The string for the pears is made up of Cadmium Yellow Light, desaturated and darkened with Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine. The lightest two steps also use Titanium White and Cadmium Red.

Here I’m working from the darkest step into the light. Since the pear it lit from the front, the darkest darks are around the perimeter.

At this point the values can be deceiving with the darks appearing much darker than they should be. It is important to stick with the plan until all of the steps can be seen in context.

I keep moving up the value scale, step by step, sculpting the three dimensional form as I go.

Four steps painted, two to go.

The pear after smoothing. My technique was to first smooth the gradient, using a bristle brush that was wiped clean every few strokes. Then I adjusted the form by alternately dabbing on bits of paint from two bristle brushes, one for darks and one for lights. I would tend to hold the brush perpendicular to the canvas and let the bristles splay a bit in order to get a nice texture. I found it was helpful to alternate between light and dark, working over the entire surface of the pear, instead of focusing on any single area.

Smoothing the second painting. You can see here that the paint has been applied fairly thickly and without a lot of fuss.

The second painting at the end of the evening.

The string for the background was based on Prussian Blue. The lighter values were desaturated with Cadmium Yellow and Red and then lightened with white. The darker values used Burnt Sienna instead of Cadmium Red.

Before working on the background, I adjusted the pear shapes to be a little less generic. Adjustments were in Yellow Ochre and Prussian Blue. Note in particular the restating of the lower left edge of the left pear to show a larger triangle of light blue background. The upper right edge of the left pear was restated to make the shape less generic.

The new magnetic easel really comes in handy for exacting edge work because I can easily rotate the piece I am working on. I will still have to practice painting in all directions if I want to do large paintings.

I mixed a string of four values for the background gradient, and then painted steps of these values and the three in between. I’ve found that it is best to work from the darks into the lights. When working from light to dark, the lighter values can easily obliterate the darker values because the lighter pigments tend to be opaque while the darker pigments are transparent.

I try to use a large brush wherever possible, but I’m using a small brush here because the silhouette shapes are really important.

The background gradient has been smoothed and I’ve softened the edges of the shadow shapes.

Here’s the other painting.

I didn’t go home until 2am.

I am fascinated by the interplay of the deep blue shadow shapes and the yellow pears. This idea has lots of potential.

I love the shape of this Bosc pear. Hopefully I can paint it before it spoils.

Here’s the block in. I especially like how the front of the tabletop is bright, the top of the table is mid-tone, and the shadow of the tabletop is dark.

This is an interesting composition. I also like the reflection of the blue background on the left side of the left pear.

Here’s the second block in. I’m still not happy with the shape of the left pear, which is too generic, so I will probably adjust it as I put in the background.

My studio at the end of the evening, with both paintings resting on my new magnetic easel.