Eggs are really hard to paint, because they are so perfectly shaped, and so, um, egg-shaped. Everyone knows what an egg is supposed to look like, too, so there's no real chance you can fudge things and hope it works out, like you can a flower or a face or an urban sketch.
Again, this wasn't what I had planned to paint, but I came on this photo that looked so pristine and with it so deceptively simple, and I wanted to see if I could pull it off, because it is anything but.
First of all, you have to save those whites on the eggs and look carefully to see what other colors are present, and you have to figure out where they overlap and where they just touch, and you have to mimic the shadows between them and under them and around them, and you have to find a way to make a white bowl look white while leaving almost no white anywhere on its surface!
Second of all, the cloth on which it was sitting was one of those that is woven from two colors but in various percentages so that some parts look darker and some lighter just because of the weave and whether the color in question is over or under.
And then there was the brown background (the table top), which I considered trying to make look like wood grain, but my sketchbook paper would NOT hold up to that and defeated me, so it just looks like finger-painting.
Finally, remember that I am doing all of this for 30x30 Direct, so I painted it with no under-drawing whatsoever.
So, eggs in a bowl are an accomplishment even if they're not very good!
Paul Jackson watercolors in Bee sketchbook.
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