FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do you paint eggs?
(In answer to an email.)
First don't be disappointed: eggs are one of the most difficult
subjects in still life paintings. I heard that it used to be a
master-test in the old days.
Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe for painting eggs. I think with eggs
it's just like in any other subject, that one has to observe closely.
Because an egg is such a perfect shape, its difficult to get the
right form (i mean: create the illusion of the right 3-d form.). As
for the shadows being warm or cool, this depends on the color of the
primary light source and the color of the lights that illuminate the
shadow (also reflected lights, eg. reflections from walls). In my studio for instance, I have rather cool tl
bulbs on the ceiling, and a single warmer tl bulb to light the subject
(see
http://www.postcardfromholland.com/still_life_cherry_lamp.html )
In that case, the shadow is clearly cooler than the light parts (notice the difference between the light and shaded part of the white table, the cool tl
bubls on the ceiling illuminate the shadow a bit). But this needn't be
so in general, ie. lights could be cool and shadows warm. One again has to observe closly. If you can't
decide which one is warm/cool, just try to mach the tone and color of the shadow as close as
possible, and then flip your eye between the subject and painting to
see if it's correct. Maybe it will then appear bluer or greener or
whatever than what you see in real life. It does help if there is a big
difference between the light of the primary source and the light in
the shadow. This you can arrange for yourself by modifying your setup.
But even if you get these points right, eggs are a difficult
subject. Takes a lot of skill to just manipulate the paint
right, in such a way that you can capture all the gradients
of tone/color right. I always oil out the panel with a 1/2
stand oil-1/2 liquin mixture. (This means: apply the mixture
to the panel, so that it is just moist, ie. in a very thin
layer.) This has the effect that the paint flows onto the
panel well, and it can be moved around with a dry brush
later on more easily...
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