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  • WARNING!

  • Artists' materials are very dangerous and can cause injury or death! Use in a well-ventilated area,

  • read all warning labels, and keep out of reach of children! Use at your own risk!

  • So, I want to teach you how to paint what you see.

  • I've painted this silver cup here on a table.

  • This is the finished painting

  • I'm going to walk you through, from beginning to end.

  • If you haven't seen the tutorials about

  • how to draw in proportion or how to mix colors,

  • you should watch those before you watch this one.

  • One thing I should make clear,

  • this is not a method that you necessarily will use for the rest of your life.

  • This is a method for learning how to paint

  • and learning how to see,

  • and learning how to paint what you see.

  • So, it's very strict and structured,

  • but it's something that is primarily a way for you to learn how to paint.

  • Once you've done this,

  • and painted several paintings using this method,

  • then you can go from there and do anything you want with it.

  • Even modern art, or whatever.

  • It's just a very structured way

  • to paint exactly what you see in front of you.

  • I'm going to paint this little silver cup

  • sitting here on this table.

  • I already have all my colors laid out

  • and I'm ready to go.

  • I'm going to play with these colors

  • most definitely as I paint,

  • but I've already premixed the basic colors of

  • the silver cup, and then this is the table.

  • And this is the cloth, and the background,

  • which is just black

  • and this is only the one step.

  • That's all there is to it.

  • We're going to start with the tea cup, obviously.

  • That's the only object in here.

  • The first thing I always do, before I paint anything,

  • is paint some background around it.

  • So it really is important,

  • and it's something that a lot of people skip,

  • but if you put just a little bit of background

  • around your object, it really helps you

  • to see these colors on the edge.

  • Otherwise, if you don't paint black,

  • or the very dark color that's in here,

  • then when you lay this in,

  • it may look right to you, but it's...

  • It just helps you to see it.

  • So, I always paint some background in.

  • It also helps you to adjust your line,

  • if you need to bump this line that way, or that way.

  • If you don't have any background,

  • you can't bump it that way,

  • you can only bump it this way.

  • So, very first thing

  • and I'll come back into the background after I paint it

  • I'm going to paint a little line

  • just to create a border.

  • That's all I care about.

  • It doesn't even have to be exact.

  • The colors don't have to be perfect.

  • I just try to get them close.

  • Then, when I come back and paint this,

  • and if this was a complicated still life,

  • this would be even more true,

  • where if I painted a little background

  • around my teacupor rather, my silver cup

  • and it dried, that's fine.

  • I can come back in with the background

  • and blend into the little bit of background

  • that's already around the teacup.

  • As opposed to having this teacup sit here

  • and be dry on this canvas, with no border,

  • and then you come in, and you hit a real hard line there.

  • It's just always easier.

  • The very first thing is to figure out

  • what color is around the teacup.

  • I know that this is black.

  • I can check it with my color checker, if I need to.

  • Always check, check, check.

  • I'm not going to check nearly as much as you should.

  • I've been painting for a long time,

  • and I have a sense about it.

  • In fact, I already know.

  • I've checked the back color, but I can see that it's going to be black.

  • I'm just going to pick up a clean brush.

  • Make sure your brush doesn't have any white in it,

  • because it will pollute your black.

  • Especially this. This is just black, black.

  • I'll put a little background,

  • or rather, a little bit of...

  • ...and this is just going to go off the end here...

  • In other words, it just keeps going,

  • but I'm not going to worry about that.

  • It comes down,

  • and here's the way to check this,

  • this is how you always check

  • to see where something goes.

  • Doesn't matter what you're painting.

  • Put some paint on my color checker,

  • and then what I'm going to do

  • is I want to determine...

  • See, I think I painted this down way too far.

  • So, I'm going to have to wipe it up.

  • I'll go ahead and do that.

  • Here's how you check where a color goes.

  • Hold out your color checker,

  • and as I move it down,

  • I ask myself, "When does the color change?"

  • And it's just right off...

  • It stops becoming black paint right at the point

  • where this handle is.

  • So, I'll just go right across.

  • I made a mental note.

  • How far down does the black go?

  • It stops right there.

  • Make a mental note with your color checker.

  • Move it down, and you're asking yourself, "When...

  • Oh, right there," and then you make a mental note

  • where that is on your cup.

  • It's right about to that point in the handle.

  • I always over-paint, just a little bit.

  • In other words,

  • when I checked with my color checker,

  • this color only came down to maybe about there.

  • But I'm going to go just slightly beyond that,

  • knowing that I'm going to take this color

  • and blend it into it a little bit.

  • I always over-paint each step,

  • and this goes for when I'm painting the silver cup.

  • Every little step that I lay in,

  • I over-paint just slightly where it belongs,

  • knowing that when I come in with the next step,

  • I'm going to bump it back a little bit.

  • I came way too far down on that.

  • OK. So, that goes for the table.

  • And then cloth in the background...

  • ...is somewhere between black and my first step.

  • This actually represents

  • the very lightest part of the fabric.

  • I don't want to pollute my black brush.

  • I'm going to pick up a new brush,

  • because I like to keep this one just for black paint.

  • I will pick up some of this

  • very lightest color in the fabric.

  • Believe it or not,

  • this is the lightest color.

  • Let me just look at it again.

  • Yeah, and that's lighter than...

  • This is the very lightest part of the fabric,

  • and black is darker than the main part,

  • so I'm just going to mix some of this together with black

  • and get the right value.

  • That's why you don't have to mix every little step,

  • because you can just mix steps together

  • to create new steps.

  • This is just the perfect color for

  • right around the cup.

  • I mean just pretty much everywhere.

  • Close enough.

  • We can put the texture that's in the fabric in afterwards.

  • Really, I'm just trying to create a border around my silver cup.

  • Now I just need the next step on the table.

  • I'll go ahead and mix up some of that,

  • or just check my step here.

  • This may be what I want.

  • It almost jumps a step.

  • So, I'll take just a line of this.

  • Since I mixed it, I'll just put a little bit in there.

  • This is the next step in the table.

  • Again, I'm not going to worry about painting the whole table.

  • I'm going to get enough just to create a border around the shadow here.

  • Let me go ahead and jump a step

  • and see where this next color goes.

  • Every time I paint,

  • I hold it out, and I ask myself,

  • "How high up does this go?"

  • "How far down does it go?"

  • "How far left does it go? How far to the right?"

  • You're just investigating.

  • And this color really exists all around.

  • At least, the right side.

  • And then right in the front, it gets even lighter.

  • So, this just goes

  • to about there.

  • And all in here.

  • Then it gets even brighter over here,

  • so I don't want to go too far.

  • OK. So now,

  • the front part gets a little bit lighter.

  • This goes pretty much everywhere...

  • Well, it goes right in here.

  • It gets even lighter right in this part.

  • But, I'm going to put just a little bit of it

  • up against the shadow.

  • And then, the very front part

  • gets even lighter.

  • Now, I'll start on the silver cup.

  • I'm going to start with the very darkest color,

  • which is black, and paint that in first.

  • Again, I've got this brush that I only keep black in.

  • I'll pick up some fresh black paint

  • and put some on my color checker,

  • and I'm going to do the same thing.

  • I'm going to ask myself, "Where does this color belong?"

  • and make mental notes.

  • I hold out black,

  • and I'm asking myself, "Where do I see black?"

  • Anything that is darker than black...

  • This is real important because it's very common.

  • If I look in the very darkest shadow

  • on the silver cup, right in here,

  • and I compare it to black,

  • the silver cup's black is even blacker

  • than my black paint.

  • In that case, I just paint it black.

  • That's just the limitation of paint.

  • The darkest we can get is black.

  • But in real life, things get even darker than black.

  • But that's OK. It all works out, and looks good.

  • The rule is:

  • If it is darker than black paint

  • if what I see there is even darker than black paint

  • I just paint it black.

  • Simple as that.

  • Investigate all the places

  • that are black, or darker than black.

  • The only places I really see

  • are just in here,

  • a little touch in there,

  • and then the shadow underneath.

  • So, I'll start with that.

  • See, I'm pushing it the other way.

  • That's why I like to have a little background.

  • But don't blend this black too much into this color,

  • or you'll end up with some

  • new color that doesn't belong there.

  • If at any point you need to pull out

  • your proportional divider, and re-check yourself,

  • I would encourage you to do that.

  • Don't just trust your lines.

  • Things get bumped around and moved,

  • so always...

  • It's easy to pull out your proportional divider

  • and re-check your lines.

  • OK, that's the shadow.

  • Now I'm just going to fill in

  • everywhere else that I see it goes.

  • I'm going to over-paint the black just a little bit.

  • I mean I'm going to paint it a little bit bigger than it needs to be,

  • because I know that when I come in with my next step,

  • I'm going to bump it a little bit.

  • OK. I think that is all the black

  • in the silver cup.

  • Now, I'll go on to the next step.

  • I don't want to use my black brush.

  • I'm going to use my other brush.

  • This would be the next step.

  • It's a really good habit to get into

  • whenever you're painting

  • to make sure your brush is not dirty.

  • Because you pick up a color,

  • then you start to paint with it,

  • and then the milk that's in the bottom of your brush

  • starts working itself into the color,

  • and you get a totally new color

  • that's very much brighter

  • and different than the original color.

  • So always clean your brush really good.

  • If you have to work it into the paint

  • and then work it out on a paper towel,

  • then you should do that.

  • OK. This is the next step.

  • I'm going to put some on my color checker

  • and check, and see where that goes.

  • And this is just a good general color

  • for underneath the lip there.

  • This edge here is a little bit darker.

  • But, I want to paint that first,

  • so I'm going to take some black paint

  • and my first step, just a tiny bit,

  • and just use it to paint that edge.

  • Actually, some of this is black.

  • So, I need to bring that down a little further.

  • I'm going to paint some on my color checker.

  • This is step number two.

  • And check again.

  • I'm just asking myself, "Where does this belong?"

  • "How far down does it go?"

  • "How far up does it go?"

  • You just keep checking in different spots.

  • Make sure there is no glare on your color checker.

  • It'll really throw your color off.

  • For some reason, I'm picking up more brown.

  • I'm going to add just a touch of red

  • I mean brown

  • to that color.

  • You can always alter your color when you paint

  • if you see something new.

  • When I paint portraits, I end up

  • playing with every color.

  • Every time I pick up a brush,

  • I play with the color.

  • See, there's some little light areas in there,

  • but they're so small, that I'm just going to come in and

  • blend them into what I've already got.

  • So, I'm just going to paint this solid color

  • all the way across here.

  • You've got to be careful when you do that.

  • But, in this case, I can do it.

  • I can just...

  • with a single stroke, I can smear in some of that reflection

  • that's inside the shadow area there.

  • I'm over-painting these dark areas, just a little bit,

  • knowing I'm going to blend back into them.

  • Is there anywhere else that step exists?

  • I want to finish with that step.

  • I can always come back to it,

  • but I want to try to finish it if I can.

  • I think that's about it.

  • I can put some color on my color checker

  • and just go around and see if there is anywhere else

  • where this color exists.

  • Let me explain something about looking at this color checker.

  • Notice, if I hold it right here

  • it looks like it doesn't match.

  • But if you'll notice the left half

  • is too dark.

  • The left half of the color checker paint is too dark,

  • and the right half is too light.

  • So therefore we know, we're positive that somewhere in there,

  • the colorthe value at least, for surematches.

  • Whenever you're trying to determine where something is,

  • if you can position your color checker

  • so that half of it is light, and half of it is dark,

  • then you know right down the middle there

  • is where that color belongs.

  • So make note of that, because it's real common.

  • Hardly ever do you hold out your color checker

  • and get just a perfect spot

  • where you can see it real easy.

  • Well, that's pretty much it.

  • I did bump my black a little bit,

  • so I'm going to go back and fix that.

  • You always want to make sure your blacks

  • are nice and black, black, black.

  • It's real easy to pollute them.

  • OK. Let's move on to the next step.

  • I'll take a new brush.

  • Again, this brush has a little color in it, so I want to make sure

  • I'm not going to alter my color

  • like it's doing right now, by mixing.

  • I'll just clean out the brush.

  • Come back, get some more.

  • Let's put some of this on the color checker

  • and see where this goes.

  • It looks like I need a little bit more

  • of something between these two.

  • So, I'm going to take some of this,

  • and some of this,

  • and mix them together. Make a new step.

  • And this is the perfect color for the

  • next little area that I need to fill in.

  • Really take your time and investigate.

  • You want to just work on one area at a time.

  • Just checking the right side,

  • and then paint that side in.

  • And then work on any other areas

  • where the color might exist.

  • That's fine.

  • I'm just making mental notes.

  • And now, I'm just going to go fill in.

  • When you fill in your color,

  • it's OK to be sloppy. Don't worry about it.

  • If you're hesitant, and you feel like you don't know what you're doing,

  • just check, and just fill in the blank.

  • The more you have filled in, the easier it gets.

  • While you're painting...

  • I have a pretty good eye, because I've been doing this for so long...

  • but always, if you feel like you're not sure where something goes,

  • pull your color checker out, and check again.

  • Now I'll just move to the full step.

  • That was our half step.

  • Check and see where this goes.

  • If you feel like you've put...

  • For instance, this color really exists right here,

  • and I painted the other one there.

  • Just paint right on top of it.

  • OK. Let me go on to the next step

  • which is this one.

  • Let's go on to the next step.

  • These are getting really close to the shine.

  • There's not a lot of these last colors left.

  • They're just little spots

  • near the shiny areas.

  • I'm going to come back and put the shine

  • into this color that I'm putting in right here.

  • If you just put in the shine, like white,

  • then you're going to get white mixed with this color,

  • which is really different than this color.

  • So I'm putting this in,

  • then I'm going to come back in

  • and put the shine inside of this color.

  • That's really hard to see.

  • If you pull out your color checker and try to check this,

  • it's not going to look right.

  • because all you can see is the shine.

  • I always like to put my shine into other colors,

  • instead of just right into the dark.

  • I haven't done any blending at this point,

  • and that's very important.

  • We don't do any blending until

  • we have all the color laid in.

  • We're getting really close.

  • So, the only thing really left

  • is the shiny areas,

  • which I'll go ahead and put in.

  • I haven't done any blending at this point.

  • I'm not going to worry about blending

  • because if you blend before all the colors are put in,

  • you'll make all kinds of mistakes.

  • But if you get all your colors laid in

  • before you start to blend,

  • it makes it much easier to see what you're doing.

  • Don't be tempted to start

  • blending and fixing as you paint.

  • Go ahead and get all your colors in as much as you can.

  • You can fix a little bit, here and there,

  • to fix your line, like I did,

  • but don't start blending these colors together

  • until every part of the canvas is filled in

  • on the object that you are painting.

  • This color is right next to my shine,

  • and I've skipped that one.

  • Maybe a little bit of it.

  • This is pretty much everywhere the shine goes.

  • And this one down here,

  • this might be as light as it gets.

  • But it's just a little dot

  • inside of what I've already got.

  • I'm going to come back with a super shine

  • and put it on top of this.

  • So, now I'm going to go ahead.

  • Before I put the shine in,

  • I'm going to do my blending.

  • I'm going to go ahead and blend everything,

  • then lay in the final shine right on top of it.

  • So, the blending, you don't have to do much.

  • Don't over do it.

  • Just up, down. Just a little bit.

  • The question to be asking yourself is,

  • "Which one has more blend?"

  • Is that a softer transition

  • from here to there, over there,

  • or is it softer here.

  • Obviously this is a big, dark area,

  • and a light area,

  • and it needs to be sort of blended together

  • all through here.

  • I'm not going to let this color

  • get into this deep shadow that's so pretty.

  • I'm just going to work along

  • this little transition part,

  • and leave the rest alone.

  • Don't let this get into that.

  • Fix this little bit of background

  • that needs to come over.

  • I'm going to start by putting in

  • not the lightest color, but something next to it.

  • And then, I'll come back in,

  • and inside that, I'll put a super shine.

  • OK. So, I like this.

  • There's some shines on the front and

  • I think it's my face or arms reflecting.

  • It's a little bit more orange than the rest of it.

  • Let me go ahead and find the color first.

  • This is for those little reflections in the front.

  • Find the value.

  • And then I'm probably...

  • That's a little too bright.

  • Maybe something like this.

  • I'm just going to make it a little bit more "orangey."

  • Let's see how this looks.

  • That's pretty close. Maybe a little bit too bright.

  • And those go right in the front.

  • Nice and sharp.

  • Let me fix my lines a little bit

  • before I put the shines in.

  • Pick up my black brush here

  • and fix this.

  • Pick up some pure black.

  • Put that line back in

  • that runs across, right there.

  • I'll put in these last little shines,

  • then I'll see what I've got.

  • This is too big right here.

  • I'm going to take this small little brush here

  • and put in the reflections.

  • I'm not quite ready for my brightest reflections.

  • I'm going to start with one

  • that's not quite as bright as it should be.

  • There's a little bit of splotchiness on the silver,

  • so I'm going to go ahead and put that in.

  • I don't want these to be stronger than they should be.

  • The biggest amateur mistake that I see,

  • and I see it over and over again,

  • is people increase the contrast.

  • If you see a spot over there,

  • it may be a real subtle spot,

  • but when you paint it, you make it

  • even stronger, and more distinct.

  • You've always got to ask yourself,

  • "Is mine more distinct, or is that one more distinct?"

  • Because a lot of times, real subtle things

  • that your eye can just barely pick up,

  • you'll paint them way stronger than they really are

  • because your eye is so sensitive to those dark areas.

  • Let me go ahead and put the very lightest shine in.

  • I think this brush is a little fat for that purpose.

  • Let's see here...

  • I still think that "orangey" shine in front

  • needs more orange in it.

  • Let me take some really strong...

  • Now I'm just going to play with the shape a little bit,

  • and bump things around.

  • Try to fix where I see the problems.

  • Once you get it all filled in and blended,

  • basically it's not finished,

  • but I've done everything I can think to do

  • at the first stage.

  • I've blended it. I've put in the reflections.

  • It's all done.

  • Now I'm just going to bump it around.

  • When I get to this point,

  • all "bumping around and fixing" means

  • is asking myself, "What's the difference?"

  • What's the difference between my cup and that.

  • There's all kinds of questions you can ask yourself.

  • You can ask yourself,

  • "Where is there more contrast?"

  • "Do my reflections stand out more?"

  • "Are they more visible? Do they 'pop' more than it does there?"

  • If they do, then I need to make them more subtle,

  • and blend them in.

  • You don't want more contrast here,

  • and you don't want things to "pop" more here.

  • When you paint, that's what amateurs do,

  • because you love to see an effect.

  • If you want to put a shine in, you make it stronger.

  • You see a shadow, you make it stronger.

  • Don't do that.

  • The biggest question typically is,

  • "Which one is more subtle?"

  • "Which one is more soft?"

  • "Which one has less contrast in it?"

  • It's almost always the subject

  • because we tend to paint things with more contrast.

  • So if you see stronger contrast,

  • then take it out.

  • For instance,

  • this is a slightly softer line right there

  • in the actual cup.

  • So, I need to soften this line a little bit.

  • I see that this has too much of a corner on it.

  • I need to round it just the teeniest bit.

  • I'll pick up some pure black,

  • go back in there and

  • round it out just a little bit.

  • Again, it's nothing but "What is the difference?"

  • If you look at that, and you say,

  • "I don't know what the difference is. Mine doesn't look right."

  • Well, that's not good enough.

  • What you do is break it down into individual parts.

  • If you don't know what the difference is,

  • just fix one problem at a time.

  • This reflection comes down too low.

  • It shouldn't come down that much.

  • So, I just bump it up.

  • I see a reflection on the bottom of the handle, right there.

  • So, I've got to put that in.

  • It's just fixing one thing after another.

  • But, if you wait until all your paint is painted in,

  • the whole object is filled in

  • you've done all your blending, you've put the shines in

  • if you wait until that point before you fix,

  • it's a lot easier to fix.

  • If you start fixing as you are painting,

  • and blending as you are painting,

  • then you tend to create all kinds of mistakes,

  • which then you can't fix.

  • But, if you start off by just using your color checker,

  • and making sure everything is right,

  • then it always is easier

  • once you get to the point of fixing.

  • A little bit of splotchiness inside the cup in there,

  • so I'll put some of that in.

  • Now, I'm just going to bump my shine.

  • It's so thin, I'm just going to drag this brush across,

  • fix my line, and make the shine even sharper.

  • My shine comes across too much.

  • I need to fix that.

  • I'm just going to take this

  • brush that's got a lot of dark paint in it,

  • and just drag it over, just to darken it down.

  • OK. Now I'm going to bump the shape around.

  • See how mine comes out, and it's too high?

  • And that one is more of a point?

  • This one has a nicer shape on this side.

  • Oops. Wrong color.

  • These shines are too distinct.

  • They're more subtle there.

  • So, I'm going to take a big brush

  • and just soften it a little bit.

  • There's one really sharp line that runs through it.

  • So, I'm going to get some of that "orangey" color.

  • Don't just guess. Check your color.

  • Make sure that you're not going to get it way too bright.

  • Put it on your color checker and see what you've got.

  • Too bright.

  • My lines are too much like two lines,

  • and I don't see that as much over there.

  • OK. I don't want to overwork it.

  • Without thinking too hard

  • that's basically put in, and I'm going to take a little break,

  • and then come back and look at it with fresh eyes,

  • because I can't really see anything right now,

  • then we'll go from there.

  • After a little break

  • I step back and look at this,

  • and I see a few problems with my drawing.

  • So, I'm going to fix the ellipse, for one thing.

  • It's a little fat on this side.

  • It's a little fat overall.

  • I think this is about my viewpoint.

  • Let me bump that down a little bit.

  • You can see why it's so important

  • to have some background

  • to bump things around with.

  • That helps that a little bit.

  • I'm just looking for differences.

  • That shine doesn't get up quite that high.

  • There's a little bit more

  • of this lighter color in the handle there.

  • Pull out your color checker.

  • Check yourself whenever you need to.

  • Don't trust your eye, especially at this point.

  • You start getting optical illusions.

  • It's very subtle.

  • There's some nice reflections under the lip here that I missed.

  • Make sure my foundation is good, though,

  • before I start putting that in.

  • This needs to be a little bit wider.

  • Straighten these lines.

  • Easier to do that now than after I

  • put the reflection in there.

  • This has got a little bit more of a blend to it.

  • Just the slightest bit.

  • Now I'm ready to put those reflections on the bottom.

  • There's a little bit of black down lower.

  • It's going to be way easier to fix this now,

  • before I put the reflection in.

  • So, I'm going ahead and taking my time.

  • Add black back into it.

  • Now I'm going to bump it the other way

  • with some of the background color.

  • This should be a nice sharp line right here.

  • Do I see any... oh. Let me...

  • I almost forgot to put in the glow on the bottom there.

  • I'm going to pick up some of this blood orange.

  • This is one you really want to check, if you can.

  • It's a small spot.

  • But if we can figure out what color that is...

  • The tendency on something like this

  • whenever you have a dark area,

  • and there's a shine in the dark

  • the tendency is to think that it's way brighter than it is.

  • So, I want to make sure that I don't get the value wrong.

  • Or the color wrong. But especially the value.

  • See? Look how dark this color is.

  • If I put that color on white...

  • Look at that.

  • So, that is the shine, maybe. We'll see.

  • Let me check.

  • It might be too light. I'll bet you it's too light.

  • Look how much darker it is than white paint.

  • It's pretty close, so we're going to go with that.

  • And the color... mine might be a little bit too red.

  • Let me get a little bit more yellow.

  • Now I've lightened it up, so I need to darken it back.

  • But if I want to keep the yellow,

  • I"m going to darken it with brown, not blue,

  • because that will make it turn to green.

  • I'm going to re-check this color.

  • It's such an important color.

  • It'll ruin your whole silver cup

  • if you get it wrong, maybe.

  • That's too bright down there.

  • This is right on the bottom of the lip.

  • The very brightest part.

  • It's a hard one to do.

  • I'm trying to keep that little thin black line

  • that runs through there.

  • OK, and then one more,

  • which is even thinner.

  • Don't like that at all.

  • Let me fix that.

  • One more time.

  • I'm just dabbing it,

  • and then I'll blend it a little bit, if I need to.

  • OK, that's too fat.

  • Now, I'm going to come back with some black

  • And it really doesn't have to be black black.

  • A little bit of that.

  • And let's just fix that line.

  • This is too fat and bold, that black in there.

  • I need to blend it a little bit.

  • I'm just going to take the brush that I painted the orange with,

  • and get rid of most of the paint.

  • And then just come over and

  • blend this just slightly.

  • Now, some black.

  • This one on the bottom should be super thin,

  • and it kind of trails off more.

  • So, I'm just going to come back with some black

  • and bump it around a little bit.

  • Make it a super thin line.

  • Right in the middle of that

  • I could make it the slightest bit brighter.

  • The glow almost bleeds off the top there.

  • I'm just going to touch it right in the middle

  • with something that's not quite as "orangey."

  • It's not quite as orange as you move away.

  • Well, here's a good color right here.

  • I'm just going to touch it.

  • Maybe a little more.

  • It's such a small color

  • that it's going to be very hard to see.

  • But I'm going to put some on my color checker

  • and just see if it feels right.

  • I mean, if it just looks like it's in the same family.

  • And this is the very brightest part of that shine

  • on the bottom there.

  • This is probably a little too strong,

  • a little too light.

  • We'll just compromise.

  • I'm going to make sure I have enough of that on my bristles.

  • Never push a brush like I just did.

  • I always pull a brush.

  • The reason I just did that is

  • I'm just very gently picking up

  • enough color on the tip.

  • Right in the middle of what I've already got.

  • There's a really nice shine.

  • I don't like the way my shine bleeds over that way so far.

  • So, I'm just going to take some of this orange color,

  • because I just feel like I see it in there.

  • Maybe I don't. I don't know.

  • It's not a color you could really check.

  • I just don't like my shine.

  • I need a dark color.

  • Not black, though.

  • Just something to play with this line.

  • Now I'm going to put a super crystal dot

  • right there in the middle.

  • And it's going to have just the slightest bit of orange in it.

  • I've already got the color.

  • I'm going to make mine even more orange.

  • First of all, let me clean this brush

  • and make sure it's white, white, white.

  • Which it looks like it is.

  • White, white, white,

  • and just a touch of a kind of yellow-orange.

  • No blue whatsoever in this.

  • It's a pure color.

  • It's not a dirty color.

  • This has just got a hint of this yellow in it.

  • It's got to be super bright.

  • As bright as I can get it, pretty much,

  • with just a tint.

  • I guess it's pretty close to what we had before.

  • This one is maybe a little more "orangey."

  • So, now the challenge is to put this in there.

  • I really need a detail brush

  • instead of fighting this big one, but here we go.

  • I like working with big brushes

  • because they just hold paint better.

  • This is where you wish you could get even brighter,

  • but this is as light as we can get.

  • Let me fix that.

  • I'm just going to barely touch the background.

  • Just where I got a bump there.

  • And same thing...

  • I almost don't mind a little bit of a bump.

  • This line should be really thin.

  • Let me find the right color.

  • Well, that's pretty good, I guess.

  • I'm asking myself, "What's the difference?"

  • I see a little bit of a corner down here

  • that's a little more round.

  • Not too much.

  • Just a little bit more blend going on here.

  • And my shadow is maybe a little softer.

  • I don't think it's 100% black.

  • So, if I milk it up just slightly, that'll be OK.

  • And this shadow line, maybe, is the slightest bit softer.

  • And this kind of goes up in here.

  • Although, it's pretty sharp.

  • OK, let me bump it the other way.

  • Is there anything else?

  • OK. Is there anything else

  • that jumps out at me?

  • This ellipse is maybe the slightest bit too pointed.

  • And it's got some spottiness in there.

  • I think what I'm going to do at this point is...

  • I'm sure that'll see something later,

  • and I'll come back.

  • But I'm going to go ahead and paint all the background in,

  • just so I can make a final judgement on this cup.

  • I don't want to do that until I get everything filled in.

  • I can really make a better judgement

  • once the whole background is filled in.

  • And that's true, especially about your color,

  • because you might think this looks too green,

  • or too yellow, or whatever.

  • But once the background is put in,

  • that's the only time you can really judge your color.

  • That's really important.

  • Because this will throw you.

  • Especially shadow colors.

  • Shadow colors will look all wrong

  • until you get the rest of the background filled in completely.

  • Let me go ahead and move forward here,

  • and paint the background,

  • and then I'll probably come back to this

  • one last time and play with it.

  • I'm just sure I'll see something.

  • Let me take one last look at this silver cup,

  • and see if there is anything I don't like about it.

  • You know, this is something...

  • I never am happy with my paintings when I finish with them.

  • I start to see problems, and they just look like paint,

  • and the magic just never happens for me.

  • Some people call that the artist's curse.

  • But I've learned over the years to sort of accept

  • a painting, or decide when I think it's finished,

  • and that point is when

  • nothing really jumps at me that I need to fix,

  • you know? I'm not going to just go in there,

  • and start worrying about a bunch of tiny little details,

  • because then I can ruin the whole thing.

  • So, I'm just going to probably leave it.

  • I don't see anything that really...

  • One thing that I don't like is this edge is a little bit thick.

  • It's more of just a hairline when I look at it there.

  • So, I'm going to thin that down just a little bit

  • to start with.

  • I think I'm going to stop right there.

  • Call it finished.

  • I could nitpick the heck out of it,

  • and just find all kinds of stuff.

  • It's good enough.

  • If you overwork it too much,

  • you end up killing the whole thing.

  • It gets so tight, but then you lose the big picture.

  • And you lose some of your color,

  • because the more you work it,

  • the more you mix the colors all together,

  • and sometimes it can turn to mush

  • while it's getting more detailed.

  • But the overall effect is better

  • if you just don't overwork it.

  • At least that's what I think.

  • So there it is. It's finished.

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