How to paint a still life in acrylic

In this lesson we'll be creating this really easy still life of these avocado halves. We'll be painting on a 40 by 50 centimeter double thick canvas and you can find this outline through the above link. After the outline is drawn in we will be tinting the surface with lemon yellow in satin series acrylic. Once that's done we can start the painting. So I squeeze out some titanium white, cobalt blue and phthalo blue. Then paint in the right side of the plate with a 50 millimeter brush. I mix the colors directly on the canvas and cut this color in around the outline of the avocados. In any areas of shadow I lay straight phthalo blue into the canvas like behind the avocados here. I don't over mix the colors so the coat still has texture. Although acrylic paint dries very quickly if you lay it on thickly the paint will blend easily. To create a bright avocado green I create a mix from titanium white, lemon yellow and light green. I concentrate more of the light green around the outside of the avocado and add some hookers green into it. I then lighten it towards the center. I mix more of the titanium white mixed with more lemon yellow into the center of the avocado. In this side of the avocado will be the hollow area of where the seed was. We need to lay some tone into this so it looks like it has a concave shape. I lay some burnt umber into the top part of the hollow and blend it out as I move down. Titanium white is blended into the brown from the bottom side so that that transition is roughly across the middle of the hollow. I then follow these steps on the second half of the avocado. To get the color right you might like to cut open an avocado. The good thing about direct color mixing is that you can make fine adjustments until the color looks correct. Next we paint the seed with permanent red mixed with a touch of burnt umber. Into the lower part I paint some pure burnt umber with a touch of ivory black. Keep the light source in mind and just paint this tone into the bottom portion of that seed. The top part of the seed will be in highlight so I drag some pure titanium white into this area and finish it off with a pure white highlight. The first half of the avocado is dry now so I lay a thin layer of lemon yellow over the green. I then mix some brilliant red with some hookers green and lay this around the outside edge of each avocado. This will suggest the skin. I also add a few bumps and don't make the skin too uniform. Well thanks for watching we hope you're inspired to try this easy little painting and we'll see you next time.