My 4th Oil Painting – My White Pepper (2007)

I was thinking to myself, before I can paint human beings, I better start practicing on teddy bears. After all, it is a lot easier to ask a teddy bear to stay still for 4 hours than a human being. Knowing the peppers that I deliberately bought as oil painting subjects were expiring soon, I have this ambitious composition of having a teddy bear next to a plate of peppers. As though it was not already a challenge, I placed a tiny candle light in front of the teddy bear. I have also chosen my living room for the more gentle background colour (all 3 rooms of my home have different tones). Satisfied with the composition (click here to view), I started with my sketching.

(Click here or the thumbnail to view a larger image.)

Not sure if I have deliberately taken my time painting this picture or the composition is kind of complex, it took me a long time to finish. By the time I was done with the painting, the candle light was out (about 3.5 to 4 hours). There was a lot of colour switching from the 3 primary colours to the different shades of white. The candle light took me a long time to model as I took time to observe what effects it has on the surroundings. First it was the reflection of the orange light on the glass holder itself. Some reflection on the rim. Parts of the teddy bear was lit up in faint yellowish light. The reflection extended to the green pepper as well. Very challenging to model glass object as whatever behind the glass tends to be a bit darker.

Cynthia has already commissioned me to draw some of her other teddy bears. I wanted to title my 4th oil painting as “Three Peppers and a Teddy Bear” but Cynthia suggested “My White Pepper”. “My White Pepper” that is then.

Click here for my oil painting “gallery”.