we paint it. Parish forbid that we should paint every little leaf. A few light ones. You guys have very pale light tones if you remember. Some of them are turning yellow. We're going to add a little purple back in there. As you remember a few moments ago, I mentioned the shadows back in there. Like that. And in back of the handle through the handle. And then back in the handle like this. And then score it down like that. All right, leave that for just a moment. Let's go to our soup terrain because we... Let's put a little more purple back there like this. There we are. Cover up that little knob because you can add that last. There. Leave that for the moment. Let's start with the dark tone on the lid like this. There your strokes are important again.

Like that. And a little lip. Be very careful with that lip. It can be a trap. It's not easy. Middle tone like this. Then the light tone like that. Isn't that beautiful against that? The color, the play of the lights and darks and warm and cool shades is what makes it absolutely lovely. And this is what painting is all about. Work your lip in like this. I think that this is a beautiful object in this painting and it helps the painting quite a lot. However, when you're painting, especially when you're beginning painter, please don't clutter up your painting with a lot of little objects. They're difficult to paint. And if you don't execute them properly, it can make your paint look very not very professional. So try to keep away from a lot of little gimmicks.

Have one point of interest and that's it. Outline is a little purple to emphasize the shape. And let's put our little knob in. It's a very cute way to do that. It's a highlight hitting it like this. We'll put a little top like that. There we are. Let's leave that for just a moment and go to the base of this terrain like this. Now there again, watch your strokes, lovely, smooth, flowing strokes like this. Now if it ends up looking like something else, don't worry about it. Just keep right on painting. I'm going to smooth it out just a wee bit because it doesn't look smooth and it is porcelain or crockery or whatever. Middle tone, next.

In the shape of the object, you see we practically do it on both sides in a circular motion like this. Now these are the things that when I was learning, no one told me. And this is what we're trying to do with this series is to really lead you in step by step until you become so conscious of form and so conditioned that you will do it yourself. I promise you. I've been teaching for many years all over the world now and that's absolutely true. You will do it. Oops, there. Let's go back through here again like this. It's a little bit fuzzy. There we are. I think I've still got this. Now I've made the mistake you see here of worrying about my little eggplant. So be careful of that. Go right through it and then we'll bring the eggplant color right over it like that. Leave it alone for a moment. Let's go through our handles.

Now the handle on the right side is in deep shadow. So it does not have any light tone on it. Just middle tone, middle tone and dark tone. So we're going to put just a little middle tone like that. And a little purple underneath because there isn't shadow underneath. We go to the one on the left. Oops. Just clean it out. You see how marvelous it is with a knife? You just simply scrape it off. You're not stuck with it. Just don't worry. Don't want you getting upset about it. The whole idea is that you enjoy it. You create. And that's what it's all about. I want to put a little purple on the side of our, our dream here like this. Now we have a highlight on that, which we will do right now,

because I will forget. I get so involved painting that I do forget. So we have a highlight that goes here and here and here like this. Alright, let's go to our tomato. Of course, in painting and in nature, many forms are similar. It sets the little peculiarities that make it a little different. This has a little hat on it like this. And we're going to put the highlight like that. We go to the egg plant.

The dark tone. In the shape of the object like this. Little dark tone at the bottom. And we're going to put a little hat on that. Like that. And of course, our lovely highlight, which I'm going to put now. And then we have our little zucchini on the end here. Some reason. I think it's because I don't really like them. Maybe that's why I don't always paint them so well. I don't really like to eat them. I'm not terribly interested in them.

I like to eat them or to paint them. You'll find this is absolutely true though. There are things you don't like to paint. And you'll find it to be much more difficult to work on. And it also has a little hat like this. Now this is medium tone under here because it's like that. I'm going to put our mushrooms in. Oops. And we haven't goes the other way like this. And we put a little purple. And we have some garlic like that.

Garlic can be many colors. It can be absolutely pure white. It depends. If it's fresh, it's pure white. But if it's been around a while, it turns a very peculiar yellow. I know. I've grown them. I hadn't hang any of my kitchen in Rome. And they're getting quite old and they're getting quite yellow. Let's put a little purple on the side like that. And a little tassel. And we have some peas like this. We're having little pods cross over like that. This way. I'm going to put a couple of little peas around like that. Let's put a little highlight like this.

Let's emphasize the peas a little bit like that. But they look like green beans. And someone says what lovely green beans. Marvellous. You've got green beans. Don't worry about it. It has a little purple shadows underneath these like this. Well, that's it for today. Now for our signature. I hope you like this. Goodbye for now. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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