“He who would search for pearls must dive below.” ~ John Dryden
Painting pearls is simple as long as you understand the nature of pearls. Pearls are usually white or cream colored. It is the highly reflective nature of the pearl’s surface called nacre that fascinates people. When wearing pearls, colors from clothing and skin are reflected off the pearls producing that glow. If a woman wears pearls in a sitting for a portrait, you can bet she wants those pearls painted well.
Start with the basics. Pearls are usually spheres worn singly or on a strand, so you will want to do an underpainting. Paint them in using a blend of Pthalo green and titanium white. Don’t fall into the trap of using gray and white or burnt sienna and white. Remember, pearls are all about the lustre. Once you have a 3 dimensional rendering of the pearls’ shapes, then glazing the relections from the wearer’s skin, garments and surroundings should give you the effect you want.
If you can’t borrow real pearls to study for your painting, then try using eggs from the refrigerator. They’re white and spherical and pick up all surrounding coloring. Women who wear pearls generally know a lot about their pearls and a simple statement from you (“How lovely.”) will usually evoke a response such as, “Oh, they’re South Sea pearls.” or, “They were my mother’s.” This will give you good insight as to their importance to the subject of the portrait.
Your instructions are greatly appreciated. I have a question as to how you managed to paint the fire in “The Windy Fire,” particularly the flames in the foreground that look so realistic. They really jump out at you; one can almost feel the heat. Thank you!
Thanks for your interest in The Windy Fire. The Painting was virtually complete and dry before I tackled the flames. I mixed Cadmium Red Light and Cadmium Yellow Light, heavy on the yellow. In a separate pile on the palette I had Cobalt Violet. Using a very thin palette knife, I picked up a large amount of the orange mixture and then dotted bits of violet on the knife for the smoke, held my breath and slid the color over the background. I continued to build up the flames in this manner. The foreground flames were done by loading the knife and quickly flicking up along the contours of the land.Thanks again.