This oil painting tutorial is by no means the be all end all to painting a muffin. As you know, there are as many ways to paint as there are artist. What I hope to provide is motivation, inspiration and a little technical knowledge to anyone interested, as I explain how I approached this particular painting .
The first thing I would suggest for any artist to do is study you subject. Whether you are painting from life or a photo, get to know your subject. Study each area of the object. Look for areas of light, dark, shadows. Ask yourself:
1. What colors do I see?...Look for color patterns and shapes.
2. How I will paint the object...What techniques will I employ?.
3. Also make mental notes of any area that you might find challenging.
"The Muffin" was painted from real life. The photo shows the actual muffin that was used. I started this one by studying the muffin. I divided into areas the were defined by colors and shapes. I also made mental notes of where there were transitions of color.
The palette and material used were:
Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Naples Yellow, Transparent Red Oxide Red, Ivory Black and Titanium
White.
8 x 8 gallery wrapped canvas.
No. 8 Filbert, No. 4 Filbert, No. 2 Round and No. 6 Fan Brush
M. Graham Walnut Alkyd medium
I start by sketching the muffin on the canvas using very burnt sienna thinned with medium. For the background I used titanium white and Cadmium yellow. The yellow was used to provide a hint of warmth. The foreground was blocked Ivory Black and White to create
various shades of gray. Next I blocked in some of the basic shapes and color tones using a mixture of cadmium orange and trans oxide red. I chose to use the colors in the muffin for the initial block in for the shadow area because I wanted to add interest to the shadow areas.
Next, I experimented with different mixtures of colors. These were used to fill in the shapes trying to match the color that I saw in the muffin.
Finally some of the edges were blended to create softer transitions. Dashes of colors were placed here and there. The background and foreground were blended together using a soft fan brush. To complete the painting, the shadowed area was painted again with various shades of gray allowing some of the initial colors to show.
