Common Surface Problems

Bread

Introduction Bread comes in such a wide variety of textures, shapes, and colors that it was a problem deciding which type top use for this demonstration. I finally set up a still life of two loaves - on the left a brown bread and on the right a rye - providing both interest and comparison. To avoid confusion, however, my demonstration will be limited to the rye bread on the right. The same basic techniques are used on both loaves, with slight variations in color which you can see if you examine them closely. A good, old fashioned, solid loaf of bread can be a beautiful prop to use in paintings. In the solid loaves, crusts become an important element. Both hard and soft crusts are available, but I prefer the hard crusts for their cracking texture and interesting highlights. These highlights are important because they accentuate the natural color of the crust. In any situation, contrast is a truly valuable asset. In crust especially, you'll find highlights give a realistic impression that allows you to almost smell the bread. If you don't want to work with the whole loaf, you'll find it can be broken in two ways, each having an interesting effect all its own. One is to rip the loaf apart, which causes the dough inside to have a fluffy appearance. I chose sliced bread because I want to capture both detail and texture, and in pulled-apart bread you deal almost exclusively with texture. The bread details I'm interested in are the various air holes inside the bread. Their location, shape, and size are unique characteristics that require special attention. I've found these holes often flow in a loose, circular pattern, providing the basics for interesting design. Once you recognize the bread's established pattern, you're free to add or delete holes, or vary the size and shape to please yourself and create good design. Of course, there's always the chance that the existing natural pattern cannot be improved no matter what you do. The texture of bread is difficult to paint well. Don't be discouraged if you don't achieve stunning success with your first attempt. Keep trying - practice can only be of value.

Step 1: As usual, I make up a color pool consisting of, in this case, underpainting white and Raw Umber. I mix 5 values and number them 1 through 5 with 1 being pure white and 5 being pure umber. 2 through 4 are midtones. remember that I'll only be describing my work on the loaf of rye bread on the right. The other bread is being worked on simultaneously for the sake of comparison and design. I use tone 2 to outline the loaf and to outline the inside portion of the bread. The crust is filled in with tone 3. I now paint tone 2 on top of the crust on the right side where the light hits it. A combination of tone 2 and tone 1 is used for the white portion of the bread and for the board on which the bread is setting. I use tone 4 for the background and for the cast shadow on the left which falls onto the other loaf.

Step 2. There is a shadow between the board and the bottom of the bread and a stroke of tone 4 represents this. To begin creating texture in the crust, I scumble white over the entire crust. Now I begin with some basic work on the inside of the bread. First I'll study the general pattern created by the holes in the bread. As usual, these follow a somewhat circular design, so I pick out some strategic holes to indicate this pattern and place them in the bread. I paint a hole by first laying in tone 4 for the shadow portion, then using white underneath for the highlighted area, and finally outlining the bottom of the hole with tone 3 down into the regular bread color to define the lower edge of the hole. I first scumble white then scumble tone 2 in a random manner over the surface of the bread portion for texture.

Step 3. I add yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and phthalo blue to my palette. Burnt sienna, yellow ochre, and phthalo blue are mixed for a light brown color I'll refer to as brown tone 1. I then mix these same colors, only in different proportions, to achieve a darker brown for brown tone 2. I begin by adding more holes to the white portion of the bread, in the manner I described in Step 2. I use fewer holes than are present in reality since I want to make sure they're correct in quantity, looks, and location. Next, I mix brown tone 2 with regular tone 2 (from the original color pool) and brush this around in various spots between the holes, still allowing a great deal of the original bread color to remain. For the crust, I apply brown tone 2 to the far left side of the loaf and extend this lightly toward the center area. This same color continues as a thin strip down the right side of the sliced edge of the crust. To create the lighter edge on the left side of this sliced section I use brown tone 1 mixed with white. I use brown tone 1 for the highlighted middle of the crust. As you can see, I've avoided blending the two colors, instead letting them drag into each other where they meet. For the whole light area on the right side of the crust I dab in a combination of white and yellow ochre.

Step 4. Cobalt yellow, raw sienna, and ultramarine blue are added to my palette. For this step I wait until the paint in the bread portion is almost dry. I then mix brown tone 1 and tone 1 (from the original color pool) together and drag this over the entire bread area, toning down both the hole and their highlights. I use this same color to DAB into the bread for texture. I add raw sienna to the lower right of the crust and blend this up toward the highlight. The bright spots in this highlight are empathized with white and cobalt yellow. For texture all over the crust, I dab a mixture of phthalo blue, cobalt yellow, and white. When the background is dry I paint over it with raw umber and now I let the entire painting dry completely. Then I brush painting medium over the entire painting. I complete the crust by glazing raw umber lightly on the far left side and on the edge of the bread portion. Ultramarine blue is glazed into the breadboard and into the shadow to the far left of the bread. To finish the bread, I mix tone 4 with painting medium until I have a semiliquid consistency. I dip a small sponge into this and dab it over much of the bread portion, this time working around the holes. Finally, I mix white with tiny amounts of cobalt yellow and burnt sienna and allow this mixture to become sticky on my palette. Then I scumble this into the bread at random and flick it into various spots for highlights. See you next time!