#30paintingsin30days #crumbsbakeshop #bevsbites

Day 5. “Hostess” Cupcake

A classic “Hostess” Cupcake. So why the quotes?

“Hostess Cupcake” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled wood panel, 6 x 6 inches

This is actually a Crumbs Bake Shop Cupcake from Stamford, CT masquerading as a Hostess Cupcake. It’s part of a 12 cupcake mini-pack with all different varieties. You can see how it’s sitting in the plastic container. Crumbs cupcakes have fewer, larger white frosting loops on top than Hostess, which has more and smaller loops/.

I like the bold graphic quality of this painting. It kind of hits you between the eyes, and still reads like a Hostess Cupcake – regardless of where it came from. That’s the hallmark of a great American brand.

Hope your day starts off better than mine did. I just found a big leak under the kitchen sink, and couldn’t clean my brushes. The water all over the kitchen floor gave it away. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the plumber gets here before I have to leave for the eye doctor. Then I better work on something simple today for Day 6 since time will be limited.

Thanks for stopping by. See you again soon!

Day 2 of the 30/30 Challenge – Devil’s Food Cupcake

I decided to stick with the dessert theme and another Crumbs Bake Shop cupcake, but from a completely different perspective.

While yesterday I painted a more graphic top-down view of a Milkshake cupcake in a square format, today I opted for a classic horizontal side view of the Crumbs Devil’s Food cupcake. This time I chose to crop the bottom off this cupcake – another first for me. Often my compositions are more traditional and include the whole cupcake, but if there is ever a time to experiment, this challenge is it. Here is the “finished” painting.

Day 2. "Crumbs Devil's Food Cupcake" by Beverly Shipko, Oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches.

Day 2. “Crumbs Devil’s Food Cupcake” by Beverly Shipko, Oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches.

I used the word “finished” in quotes, because a part of me still doesn’t believe this is complete. There are a lot of small details in this sketch, so I’m seeing more things that I want to change than yesterday, even though I know deep down that these changes won’t do much to improve the overall painting. I want to maintain the loose quality to the paint application that is appealing. The incremental benefits of working on this longer are small, and the risks of overworking this sketch are great. So it’s time to stop and start thinking about tomorrow. This is such good practice for me!

Here’s the photograph I was working with, and the panel as it looked around noon. Since I discovered yesterday that I liked using a color underpainting, I decided to apply a more intense pink this time, using acrylic paint that dries in minutes unlike oil that takes weeks (especially since I am using an extremely rich but slow drying titanium white).

After the pink dried, I sketched in the details with a pencil, and then started painting the darks in with brown oil paint to establish the structure and 3-D feeling early on.

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I spent most of the afternoon working on the top of the cupcake before moving into the wrapper, again starting with the darks. Looking at this photo, I realize I miss some of the pink you see here in the preliminary wrapper.  The pink undertones peeking through liven up this almost monochromatic image, something to keep in mind for the future.

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It’s good for me to be writing this blog and reflect back on the progress I made in a short period of time. The realization that the very flat pink cupcake above has somehow magically transformed itself into a real, live cupcake in a few hours brings a smile to my face.

All in all, it was another great day. I gained more confidence since this subject was more complex, containing many more details in the dripping chocolate and accordion-pleated wrapper. Yet I was able to complete the painting earlier than on Day 1.

I’ll have some time to mull over my subject for tomorrow while I clean the dozen brushes that are still sitting in my studio. Sometimes I procrastinate since it’s a messy job, but someone has to do it. It would help if I wake up early tomorrow and start painting right away (even though I am a night person and my body rebels against the thought). The days are so short that I need all the natural light I can get, and paintings generally photograph better in natural light.

I am looking forward to Day 3 and whatever it brings. Should you be interested in buying this painting, please contact me directly at info@beverlyshipko.com.

 

 

Day 1 of the 30/30 Challenge – Milkshake Cupcake

For those of you know my work, it’s not surprising that I chose a dessert today for my first daily painting.

I wanted to directly compare the process of painting a sketch vs. a highly finished work, and to use this experience as a benchmark for the future. Today I decided to work from a photo that I took of this delectable “yin-yang” cupcake from Crumbs Bake Shop, which I kept in a photo book (my version of a sketchbook.) To my surprise, I just checked and found out that it is over 4 years old, which is a long time to be thinking about a potential subject.

Day 1. "Crumbs Milkshake Cupcake" by Beverly Shipko, Oil on panel, 6 x 6 inches.

Day 1. “Crumbs Milkshake Cupcake” by Beverly Shipko, Oil on panel, 6 x 6 inches.

There were a lot of firsts today: This is the first oil painting I have ever done in a day, the first one on a wood panel, my smallest dessert at 6 x 6 inches, and the first time I used a tinted undercoating (a faint hint of pink is showing through the vanilla frosting and blue shadow).

All in all, it was a successful day and I had a good time.

The paint literally glided on the totally smooth surface of the wood panel, which made paint application easy and pleasant. It was still a bit of an adjustment, and in some ways the surface felt less forgiving than canvas or linen (which is flexible) since the paint sits right on the rigid surface. Perhaps I’ll feel differently after I have a few more paintings under my belt. I spent more time contemplating each step along the way since my personal goal was to complete this by the end of the day, and I knew there was no time to let the panel dry and repaint mistakes later.

My impulse was to keep working tonight and add more details (e.g. shadows on each crumb) until the cupcake was “perfect”. While I knew in my gut that this sketch was finished, old habits die hard and I wanted to keep going anyway, even knowing the brushwork would lose its freshness by doing that.

Thanks again, Laura, for gently but firmly reminding me that this cupcake was intended to be a daily painting, and that the true challenge for me is to accept this fact and adjust my style accordingly. Knowing when to stop is mostly an art and not a science (which applies to blogging too…).

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please contact the artist at info@beverlyshipko.com.

See you tomorrow!