April Challenge - Bartlett Pears on Marble

After visiting my all time favorite Niagara Falls Flower Garden yesterday - and capturing hundreds of breathtaking flower and Falls photos - I woke up full of energy and a great feeling that today is a special day when something new should happen.

What can be more exciting than starting the first painting challenge for all artistic souls out there who would like to join me in a journey of painting and drawing together!

I rushed to the grocery store to get the requisites for my painting composition - and by the way, fruits to eat for the following week, but that was secondary...

I am sure the salesman was questioning my sanity - giving me now and then that puzzled professionally discrete look - as I carefully examined every piece of fruit I placed in my basket. I am glad he could not read my mind ... luckily for me, we human beeings are not yet equipped to do so. Each fruit had to be just "right" ofcourse.

Now the difficult task began. The composition!

I got a big pineapple - no... that is too complex, painting the texture of pineapple skin would give anyone a bellyache... strawberryies - maybe? ... next time... apples - possible... mouthwatering large green grapes - they look delectable, but not so simple to paint...

Out of every kind of fruit I have got - (and there are quite a bit of them, trust me) - my eyes settled on an interesting pair of Bartlett pears. One of them had such interesting tones of red, green and yellow and millions of small dots all around.

It was love at the first sight. After experimenting with a few backgrounds and surfaces, I settled on the simple bluish-gray marble top and deep pale dark blue background. Its coldness visually complements the warm pear tones and definitely makes them stand out.

My light source is placed in such a way that all I cared for could easily be visible and hopefully painted. I wanted to have a strongly defined and distinguishable light and shadow areas.

Highlights, middle tone (thats how the predominant light area is called) on the light side and shadow accent, reflected light and cast shadow on the shadow side of the composition.

So go ahead, challenge your eyesight to find them all and don't forget to paint them.

They are the true foundation for any 3-dimensional appearance on a 2-dimensional surface. They will give such a beautiful depth and sense of space to the painting or drawing.

The deadline for this challenge is April 10. New challenge will be posted on April 11.