Clementines and Plum Blossoms

Title: Clementines and Plum Blossoms in Silver Bowl
3x5 inches; watercolor and micron pen
in Moleskine sketchbook;
please click on image to enlarge

This sketch is based on a photograph from my recent still life shoot. I did two versions, but my family was unanimous in their preference for this one. I really like this subject and look forward to painting it again!

Still Life Photo Shoot

Clementines and Plum Blossoms in Silver Bowl

Yesterday, my artist friend Jenny Mark and I spent several fun-filled hours photographing fruit still lifes*. We had two cameras popping away and berries were flying and backdrops were falling... But it was a blast, and we ended up with over 150 reference photos for future paintings. Of course, of those 150 photographs, there were probably 12-15 real "keepers."

It was a great experience and we learned a lot, including:

1. using the same color background and tablecloth creates a unified look;
2. a tripod is a necessity; a monopod would have been even better;
3. two different cameras under the exact same conditions can yield vastly different results, especially in terms of color quality;
4. using a tungsten light really makes the colors vivid. We used natural lighting for the majority of our pics, but the few photos taken with the tungsten light were noticeably brighter;
5. some planning is good, but being open to serendipity is even better.

Here, you can see that the white background is too jarring:

The black foam-board backdrop is somewhat better:

The black velour backdrop is just right:

The bonus of photographing fresh fruit is that it makes for a lovely lunch afterward:

I'm sure elements from these still lifes will be appearing in my paintings and drawings for months to come!

(* Wikipedia informs us that the plural of still life is still lifes. It seems counter-intuitive, but I'm going with it...)