Paint the garden's summer bounty.
The still life, a popular genre of painting for centuries, is in many ways easier to tackle than the portrait, which requires the artist to use a live subject, one that can move and twitch and be otherwise troublesome. A slight variant on the typical fruit or floral subjects of a still life (NGA), vegetables come in many different shapes, colors and sizes, yet are likewise stationary, and can be carefully selected in order to form a pleasing and not overly difficult composition.
Instructions
Painting Zucchini and Squash
1. Squeeze green paint onto your palette. Dip your brush in green paint. Paint a 4-inch, slightly curving cylindrical outline for the first zucchini. Fill in the outline with green paint. On your palette, add two parts ultramarine blue to the green to darken it. Apply this color along the bottom edge of the zucchini, blending upwards to create the illusion of shadow and roundness. Clean your brush.
2. Squeeze yellow ochre and cadmium yellow onto separate sections of your palette. Dip your brush in yellow ochre. Apply paint in light, short strokes to the top, left portion of the zucchini. This will show the effects of the light. Clean your brush.
3. Mix one part yellow ochre and one part cadmium yellow. Paint a 4 1/2 inch outline in a slightly squatter shape than you did for the zucchini. Fill in the outline with the same color. Clean your brush.
4. Mix one part ultramarine blue and one part crimson in a separate section of the palette. Apply this color along the bottom edge of the squash, blending upwards to create the illusion of roundness. Clean your brush.
5. Mix one part cadmium yellow and one part white. Apply this color to the top and left sides of the squash to create highlights. Clean brush.
