Still Life - Painting A Lemon

In this paint-along video lesson, Alain will teach you how to sculpt form and volume in soft pastel while painting a bright yellow lemon. Using bold and colorful underpainting techniques and effective modeling strategies, you’ll learn how to paint a lemon that is radiant while still communicating a strong sense of form.
* Get seven free underpainting videos here: mailchi.mp/46c0c874901f/under...
* Watch Alain paint an apple: • Painting Demo - Painte...
* Alain's Live Workshops: www.picardstudio.com/workshops/
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[@soosangles]

Just watched this - very soon I'm going to paint it. Thank you so much Alain for your generosity with sharing. You're an awesome teacher. Cheers - Sue from Sydney

[@AlainPicard]

thank you Sue! You are very kind, I'm glad you enjoyed the lesson. Keep painting!

[@jenicecilfeeser]

Alain, you are a joy to watch as you paint. It's like a dance! I'm currently on a quest to paint lemons and did one on black uArt, as I so like the paintings you've done with that as your base. I didn't actually have lemons in front of me, but just wanted to see where I could go with creating depth and vibrance. Now after watching this demo, I'm going to play some more, following your lead in color choices, though I don't have quite the palette you have. Thank you so much! I've cued up some more of your videos. I would've signed up for your portrait class, but I've been traveling these past couple of weeks...so these still life's will work just fine for now. Thank you so much!!

[@joannschoenleber813]

Yes! You are captain Picard of the USS Pastel Enterprise. . .boldly taking these little fruits where they have never been before!! Loved the apple, pear and now lemon!! Masterly painting captain!! Thank You 4 impressionist master class.

[@AlainPicard]

Yes, Joann, you have truly made me smile, and laugh out loud with this creative comment! So funny. Thanks for the encouragement, it means alot. Keep painting!

[@jlusk999]

Bwaahhhahhha!

[@mjpete27]

I do not quite understand how you can have almost 1000 views and 90+ Likes yet only 20 or so comments? You are to dang talented and you show your viewers so much in your videos! I am amazed at each and every one of your paintings! Yes, it is only a lemon. Yet you mesmerize us with your mark making! I long to be as accomplished and I know it takes more than a few months to be able to make so fine a collection of marks no matter how many videos I watch or studies I practice on! Thank you for being an encouraging teacher and I wish you all the good things you desire!

[@AlainPicard]

Thanks Michael, you are too kind. I do hope you'll gain the mark making ability that you are after! Keep working, it will come. All my best!

[@dv9476]

It’s innovative and pretty cool to have yellow shift towards dark orange red in the shadows 👌

[@sylvianblue]

That fuchsia colour is gorgeously insane!

[@juliebabb3365]

A still life never gets on my list of "gotta paint" but you make it so exciting! This is going to be my Day 1 of the challenge! Stay safe & thanks for being a bright spot in the CV

[@ndizzot]

Same.

[@karenspangrud1653]

Just finished my third lemon following this video. Took "playful" one step further and applied Great American Pearlescent new penny, sunburst, dusk, white cap and mount vision iridescent darks. So much fun to follow along with you. Thanks.

[@irener1892]

Since we need to stay at home, your tutorials inspire me to pick up pastels again. Such step by step demo is so helpful. I love how you apply the pastels, yes, fresh and sculptural. Painterly!

[@joandreicer1656]

Poetry in motion! So much fun to watch!!! Thanks, Alain!!!

[@flooklh]

Oh wow! That lemon just glows like it has a light inside it. Thanks for a wonderful informative and encouraging video.

[@AlainPicard]

You are very welcome, Lindy! I'm so glad you enjoyed. The glow is the use of color and value, it's like magic! Now it's your turn.

[@wilmawernick9242]

I don't know how others clean their pastel sticks when these sticks tend to pick up foreign colors on them. I have a tip: Swiffer floor dusting cloths (unscented ones, untreated ones) that are cut into small squares will wipe away those unwanted fragments of colors that came from using them on an already (different colored) part of the painting. I cut the Swiffer cloth into about 2 inch squares. Works wonders. Then I am not adding color where I do not want it because my pastel stick is clean.

[@joannschoenleber813]

Haha, honestly you are amazing!! Thank you! Hope you and your family are doing well. You are such an inspiration. I’m a portrait artist in San Diego ca.

[@carolynfowler6254]

I love this. I will definitely try to paint this. Thank you, Alan.

[@AlainPicard]

Great news, Carolyn, I'm so glad you'll try it! Have fun and keep painting!

[@robertweinblatt2018]

That acidic yellow against the fuschia is INSANE😍

[@AlainPicard]

I felt the same way. It is so exciting! Color is such a joy, thanks for noticing!

[@t-daze]

Thank you for generously sharing your talent. Love how you painted the lemon so expressively. Makes me want to go dig out the pastels. :)

[@AlainPicard]

Thank you Leah, that's my goal! To create a desire in you to paint in pastel. Your turn!

[@kayra3016]

Amazing demo loved it a lot , great to learn a lot from it 👍

[@louisehones]

Always a pleasure to watch your pastel videos. I learn something each time I watch you work. Thank you for your lessons, for sharing your knowledge and all the wonderful paintrly tips you incorporate the into these lessons. I will give this lemon lesson a go.

[@AlainPicard]

Thanks for the kind comments and appreciation, Louise, it's a real pleasure to share with artists like you! Enjoy the lesson

[@susanpeltonen4724]

Thank you for another wonderful and colorful lesson! Can't wait to try a lemon!

[@AlainPicard]

I'm so glad you are going to try your own, Susan, that's great!

[@christinemay2411]

Sensational painting. Love every aspect of it!

[@AlainPicard]

Well that's very encouraging, thank you Christine! Keep painting!

[@marcelacastillo2580]

i thank you very much!

[@wilmawernick9242]

Thank you for this video. Of course, my painting did not turn out like yours in terms of the overall look of it and also not nearly as professional in quality. However, I am satisfied with my small painting and I will keep working at trying to paint in an impressionistic way (because that is the look that I hope to achieve in my pastels and in my watercolors).

[@leena7588]

Great video. I highly recommend it !

[@judicleghorn7582]

Wonderful detailed and inspiring demonstration. Thank you, Alain. Ironically, I also painted a lemon still life yesterday (part of my create 30 challenge), but I used oil on copy paper (over my value study). Now I'm excited to try it with pastels, although that particular composition had a lot of elements, so maybe I'll just go for the lemon! Turning the form! So key to do it with value changes and strings of color. But I never would have thought of the fuschias and reds, purples- love that! I even have some T Ludwig Darks II that I haven't touched yet...they're definitely going to be used today!

[@harrietruffy3515]

I really respect your work, it looks loose but every stroke you put in was deliberate.

[@AlainPicard]

Great observation! Being intentional with our marks is a great way to be fresh and loose. All the best, Ellie!

[@Dony3791]

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing it!

[@AlainPicard]

You are very welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed!

[@dech4548]

Love love this video! Reminded me to be more playful with my paintings, mine always look so stoic. Also reminded to step back often and look at the impact of the mark making oh and so much more! You really are the master of expressive mark making, this is so much fun and instructional all at once ☺️ thank you for sharing!

[@AlainPicard]

Thank you Christine, I am just so excited that you are inspired and motivated to be expressive. Keep painting!

[@silvanacecchini9701]

Beautiful and inspiring as always!

[@AlainPicard]

Thank you Silvana for appreciating!

[@adib396]

Thank you for posting this. I had a look at your website and I really like your Reflections of Hope series. What I love about this style and technique is the painterly impressionistic feeling in the paintings. The way the values and marks expressed generate a feeling of the subject without being too literal.

[@AlainPicard]

that means the world to me, thank you for your encouragement!

[@65sunnyday]

Beautiful!!!

[@AlainPicard]

Thanks so much, so glad you like it!

[@irener1892]

Awsome!

[@ruilin260]

Love your work!

[@AlainPicard]

Thanks so much Rui Lin!

[@antoniatiu6944]

I wish you have more landscape DVDs available to buy and own. I love your painterly style. I enjoy watching your pastel video demos. Thank you.

[@AlainPicard]

Hi Antonia, thanks for the kind comment. I have alot more landscape videos here on my KZbin channel. I teach an online landscape painting course too. It will be available again in September. That would be a great option for you in the future! All my best.

[@wulfseig1864]

Watching in 2022. This is beautiful. Love the looseness and color. Hands down the best still life lemon ever. Trying pastels for the first time since 6th grade art class. Injecting challenge into my art journey. TFS❤❤❤

[@AlainPicard]

so glad you are enjoying! I have an online landscape course that is still open for enrollment today only, if you are interested in learning more of this approach. Head over to PainterlyLandscape.com to find out more!

[@cherylshannon8505]

Love Love this! Encourages me to try a more painterly approach! Thank You!

[@AlainPicard]

So glad you enjoyed it Chawol, that's great. Have fun with this lesson, and let me know how it goes!

[@adeelazahid]

I saw whole video, just amazing!

[@AlainPicard]

Thanks for watching the whole thing! That means alot. Keep painting!

[@marcinzawada4159]

Great video as always! Cheers from Poland and Thanks for share!

[@AlainPicard]

Thank you Marcin, I'm so glad to connect with you. Keep painting and enjoy!

[@angelabradshaw189]

Wonderful video as always Alain. When I started out painting a couple of years ago I had a tutor who all but killed my passion for colour by insisting that a painting would only work if I followed the rules - I got so caught up and confused thinking I could only use certain colours together and she taught me nothing about chroma, relative warmth and coolness or value. In this video you talked a lot about these things which really helped me. Slowly and thanks to you Alain I am seeing the light! So grateful to you for your generosity in sharing your incredible talent so freely.

[@AlainPicard]

Angela, thank you for sharing this. I'm sorry you experienced that kind of narrow minded teaching. And i am thrilled that you are growing creatively now. Keep it up, and I will continue to encourage you here!

[@donnagodlove5003]

Thank you! Will do.

[@EmeraldEditionAcrylicPouring]

Fantastic piece!! This was a great video :D

[@AlainPicard]

Thanks man, appreciate it!

[@mifasola1]

Great work!

[@AlainPicard]

Thank you very much!

[@birgitblume7877]

Thank you! I will try it tomorrow!!

[@AlainPicard]

How did it go, Birgit?! So glad you gave it a try!

[@saarbrook]

Beautiful

[@AlainPicard]

Thanks so much, and be inspired!

[@PamelaRuddyUKart]

You weren't joking when you said it was punchy! Intense! It worked well though :)

[@patsnellingweiner8740]

Yummy! Love your style!

[@AlainPicard]

Thank you very much Pat, that's kind. I'm so glad!

[@barlowamandaful]

I did the lemon this morning, with a palette for another subject that went wrong, I completed it in acrylics but can't post photo! I had a friend say she wanted to buy it after posting it on social media! that made me smile

[@barlowamandaful]

can you use another medium to do the base for soft pastels?

[@AlainPicard]

That is awesome, Amanda, way to go!

[@AlainPicard]

you can use watercolor, acrylic inks, a very thin wash of acrylic paint, even thin oil wash which isn't practical because it doesn't dry fast enough. Lots of options! Acrylic inks are getting popular as a wash medium for pastel now.

[@ellenpillersdorf2986]

Great lesson. I would love to be able to select colors the way you do.

[@AlainPicard]

Thank you very much, Ellen, you can get better with time and practice!

[@atisticallynomadic5799]

Please post some more still life works. It is helping me a lot to grow. Also please explain more briefly why did you seperate the subject with background by using orangy ?

[@tamijacque8335]

Very painterly! Like this result… I’m new to pastels so one question I have is why put the underpainting down only to cover it up. This medium is pretty opaque~ Thank you-

[@Pianomundo]

😻😻

[@reynradio]

Hi Alan. I absolutely love your paintings and your easy style, well you make it look so easy and your very inspiring. But if you don't mind me asking I'm relatively new to soft pastels and I seem to end up with more dust/mess during and after its finished. Is this normal or are my pastels too soft? (I use inscribe soft pastels) And once completed how do I store the paintings without them getting smudged as yet i have not tried fixatives.

[@robertweinblatt2018]

It makes sense that the rustyred you used over the olive colour neutralized that greens effect and turned it shadowy

[@AlainPicard]

I like how you are breaking it down to me Robert! You're a painter, no doubt about it. Keep painting!

[@judyt4087]

I really loved this video - as I always do - I would never have thought of using fuchsia and it's just beautiful. One request for future videos, would it be possible for you to hold up your pastel stick when you change colour? It's not always easy to see the exact colour particularly when the video is speeded up.

[@AlainPicard]

Thanks Judy, so glad you enjoyed. Thanks for the feedback, I try to be as generous as possible in the free videos. Keep painting!

[@janetbailey7600]

Is it Uart paper that you are using and if so which grade?

[@AlainPicard]

Hi Janet, yes it is, UART 400 Mounted to Gatorboard. All my best

[@robertweinblatt2018]

Ya know I really hate apples lemons and oranges as painting subject matter, BUT, for some reason when I watch you paint them they somehow transcend past the point of what they are and become more of a design principle rather than FRUIT😜😜😜😜😜😜👍🏻👍🏻

[@ellenpillersdorf2986]

I agree

[@AlainPicard]

That is awesome. I love that I could take something you hate, and turn it into an intriguing subject. I think fruit is a great subject for learning form and design, as well as learning how to play with color. Thanks!