Modern Still Life Oil Painting: Paint a Realistic Burger & Fries Step by Step | Tristan | Skillshare

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Modern Still Life Oil Painting: Paint a Realistic Burger & Fries Step by Step

teacher avatar Tristan, Teacher and Artist

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      1:23

    • 2.

      Organization of the painting

      2:45

    • 3.

      Mixing the burger colors

      13:00

    • 4.

      Painting of the bread

      18:00

    • 5.

      Painting of the shallot and the tomato

      10:54

    • 6.

      Painting of the cheese

      10:31

    • 7.

      Painting of the steak

      8:13

    • 8.

      Painting of the salad

      4:55

    • 9.

      Painting the rest of the burger

      6:35

    • 10.

      Painting of the fries

      18:22

    • 11.

      Painting of the paper and the bowl

      15:19

    • 12.

      Mixing the wood colors

      6:05

    • 13.

      Painting of the wooden bowl

      12:52

    • 14.

      Painting of the wooden board

      18:26

    • 15.

      Painting of the background

      9:58

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About This Class

Discover a fresh approach to still life painting by creating a realistic burger and fries in oil.

In this class, you'll move beyond traditional still life subjects and learn how to paint contemporary objects while developing the same fundamental skills used in all forms of realistic painting. This project is an excellent opportunity to practice textures, color mixing, lighting, and composition in a fun and engaging way.

Together, we'll complete a 40 × 30 cm still life painting featuring a delicious burger and crispy fries. Although this is the original canvas size used during filming, you can also complete the project on a smaller canvas or on oil painting paper.

Throughout the class, you'll learn how to:

  • Build a realistic painting step by step
  • Mix rich, natural colors using a limited palette
  • Paint convincing light and shadow
  • Capture the textures of bread, meat, cheese, lettuce, and fries
  • Create realistic highlights and subtle reflections
  • Develop depth, volume, and visual impact
  • Improve your brushwork and observation skills

The class is taught using my usual limited five-color palette, proving that realistic paintings don't require dozens of colors.

The palette consists of:

  • Permanent Red
  • Lemon Yellow
  • Ultramarine Blue
  • Titanium White
  • Burnt Umber

This project is suitable for artists who already know the basics of oil painting and want to explore a modern still life subject while refining their realism. The techniques demonstrated throughout the class can be applied to many other food paintings and everyday objects.

By the end of the course, you'll have completed a vibrant contemporary still life and gained a better understanding of texture, color relationships, and realistic lighting.

While this class can be followed on its own, I highly recommend completing my Oil Painting Fundamentals course first. It covers the essential techniques and concepts that will help you get the most out of this class, and it's also available here on Skillshare.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Tristan

Teacher and Artist

Teacher

I am a professional artist and art instructor, specializing in drawing and oil painting.

My teaching approach is based on clarity, structure, and real understanding. I focus on breaking down complex subjects into simple, practical steps so that anyone can progress, whether you are a complete beginner or already experienced.

Across my courses, you will learn how to build solid foundations, understand what you are doing, and develop skills that last over time, not just copy results.

I have created both short courses to help you get started quickly, and full programs designed to take you much further with step by step guidance, in depth explanations, and complete demonstrations.

If you want to go further, you can access my full courses at a special student price... See full profile

Level: Intermediate

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Transcripts

1. Introduction: So here we are with a very modern subject with the burger and the French fries. This will be a really super great, interesting exercise because we will be forced to observe things that we don't actually observe with the artistic eye, usually. We observe them as people who want to eat good burger, but we don't pay attention to how the meat is done, how the salad has some volume. We don't care, actually about this, usually. But here with the subject, we have to pay attention to all these things. And this is how you train your eye to observe. So that's why I think it is really an excellent subject. So for this subject, I will be using my classical material. There's no additional colors or anything like this. I will be working on a 30 by 40 centimeters paper, painting paper, and that's pretty it, yes. And for the drawing, well, I will probably use a grid projector to make sure that I have the right proportions and that I have a good foundation, that the drawing is accurate so that I can paint it correctly. So let's get started, and let's not heat. Let's paint this beautiful burger. 2. Organization of the painting: This still life, I'm going to start with the painting of the burger. Why? Well, there's no specific reason. You have to start somewhere. And what is great with this subject with this composition is that there are a lot of sharp edges. So that means that you can paint many things independently without having to worry about drying time or if they are connected to another element. That said, what I usually recommend is that when you start a section that is de lemated that has some border with some sharp edges, when you start a new section, you have to try to finish it before it actually dries. Like, for instance, let's say that you paint the burger bun. The burger bun has some sharp edges. It is really independent and there is no there's no blending with the other elements around it. So if you start the burger bun, well, you have to finish it before it dries, because if you start painting the burger the burger bun, let's say, today, and that you wait one week or more before finishing it, well, you probably have your painting dried, and then you won't be able to make sure that there is a continuity within the entire burger bun. And that also means that you have to remix the colors of the burger bun, and it's hard to get exactly the same color that the one you previously mixed. So if you start the burger burn, try to finish it the same day or the next day because it won't be dry the next day. This way, you make sure that there is a continuity. And if you don't have the time to do more than the burger, then that's okay. You can paint the steak the next day, then the salad, the next day, then the fries the next day, et cetera, because these elements are not connected to one another, there is no blending. But if you paint the meat, for example, you have to paint the steak because you can see that there is a blending together. These elements are connected together. And if you want to make sure that you have the most natural blending possible, then it's better to paint the cheese while the meat is still fresh, while the painting of the meat is still fresh. This way, you can easily create a nice blending and a better blending between the two elements. Of course, if the painting of the meat is dry and you have to create the blending with the cheese, you can still paint over the meat that is dry again. But the results might be a little less good. So for this painting, you can start pretty much wherever you want. The most important thing is that you practice because from practice comes the progress. 3. Mixing the burger colors: So let's have a look at the colors of this subject, and these colors are really interesting for the hamburger because there are many ones. So it's going to be a very great exercise to mix all these colors. So let's analyze them from top to bottom and first we the bread. And we can see that on the right part, it is the area that receives the less light. It is a little bit more in shadow, and therefore, we'll have to make some kind of orangy brown colors. And the more we progress to the left, the more the color gets lighter and lighter until it becomes very close to the white. On the left. And at the center, we have some kind of an orange color that is also very light and close to the beige color. Then if we continue, we have the onion with its kind of purple color. So with my arrows, I only picked one color because it was more convenient to do it like this. But you can see that there will be many well, there will be several purple colors to be able to create some volume. There is this kind of intermediate purple that I picked, and there will be some a little bit darker ones and some highlights that will be therefore very light. Then as we move to the tomato, we can see that the ones just under the onion is very dark and it's not the red color that we would imagine for tomato. It is actually pretty close to the brown black color. So we'll have to a very dark red color. And for the tomato that we see on the left, it is a little bit more in the light, and therefore, we have the red color that we would imagine for the tomato. Then we have the cheese. And for the cheese, we can see that on the right side where it is more in shadow, we have this orange that is not intense at all. So some kind of a pale orange, a little bit dark. And as we move to the left, this become more in the light. And therefore, we have some yellow orange that are more intense, and some will be lighter to suggest some kind of volume, some depth within the cheese itself. Then we have the meat, and well, it's funny because when you eat some burger, some meat, et cetera, you don't pay attention to the color of the meat. And so you wouldn't know exactly what is the color of the meat. And here, it seems like to be some kind of a brown, red brown color that we'll have to mix and once again, some darker browns in some areas to create some volume. And finally, we'll have the salad, and for the salad, we'll have, once again, different colors, different greens to create some volume within the salad. And the bread at the bottom, we can see that the bread is less intense on the right than it was at the top part of the burger. So that's a lot of colors to mix, and we are going to see how to do that. We are starting to mix our colors, and I am going to mix those for the Ambero bone and the upper part at the upper part. And we have already seen that we are aiming for orange browns in the slightly darker area. So I'm going to start by taking a large amount of yellow and mixing it with this red and some burnt umber. You can notice that I've used a lot more yellow than red because yellow is a relatively weak color compared to the others. That means that if you use the same amount of yellow and red, the result will lean much more towards red than yellow. And from that first color, I can create a slightly darker one by adding a bit of burnt timber like this, for the slightly darker shadows on the bun, that will work out well. Now I will create other orange tones for burn, for Hamburger burn. And this time, I will reduce the amount of burnt amber in the mix to get something a little less dark. Well, the color is starting to get pretty good, but it lacks a lot of yellow. It needs to shift more toward a yellow orange. So I readjust, and I think that I can even lighten it further and add some white to it because this version is still a bit too close to the first one, and we need something lighter for the middle area, which isn't too dark or too light. And each time I make these adjustments by asking myself the questions I taught you in the section on color basics. Is the color too yellow or not yellow enough, too red or not red enough, et cetera? So I adjust as I go, and now we are starting to get a really nice vibrant color that will work well as an intermediate tone. And I will keep going because the more color variations we have the easier we'll be able to give the burger that three dimensional look through the bun tones, creating the impression of actual volume rather than flatness. And now I will create even lighter shades from the same color family, getting closer and closer to white, especially for that very light area that we can see on the left area of the bun. Now let's mix the colors for the tomatoes. On the left side, we can see a fairly intense red, red that is slightly orangy. With my red, I also had a bit of white and a touch of yellow. Once again, we'll be mixing a lot of different colors because even though the tomato area isn't big, there is a high concentration of color variation, especially with some really light elements on the left. And within that lighter tomato on the left, there are even more variation, some parts lighter, other darker, so we need to create that range of tones. At this point, I realized that my color was too light. I add too much white, so I adjust it. And when I look at it again, I think that the color needs to be a little more orange. So I adjust that too. And I am starting to progress and create some more colors for this tomato on the left. And then I will move to darker shades. Like I'm about to do right now for the tomato on the right where the reds are much deeper, almost brown in some areas. So that's what I am doing, building a right range of reds to faithfully represent the tomato. Having a solid palette with the right tones from the start helps us create volume more easily. It simplifies the process because the more color variations you have, the easier it becomes to apply small touches here and there to create a realistic object. And so that is exactly what I am doing now by creating a lot of red variations. Now that I have created these red tones for the tomatoes, I'll figure I will stick with this range of colors since it is already on my palette and my brush, and I will start mixing the reddish browns we see in the steck. Here, too, we are going to need a wide variety of colors because even in a small areas like this meat, there are a lot of tones and texture. And to capture those little reliefs and details, we need a rich palette with many different values. So I am starting with this dark brown, but there will also be lighter browns. And this is how we will be able to give volume to the object. And achieve that slightly grilled look that we are aiming for. You will also notice, just like the rest of the burger, that the whole left side is much lighter. So we'll need even more colors to represent all the subtle variations in the tones. Something I really like to do and you will see that in a few seconds again, is to take a color I have already mixed on my palette like this first brown and then create others from it. Of course, I adjust each time depending on what I want, but starting with a solid base gives makes it a little bit easier. For example, when I mix this brand with some white, I realized the color wasn't orangy enough and it ended up a bit too light. So I'm also adding some burn timber to it to darken it. And each time I create a new color, I can even start from an existing color or create the brand new one, steering it in the direction I want. And then I continue adjusting as I go. Now, let's move on to mixing the colors for the cheese. As we saw on the side, we are going for a fairly neutral orange. That's the color I'm going to create. And then I will develop different values for the lighter areas we also see on the side and some darker ones. So here I've got this medium orange that I can use in different parts. Now I can do the same thing, but by adding a little bit of burnt timber, and therefore, I will create a darker tone. And I realized I wasn't leaning enough toward yellow, so I'm adjusting it to push it more in that direction. And in the end, with careful observation each time we managed to create colors that help us build a sense of free dimensionality. And little by little, I can make darker variations, too. Later on, if I find out the color I have applied isn't quite right, I can always adjust it when doing the refining work. For the latest greens, we notice that the colors were quite intense. So I am adding just a little touch of ultramarine blue because otherwise, the green becomes way too bluish. And since ultramarine is a strong pigment that quickly overpowers yellow, I made sure to add only a tiny bit. And from this base color, I can create lighter versions. In this case, I'm going to lighten it by adding a bit more yellow. If I added white, the color would have turned a little bit pale, a little bit whitish. There are indeed some areas where I will add a little white, especially to place the highlights. But overall, the green shouldn't look overly washed out. So now I can mix a slightly less intense green for the darker areas, too, this is what I am going to create. And this time, I will add a little bit of red because the red color is the opposite one of the green. And therefore, I will have something a little less intense. So this gives us a solid set of greens. Now, all that is left is the color for the shallow, the kind of onion. So I will use purple for that. And I am running out of space on my palette, sorry. So I will try to find a bit of room in the lower left corner. And for this color, I start with a slightly reddish purple. Sorry, the mixing isn't clearly visible because there wasn't much space left. And from that base color, I will add just a little white to create a slighter version afterwards, once I will have finished with this first color. And so now we have quite a lot of colors, which is great, and we will start painting this hamburger. 4. Painting of the bread: So here is my subject drawn out on my paper using a grid to ensure real accuracy. And now we are going to begin a painting, starting with the burger bun in the top section. But before anything else, I'm going to paint the background around the burger bun. For practical reason, I won't paint the entire background right now, but if you prefer, you absolutely can. You can also watch the video where I demonstrate how to paint the background, even though there is nothing particularly difficult about it. So here I am starting by painting the background around the bun, since it is a black background, and black backgrounds tend to change how we perceive colors. Often, if we don't paint the background first, we end up choosing colors that are too light. And once we had the black background, the values suddenly fell off. And by painting the background first, I now have a strong point of reference when I look at the colors I apply to the burger bun. I know that my background is extremely dark, so I can compare directly and make sure my values are accurate. So now let's begin painting the burger bun. And so I'm going to start from the right to the left. So starting with the darker values and progress to the left. But as I apply my color in this area, I realize that it isn't darker enough, and also the orange color is a little bit too intense. So I add the opposite color of the orange riches blue to tone it down. And I also applied some burnt and bur to make it darker. And so I am now applying this color in this section, and we will start on the right and walk away toward the left, making sure to stretch the color well so we can create smooth transitions and good blending between the different elements of the painting. For these darker colors, I think we are in a good place, and now as we move toward the left, you will notice that the ton start to lighten, so I am adjusting my color accordingly. Every time I move further left and notice even a small shift in value, I adjust the color. What is important here is to avoid a sudden jump from something very dark to something too light. Otherwise, our transitions won't look natural. This is why it is essential to have a wide range of tones already prepared on the palette from the start. But it is also important not to hesitate to mix intermediate tones blending by mixing the existing color on your palette as you go. And this way, you ensure soft and gradual transitions. And when it comes time to blend your colors on the surface, it becomes much easier since the changes in value aren't too abrupt. So I continue applying the colors in the section. In this video, we are starting with the Burger bun, which will really lay the foundation for our entire composition. Even though it might seem like a simple element, it is actually a great exercise for working on volumes through smooth transitions and warm colors. The bun isn't just yellow or brown. When you really look at it, you will notice solo shades of orange, beige, golden browns and even some very light areas on the left, where the light heats strongly. With all these stones so we can start creating depth right from the beginning. When you face a subject like this, it is important to take your time, observe your reference carefully and ask yourself, where are the brightest spots? Where are the shadows? That's what's really going to make the difference in your painting. Starting a new painting is often the hardest part because you are staring at a blank canvas, nothing is in place yet and it's easy to doubt yourself. But honestly, I think it is also the most exciting moment. It is the beginning of everything. From something completely blank, you are about to build something real on the canvas and every brush stroke will add to that. So I chose to begin with the burger bun because I really wanted to paint the burger first. It is the central element of our composition, and it is important to start with something that inspires you. This way, you build confidence from the start, you enjoy yourself, and this is what painting is all about, having fun and creating something you love. While I was talking, you may have noticed a bit earlier that some black paint got mixed into my brand. Well, that's okay. It happens. It's always a bit of a risk when you're when there is a freshly painted area nearby. But no worries. A paint is very forgiving and it's easy to cover up small mistakes. So this is what I did. I simply painted over it. Now that my colors are in place, I can start blending between the different areas. As you can see, I'm cleaning off my brush, and with small and gentle strokes like this, I am blending all the oranges and brands together to create smooth transitions between the different parts of the bun. And every time that there is some paint building up on my brush, I remove it so the blending can be better. And so once the blending will be done, we can start refining the area and work on the texture and details of the bun itself. So here we have begun the blending process together, but I will continue doing the same thing across the camera, across the area, and I will do it off camera, and I will see you again once that is done. Now that I have blended all the areas together, I can start working on them with more precision. For example, on this right hand side, you can see that there are some slightly darker brown areas, so I am going to refine and add those on top of what I have already painted. Earlier, when we first applied the color, we did it in a pretty rough way. We were mainly trying to block in the big shapes, the large sections of the burger bun. We are going to move into something even more detail. I didn't want to be too precise right from the start, and that's always the case with my subjects. I begin by laying down broad zones because if you try to paint too precisely over a large area right away, it becomes very tricky to maintain those clean transitions between colors later on during blending. So I approach it in stages. First, I define the big forms. Then I come back and refine. My strategy is always to go from general to specific. We started by working on the larger shapes of the burger bun, and now we are adding in the smaller patches of color more carefully. Later, we'll move on to the final texture and details with very precise brush strokes. For instance, in here, I notice a slightly lighter area on the top part of the bun, so I am adding that now. And as I apply the color, I am making sure it blends nicely with what is already there. This way, this is why I am carefully not overloading my brush. I want the new color to melt into the layers underneath. And in that later orange section on the left, I also spotted some slightly darker touches sitting on top, so I add those two. And it is this layering of various tones on top of one another that really helps bring the burger bun to life and gives that three dimensional realistic feel. Now that I have refined the main areas, I am going to start adding detail and working a bit more on texture because when you look closely at the burger bun, it's not made up of smooth, geometric shapes with sharp edges. What you will notice instead is a multitude of small and irregular touches scattered throughout the surface, and that is exactly what helps us create a realistic texture. If we were to zoom in really close on the bun, we would see that it is made up of tons of uneven speckles, some bigger, smaller placed here and there. And it is this layering of varied touches that gives the bone a livable and natural look. So right away, right now, I am observing the reference photo to see which color I should add next to develop that texture. And so I load my brush with this color, then roughly identify where the texture areas are, and I apply the paint with small, irregular, almost random strokes. And this creates a texture that feels authentic, authentic, and organic. And so I am just placing little touches here and there, and this way, I am starting to build a convincing bread texture. Similarly, on the lighter areas on the left side, I am going to add a few slightly darker touches, and this small contrast help make the area feel more realistic. And even though the bun isn't finished yet, you can already see how we are getting close to the final result. It is starting to look like something you could actually bite into because it feels real and alive and delicious. Now, using a lighter color, I am going to add the little smaller, and then I start placing them. Be careful not to fall into the trap of painting what you think something looks like. Instead of what you actually see, it is easy to assume, Oh, see some seeds. Those are always right, right? And just start painting them with the white color. But that would be a mistake because the result won't feel accurate or convincing. It wouldn't reflect the real color of the seeds in this specific lighting. Now, I am moving on to work on this small crease we can see on the left. To make it look realistic, I observe that there is a slightly dark line, and right next to it, some areas that are also dark but a bit softer. These are on the left, and it is the contrast between that deep shadow on the left and the lighter part to the right that helps create a sense of depth and volume. And then I can do the same thing with the other crease we see a bit higher up. And it is that play between light and dark that really brings the bun to life and gives it a three dimensional quality. Next, I can do the same thing with the crease we see on the right side. But here we are in an area that is a bit more in shadow. So that means my dark color will need to be slightly darker, but also the light color shouldn't be as bright as the one I used on the left. Now I am going to adjust the colori I had previously mixed because when we look at the inside of the bun, we can see that there are some slightly darker areas. So using a burn tumber and a built of Ultramarine Blue, I'm going to darken this tone a little bit, and I want to stay within those slightly grayish brown, straw like neutral tones that really match what we see in this area. Once I have created that color, I will start applying it, figuring out what the base tone will be for the different sections, and using this brush, I will try to be fairly precise in the way I apply it, especially around the inner part of the bun, being careful not to go over the edge into the upper section. And I will keep working toward the left, and then we will add a few small details over these base tones that will help us create a realistic bread texture. At first, you might think that the inside of the bun looks complicated. So many little details and subtle texture, but you will see that it's not something to stress about. We'll get there step by step, and it will turn out looking realistic in a simple and manageable way. Now that I have laid down a solid base for the rum of the bone, I have also noticed that the lower part is much darker, and this is what's going to help create more depth and a stronger sense of free dimensionality in this area. So I am going in with this darker color, which might look a bit intense, a bit too dark at first, but I am keeping in mind that it will blend with the surrounding colors, and this blending will lighten it slightly, so it won't appear as dark as it does right now. And with small brush strokes like this, I can start blending this color into the others. Now, using my swag brush, this very thin and very useful brush, I can refine this area and start adding precise little strokes like these, which are nicely irregular. And right away, we can see that there is a very uneven line at the top that helps define the separation between the crust and the crumb of the bone. So I am adding that line now. Then to work on the crumbs texture, like I mentioned earlier, there's no need to overthink it. I am simply adding small irregular strokes here and there with little brush movement to the left and the right. And really, I am not stressing over these little details. It's a very straightforward process, and you can get a realistic result without too much effort. So I am observing the values, looking at where the darker elements need to go, and then I just go for it. Don't be afraid to dive in. The most important thing is to start. And if something doesn't turn out, right, no problem. You can always go back and fix it. That's the great thing about old painting. You can correct mistakes as you go. And to make this to make this crumb stand out even more, I am adding a few lighter touches over it that helps finish of the area and bring out the separation between the bun and the crumb. And once this is done, I am going to add the final details to the burger bun. Wherever I see something that could be refined or improved, I go in and adjust it. And with that, we'll be done with this part of the burger, our first element and a really fun one to paint. It already gave us the chance to work on a lot of useful techniques. When these last touches are in place, we'll move on to the next part. And right here, there is a small itline that runs along the edge that is really important too, because it helps define the form and clearly separate the bone from the inner crumb. 5. Painting of the shallot and the tomato: Let's now move on to painting the shallot, and I'm going to start by applying my colors while trying to be fairly precise right from the beginning. Even though the shallot is quite small and only makes up a tiny part of the burger, there is still a surprising amount of color variations within it. And it is exactly that variety of tones that helps give the shallow to three dimensional appearance. You will notice that I adjusted a little bit my color to make it lighter as we move toward the right. That's something I do quite often. I usually prepare a wide range of colors at the start, but very often I realize that I still need more variations. So I either make new tones from the ones I already have or create something completely new from scratch. Here, I also observed that as we move to the left, thing gets a little bit darker. There is even a black area. So that's what I started to have. You will notice that I based this darketon on some Burntmbur I already had and added a little bit of ultramarine blue to it to get something very dark and very close to the black. And this helped me to start building that transition on the left side. We'll come back to it later and refine the black area more forfly later. But just having this first touch in place already helps create a smoother shift from the purple to the darker section. And now using this very fine brush, I can begin working on the details, shaping the edges, and adding small touches that will help the shallow look realistic. Right now, I am focusing on adding some darker tones, but what will really be important next are all the little highlights we will layer on top, which will give the shallow that final touch of realism. I am now adding the small eyelights that are extremely bright and close to white. So I add them using my swell brush, and I use the tip of this brush to really place them on top of the color, trying to make sure that they blend well with the paint colour. Then I can move on to painting the other area of the shallot, which is underneath, and it is an area that will be a bit less intense than the one we just painted. So it is important to keep that in mind and carefully observe those subtle color changes that can appear in certain areas in particular. Just because they are the same element, meaning they are both shallows, that doesn't mean that you have to paint them with the exact same color or in the same way. Sometimes due to lighting on the position of an object, you won't end up with exactly the same color of the element. So here you can see that I modified a little bit my color, and I'm going to modify it even more to get a purplish tone that is a bit more brownish and therefore a bit less intense. This is why it is always important to look at the color that you actually see and not suppose the color it is. Now I can add this Rava dark element that we see next to it. And what I will also be able to do afterwards is add a few details element to my shallot, once again, to make it look nice and realistic as well. Now, let's move on to the next element with the painting of the tomato. As we saw during a color analysis analysis, this tomato is going to have a rather intense color on the left. So that's what I start by applying. I lay down my base color, keeping in mind that this is the dominant color. And since it is a somewhat mid tone, it will be fairly easy to a darker elements on top later, but also some lighter ones, which will appear as highlight. Fairly sharp reflections in the form of lines. Once again, the sword brush will be extremely useful here. It was already very helpful for painting that long highlight line on the shallot earlier, and it is the same here. On this tomato, we really, really needed to suggest that the tomato has been sliced and that we can see the upper part of the cut tomato. So now that I have applied a fairly intense metal red, I can start adding slightly darker elements, as you saw. And this is what gives the tomato more credibility and realism. At this point, I can also switch to an even finer brush to work more precisely on the tomatoes texture and to add those small highlights. And in terms of texture, this tomato is actually a bit easier to paint than the burger bun we worked on before because the texture is quite smooth, not at all rough, so we don't need to do quite as much to give it a convincing look. When it comes to these highlights, you can see that they don't all have the same value. As you saw, I started by adding some fairly light elements at first, and now I can add others that are even lighter, very close to white, which really gives the tomato a shiny appearance. And here, it is important to be quite precise when drawing that little highlight line. Now, let's move on to the other tomato. This one is clearly much darker. So, of course, I adjusted the color accordingly. One of the main goals when painting a tomato is to create a smooth transition between shades, so smooth that you don't even notice where one color shifts into another. Ideally, the viewer should be able to see that the left side is very dark and the right side much like without perceiving where exactly that transition happens. That's really the key challenge when painting this tomato, achieving soft, seamless transition. And to do that, it is important to build a solid palette with multiple values of red, just like the ones we observe in the reference area. Now I can start working a bit on the texture, adding a few darker or lighter elements here and there with a bit of irregularity, but there is no need to overdo it on these tomatoes, since as we mentioned earlier, it has a fairly smooth texture. Next, we need to draw the highlight line for this area. Drawing lines isn't always easy. I know that for some people, it can be a bit nerve racking. But really, there's no need to stress about it. It's not harder than the rest as long as you have practice. So if you are having trouble with lines like the ones we will be doing for this highlight, just take a small piece of paper, apply some paint on it, making sure to spread it evenly with a regular brush, and then practice drawing these lines over it using your sword brush. And once you have practiced enough and feel more comfortable, you can draw the lines directly on your subject like we are about to do. Uh, no. And the more you practice, the more confident you will feel, and the more confident you are, the less likely you are to mess up. And even if you do mess it up, it's no big deal. You just paint over the area which takes only a few minutes and you redo the line. Ideally, we try to do it in one go, but if it takes several strokes, that's perfectly fine, too. 6. Painting of the cheese: Now let's move on to painting the cheese, a particularly interesting part because with this cheese, we can really work on texture, shine, and the deformation caused by the heat. Here, it has a truly melted texture. It flows and forms waves along the edge in the edge of the burger. So it is important not to have straight lines. The edges should really look wavy. Since the cheese is melted, it's also going to be very glossy. And because it is heavily deformed, it creates lots of small bumps and reliefs as it follows the shape of the steak underneath. So the curves of the cheese are really influenced by the volume of what it covers, and that creates many little shapes you need to work on in that area. And within this small area of cheese, there are lots of tiny volumes, which means lots of small variations in color appear. And that's what makes this part so interesting, not only for the texture and shine, but also for the vibrant yellow, orange colors, which orange shades we usually work with very often. This kind of intense yellow orange is quite rare, so it is great to have the opportunity to explore colors like this that we don't often use in everyday painting, in my opinion. As you can see, I have made good progress on the cheese in terms of color application. And at this stage, I am still working on placing the right yellow orange tones in the right spot, partly to build up the volume and also to start working on the transitions in the cheese. Just like with the tomato, we don't want the transitions to be obvious. We need to move from one yellow orange shade to another in a way that is really smooth and natural. So that is something to keep a close eye on and achieve it and we achieve it by creating a wide range of colors and intermediate tones between the different hues. Also, if I notice that something isn't working, if I apply a color and realize it is not quite right, I don't hesitate to make adjustments and mix it further. It is always worth taking those few extra minutes to remix the color rather than painting with the wrong color and regretting it once the piece is finished, especially if it means having to repaint the entire area because the tones don't match. As you can see, my colors are overall well applied in the different areas. So now we move on to step two, refining the area and more specifically, defining small zones within the cheese itself. These little areas are what will really help us create volume and show how the cheese wraps around the shape of the steak underneath. And so that's what I am doing here, trying to work precisely, always observing the area and asking myself whether the color I have on my brush is the right one. Do I need to adjust it? Is the color on my palette already good, or should I darken or lighten it a bit? Sometimes, if I notice that the color I've got might work, but is just slightly too dark, the trick is not to waste time remixing everything. Instead, I simply let the new color blend a little more with the one underneath. And this way, by mixing with the base layer, it gets softened and becomes a bit lighter. I am now working even more precisely, not just refining the areas, but actually starting to define the visible details. And at this stage, what I really like to do is switch into predator mode, predator mode. I go for hunting. I go hunting for every little detail I can find in the area. I observe carefully and ask myself with this color, where can I play some details? I also like working this way, focusing on one color at a time. Because it makes my process more efficient, I look for all the details in that area that can be painted with that color, and once I feel that this is done, I move on to the next color and repeat the same approach. This method helps me work more efficiently and avoid constantly switching colors because constantly switching color also means that I risk dirtying the colors I have already mixed. If you don't clean your brush with turpentine every time and I don't always do that either and then there is always a bit of leftover paint from the previous color on the brush, and that can slightly make the new color a little bit dirty this new color that you are trying to use from your palette. I continue applying the details. There's nothing particularly complicated about it. It's all about carefully observing what you see in each area. And every time I had these details, I make sure they blend well with the rest, making sure that they are fully integrated so that all the different colors look natural together. Now I can start adding the lighter elements, but be careful. Just because we are adding highlights doesn't mean they are all going to be the exact same color or the same value. You can see that among the lighter areas, among the highlights, some are a bit brighter than others, a bit more intense. And it is the subtle variations when you really pay close attention to them that make all the difference and help you create volume even more effectively across the different areas. So I am focusing on that here. And on the right hand side, just below the tomato, you can see a highlight I added that isn't extremely bright. But then there are others that are much brighter and stand out more strongly. And when I want to keep something very bright, really close to white, what I do is place the paint with just the tip of my brush, and this way, it doesn't blend with the color underneath and I can keep it nice and light. So I will be adding more now. And as you can see, I had left some white areas unpainted because I figured the highlights there were wide enough that I could allow myself to leave them blank and then come back in to paint inside them with my color. That is different from the first highlights I added, which were very thin. In that case, it would have been too tricky to paint around them. And honestly, it's not worth the trouble for such a small element that can be added pretty easily afterwards, like we just did with these very small highlights. Another important point, when you look closely at these highlights, you will notice that they are not 100% white or perfectly uniform like they are right now. You will need to go in and at some slightly darker touches inside them, and it is those subtle slightly darker touches that will make this area look even more realistic. 7. Painting of the steak: Okay. Now let's move on to painting the stack. And as always, we start by carefully applying the colors. This is a really interesting part again. Once again, we are dealing with a texture that is very different from what we have seen so far. The stack has a fibrous uneven surface, so it is a greater size to move away from the smooth area and start working with more complex effects. In terms of color, a stack is never just reddish brown. You can find deep red, warm browns, and sometimes even purples or cool grays in the shadow area. So once again, I think it is a great opportunity to sharpen your eye for subtle color variations. And by the way, if you are still with me, that means that we have already been painting for almost an hour. The tutorial started over an hour ago. So well done. This has already been a great session, and everything you have just done is helping you grow your skills. So take a moment to appreciate your work and be proud of yourself. And now let's keep going because with every brushstrokes, you are making progress. So let's keep going and stay on track to bring this beautiful burger to life. When it comes to the stack, it can be a little tricky to find your bearings. And when you are faced with something like this, you might wonder, where should I start? What would actually be helpful and guide me through since I am not quite sure of how to begin painting this area. In this kind of situation and it still happens to me quite often, what I usually do is start by placing the most obvious elements. In this case, on this part of the stack, what stood out the most to me were the darkest areas. So I simply started by marking those once I have placed these key reference points, which were pretty easy to spot, it becomes much simpler to paint the rest and to position over elements around them. And after placing one element, I can place a second, then third, and eventually the whole area is painted, and I can move on to the next step. This is a useful approach anytime you are dealing with a complex area. Even though this take is unnecessarily the most complicated element you will have to paint in your artistic career, since it is relatively small, still, it is a piece of advice that can apply to any painting. When you are unsure where to start, begin with the elements that seem easiest or most obvious. Once you have painted one, the next one becomes easier because you can use the first as a reference, then a third, fourth, and so on. This is how I usually approach it, and personally, it works quite well for me. Now that all these elements have been applied, I can start blending them together. In this case, some areas have quite different values, so it really requires more precision when blending. You can see that I am being very delicate with my brush, applying small light strokes. And after that, we can start working on the final details. And when I am blending very different colors like right now, I also make sure to keep my brush clean. I remove the excess paint as soon as I notice too much building up. Otherwise, it gets too messy and hard to control. So now we can begin adding more precise details to the steak. You will notice that there are lots of little irregularities, and that is exactly what I am going to work on. I observe the area carefully, and each time I spot a slightly darker or lighter spot, I add it in. This is how I create that uneven texture look as if the steak has been cooked in a pan or on a grill. And in the end, it is often with elements like this that seem almost impossible to paint at first, where we realize we don't actually to be that precise. We just need to had small dabs of different colors with little random touches and strokes, and we can create something that looks realistic. It is often when we overthink things the most that we actually need to let go a little because the elements aren't as complicated as they seem. And after all, it is just a stack. If one color isn't placed exactly in the perfect spot, it won't ruin your painting. As long as you have a solid base with the good color choices that you have mixed on your palette and well applied base layers, it will still look like a steak. Of course, if you place only very dark details everywhere, it won't look good. But at least just adding a few details here and there, a few dabs like this will be just fine to have a nice texture of this meat. So at this point, I had already placed quite a few dark elements in the area. And now I am going to start adding some lighter ones that will really stand out more on the stack. I apply these small touches of color, and depending on the area, if I want the result to be lighter or more subtle, I let the new color blend more or less with the layer underneath. Then we will move on to the overside of the burger with this smaller piece of meat, which appears a bit lighter because it is more exposed to the light. But the approach is exactly the same. So I don't have much more comment or explain for this part of this tutorial. Just enjoy the process. Keep moving forward at your own pace and observe how things are done. Look carefully at the different colors and elements. And of course, you always have the visual reference of what I am doing to help you to help guide you and keep you on track. So nothing more to add here, just keep going, and I will see you in the next step where we will be working on the lettuce. It is a beautiful part of the painting and a great challenge ahead. M 8. Painting of the salad: Let's get started on this section with the lettuce. We've got quite a bit of work ahead of us. It is one of the slightly more complex elements in this burger, and we are going to see how to handle it. So we'll begin with the lettuce that you can see on the left hand side. We are going to paint a small portion of it together, and then the rest will be done off camera, since the process will be more or less the same throughout the painting. There is not much point in showing you 25 minutes of repeating the exact same technique. So we'll focus on this small section on the left together and then continue off camera. So what I am starting with here is applying the dominant color in the area, this green, and then I will work on identifying the little folds and raised areas that we can see throughout the lettuce. These folds and curves will be created by adding different values, lighter greens, darker greens. And again, that's what will allow us to create volume and give our lettuce that slightly twisted, crinkled look. I have chosen to begin with a small section and work directly on it because lettuce is a very complex element to paint. There are lots of small folds and tiny reliefs, and I am afraid that if I were to paint the entire thing all at once, applying the base color all over, then going in to work on all the details across the whole surface, like we did with the cheese, I would probably end up getting lost in it. So this is why I think it is better to tackle one small area at a time, so we can stay focused and really build up the volume effectively. As always, the key to creating volume is mainly working with free values in the area. Here you can see that I started with a mid tone green, then I added some darker touches and finally brought in a few lighter highlights. And that's already created, and that is already created some depth. And then I can build up even more reliefs and refine the texture flavor with a few more shades of green. And so once my first section is done, for example, you see, I decided to start painting that little part, and now that it is painted, I can now move on to the next piece of letters just below it. And once that is done, I will move on to the next and so on until the entire lettuce is completed. Again, for this small piece of letters, I'm going to start by applying my base color, the dominant one, the one that stands out the most in that area. And over that, I will have some slightly darker touches and then some slightly lighter ones, just like we did before. That will help create volume and achieve a realistic texture for letters. So really the key when dealing with elements that are quite complex to paint, like I mentioned earlier, is to look for reference points, for example, the elements that stand out the most. But another helpful approach is to break the subject into sections. For instance, I divide the area wherever I see prominent folds. I say to myself, Alright, I will start with this little zone, then move on to another, and so on until I have painted the whole lettuce. This way, you don't get overwhelmed or lost, and on top of that, it is actually quite satisfying to see these little sections come to life before your eyes and quite quickly, too, in the end. Alright, now it's going to be your turn to finish the lettuce. And as you have seen, in less than 5 minutes, we managed to paint a small section, so it's quite doable. Take your time to get it right, then I am sure that you will handle it without any trouble. Just make sure to pay attention to the area under the stick, you will notice that there are some slightly darker elements there. So watch out for that and then we'll meet again to continue and finish this hamburger with the bottom bun. 9. Painting the rest of the burger: Now that the lettuce is painted, let's move on to painting the bone at the bottom, which will bring our work on this burger to a close. So what I start with is applying the color properly in the area. And unlike the letters, here I can apply the base color across the entire area. Since it is much less complex, there are far fewer folds than there were in the letters. So I can work a bit more quickly than before. I carefully identify the color areas. Here, you just need to pay attention to the parts that is in the shadow on the right and near the lettuce, because the color you can see that the colors because in this area, you can see that the colors aren't as intense as the one in the lower part or as intense as the bun at the top of the burger. So be mindful of that. I know that sometimes when you have been working on a subject for a while, like we have with this burger, it is easy to start losing focus and want to move on to something else. But it is important to keep your motivation up. Take breaks if it helps you recharge because it will be a shame to end up with a beautifully done piece where just the final element, the bun feels rushed, especially since it's not even the hardest part of the burger. So take you time to do it right, and then we'll be able to move on to the rest of the subject and work on the finishing touches. Here you can see that I am trying to apply the color quite precisely because the areas are a bit large and that allows me to work with some precision before going in to refine the details. Now that the areas of my base tonee are well defined, I can start blending them together. I had already applied quite a bit of color here, maybe even too much in some spots, so I don't hesitate to wipe off the excess paint from my brush before getting back to work and re blending all those colors right from the start. So this way, we'll have a solid base to begin working on the texture of this bond. And this work on texture will actually be quite similar to what we did earlier when we painted the top part of the burger bun. We had some darker touches here and there, a few lighter touches, too, and all these small elements we add will help us create irregularities in the bun surface, giving it a more realistic texture. For this piece, I chose not to paint both burger buns at the same time, meaning the top one and then the bottom one immediately before moving on to the shallow tomato and so on. I felt that doing both buns at once wouldn't have made things any easier. Sure, it might have been faster. I could have focused on the same color palette all at once. But when it came time to do the precise work on the steak, the cheese, and the other elements between them, it would have been more difficult. I probably wouldn't have been able to rest my hand on the paper without smudging the paint. I'm pretty sure my hand would have ended up in the wet paint if I had chosen to go this way. So this is why I prefer to work top to bottom. That's often how I proceed. It helps avoid issues like a denk accidentally touching areas that are still dry. Planning your painting in this way can really help prevent those kinds of problem. Otherwise, you only realize midway that it's not working and you tell yourself you will plan it better next time. So it is always helpful to ask, if I start here, can I paint that next part right after why or why not? What might get in the way? Just asking yourself those simple questions can save you from a lot of frustration. So now the burger bun is really starting to take shape. Just a few more details to add here and there, and then we'll be done with the burger and ready to move on to the next step, which will be mixing all our colors for the fries. And yeah, so let's go. The next part is waiting floors, just a few more touches to add. 10. Painting of the fries: So let's take a closer look at the fries, the color of the fries and the cones they will be painted on. In the end, these fries are nothing more than a yellow orange, and we need to create several variations of it to achieve a sense of volume. It is true that when we think of fries, we immediately picture that very intense yellow color, and we think, well, I will just paint them yellow, and they will look like fries, and that will be fine. But upon analyzing them, we notice that the dominant color isn't pure yellow. It is more of a pale yellow orange, and to create depth and avoid the fries looking flat, we will need to add some slightly darker oranges. We also notice in certain areas some quite dark browns, especially in the strongly shadowed parts. As for the cone holding the fries, it is made of newspaper, and what we observe is that there are various shades of gray, some darker than others depending on the area. The print itself, the newspaper is rather blurry, and to recreate that blur, we will also need a variety of grays from lighter to darker, since in some spot, the text appears darker than in others. So that's pretty it for the colors. There aren't a huge number to analyze in this section, and we are now going to start mixing them right now. Let's get started with our color mixing. I am going to begin with the color for the fries, starting with the slightly darker tones we can see in the area. So here I will begin by mixing an orange, which I will then darken a bit. For the intermediate shade, I will simply took a small amount of that orange color and add a large quantity of yellow to it. And this will give us that mid tone we often see in the fries. But of course, for the darker oranges in the shadowed areas, I won't just use this one on the right. I will also add some burnt timber to make it darker and more brownish, like what we see in the fries shadowed parts. So I apply that color and notice that when mixing it, it likes a bit of red because quite often, when I mix burn timber with a good amount of yellow, it tends to become too brownish, too greenish, sorry. And this new mix seems quite good for the shadow areas of the fries. So now I can move on to mixing ltotons. To do that, I start by incorporating a large amount of white, since we can see that in some areas of the fries, there are very light parts with a lot of white in them. Then I had just a small amount of the free previous color to steer it toward a yellow orange, but not too intense. At this point, I felt it was a bit too yellow, so I adjusted the mix back toward orange by adding a touch of red. The burn timber also help neutralize the color a bit, making it slightly browner and less saturated. Each time I remind myself that even though some parts of the fries are quite light in the center, they are still not as light as my initial mix. So I am mixing it a little bit more of these three colors to make the color less white. And then, I've got a good set of base color for the fries, free interesting tones that we can expand on later if needed. Me now I am going to mix the grays that we can see in the newspaper paper. I had a bit of a blank moment because normally, I don't mix gray using black. I usually create it with burn timber and Ultramarine Blue. But since I already had some black on my palette for the background, I ended up mixing my gray this way. I made a mistake. It's true that this isn't something I do normally, but you can still get just as good as a result. Usually, I avoid using black from the tube, and I recommend you do the same, so you can really get used to working with the five color palette. But if you made the same mistake I did, don't worry about it. Then, as you have noticed, I am mixing these gray colors, and I am adding a touch of orange to my gray because the lighter grays in the newspaper shouldn't be as intense or as bluish as the ones I had. The orange helps me tone the color down and get something a bit less saturated. So I will go ahead and mix a few more shades of gray, and then we'll be ready to paint the newspaper. By the way, you will see when I will start painting the fries, you will see some additional colors on my palette. The brown shades that you will notice are actually for the wooden elements, which we will look at later on. I just chose to mix everything at once for practical reasons. So this lower section on my palette, all those colors, we won't be using them for now. Once we are done, working on the fries, the cone and the small dish underneath, we'll go over how to mix those other colors. But for now, we don't need them. So let's start by painting the background all around the fries. Just like we did with the burger, the black background really changes how we perceive the colors. If I didn't paint that black background around the fries, like I did with the burger, I would risk ending up with something that looks too light. Without the background or perception could be off, which is why I am choosing to paint it to paint it right away with this black color. But be careful. Here's a subtle detail you may have not noticed because it is very subtle. I actually left a tiny white right next to the fries. I didn't paint the black right up against them. I left that small space because fries and black are very contrasting colors, the colors of the fries. The issue is that if the yellow from the fries accidentally accidentally overlaps onto the black, I could end up with a greenish tone, which would really ruin the whole thing. So that tiny white gap allows me to maintain accurate color perception near the edge without risking any unwanted mixing. I know that the yellow of the fries won't bleed into the black and create an unpleasant green color that doesn't belong there. Later on, I will be able to come back with some black and finish off the background. And if that overlaps onto the fries a little, it's not a big deal. There is less chance of it blending in a bad way, and the black will simply cover up the fry color if needed. These are the little strategy and tips that come with experience. They help us paint certain elements more effectively than we could before. That is exactly the kind of tip you learn from your mistakes. It actually happened to me before. I had to paint slightly yellow elements like this, and I realized afterward that the paint had bled into the surrounding area and it looked bad. So I learned from that mistakes and now it helps me avoid making the same one again. So this is why every time you make a mistake, it can be very frustrating, but you have to go over this frustration and learn from this experience that you have had with your painting. So I know, yes, you don't like to make mistakes, but these mistakes that you make, they really help you to progress and not to make these new mistakes in the future. While we were talking about the background, you can see that I have made good progress on applying the colors to the fries. As always, I look for the different areas where each of my tones appears. Since we are working with a relatively small object here, I try to be fairly precise with my color application right from the start. Then I refine it little by little, and it's all those small touches I add on top that help create a certain texture, but more importantly, volume. With these fries, the surface isn't as irregular as the stack we painted earlier in the course, but it is still important to create a slight texture and above all, to give them a real sense of form and free dimension. That's where applying the right variety of tones really matters. Now it is true that when we think of fries, we don't typically imagine brown or orange tones. And honestly, before I started painting, I never really questioned the actual color of things. And I think that's the case for a lot of people. But when you start painting, you are forced to really pay attention to all of that. You realize that you shouldn't paint what you think an object looks like, but what you actually see and forget about the representation you have of the things and their colors. And observation really is the key. It is what allows you to notice these subtle shifts in color and value, because honestly, no one naturally thinks of these tons when they imagine painting a simple fry. One of the most important things to get right when applying the color here was making sure the gradients were soft, subtle transitions from one color to the next that are almost invisible. That smoothness was crucial and gradually I have been able to give shape to all of these fries. They are starting to take a three dimensional look, but it's really once all the elements are placed side by side that we see the full effect, the mass of fries coming together and taking shape. I am continuing on my work on this fry, adding slightly darker, slightly more orange touches to give it a more free dimensional look. As you can see, I am using a fine brush here, not the sword brush this time, because the details I am working on don't require extreme precision. And with this brush, which is a small round brush, the application is quite easy and works really well. Progress is steady, and even in the intermediate areas, I am adding darker touches, and it is this combination of elements that helps me get a strong final result. So, yes, painting fries might seem pretty simple at first glance, but in reality, it is an excellent exercise when you are learning to paint. Why? Because it is one of these objects with a basic, familiar shape, but full of hide hidden subtleties. Here you are working with warm tones, yellows, oranges, browns, and very soft gradients. You learn how to build volume using only light and shadow. You also learn how to suggest a light, crisp texture without falling into overdetailing. And most importantly, you are forced to observe, because if you just paint what you think a fry looks like, you'll throw down some yellow and cold. But if you really take the time to look closely, you will notice unexpected nuances, colored shadows, and very interesting lighting effects. Despite its simplicity, it is a fantastic exercise for training your eye, refining your brushwork, working precisely on small areas, and above all, painting what you see, not what you think you see. It is often in the simplest subjects that we find the best exercise for improving. And honestly, that's a bit of what's happening with this still life. We are working on so many different things with a single subject, a very casual subject, which makes it a great opportunity to grow and progress as a painter. Now we are moving on to this fry. It is a little darker, maybe because it is sitting more in the shadow of another fry or maybe it was just cooked a bit longer. I don't know. And honestly, I don't really care. When I paint, I focus on the color I see, and I am not looking for an explanation behind it. I work simply by saying, I see this color, so I apply it with my brush, and that's it. So here I am focusing on these colors, and as you can see, I am applying small touches here and there that help create natural blending while also working on the texture. Once again, I chose to work on one fry at a time with this fries. Rather than applying all the base color across the entire area. Other things would otherwise I would lose track of things. There are just so many color shifts, so many fries that it would have been a bit overwhelming to apply all the base color across the entire areas and work on all these fries at once, at the same time. So it's actually a bit like when we painted the lettuce. I worked little by little, one area at a time just to avoid getting lost because even though it was a single subject, the lettuce has so many folds and overlapping parts that it felt like I was painting several different elements in the same space. And that's the same here with the fries. Even though they form one visual zone, they are made up of multiple individual objects. That's why I prefer working one element at a time. It helps me see progress as I go, and it keeps me from getting confused. Because honestly, there's nothing more frustrating than being in the zone with your painting, wanting to move forward and make progress and suddenly thinking, Wait, which color should I be using here? What am I even looking at? Which fry is this? I don't want to guess because even if I have experience, even if I understand shadows, light and color theory, if I start guessing, my result won't be as good as it would have been if I really took the time to observe. And this is why I really don't like getting lost in my painting. I want to stay connected to what I am doing step by step. I am going to finish working on this fry, and then the rest of the fries will be painted off camera since the process is exactly the same for the rest of them. There's nothing more complicated in the others than what we have already done. It just takes a bit of time and patience. So really take your time, enjoy each burs stroke. And most importantly, remember that every single element you are painting is helping you grow in your painting skills and artistic abilities. So there is no need to rush through these parts. Even if they seem a little long, there's nothing worse than looking back 2 hours later and thinking, I could have done so much better if I had just slowed down. If I had painted more carefully, if I had taken that break, these piece would look much stronger and much better. And then having to spend another 2 hours fixing fries that got rush. No one wants that. So truly, take your time and after that, we'll meet again to work on the lower part of the newspaper. And of course, if it helps, you will be able to see the fries I have painted off camera in just a moment. This way, you can observe them for reference if you need to. So here are the finished fries, and now I can start painting all around them using black, being careful not to paint over the fries themselves. But even if a bit of black does overlap, it's not a big deal because the black is so strong compared to the yellow that it will crush it, if I could say that rather than mixing with it. It won't necessarily create a greenish tone, just like the yellow would have done if I had mixed it with the black color when I applied my yellow and oranges. One 11. Painting of the paper and the bowl: Now let's move on to the fry container, an element that isn't going to be particularly difficult, which is actually quite nice. Sometimes it is really pleasant to have something a bit simpler to paint, especially after everything we have just done. We have tackled some fairly complex elements with the fries, the lettuce, and lots of detail areas in the burger. So this is a bit of a breather, a chance to relax a little while still making progress with the container. But be careful because there are still a few traps to avoid, especially when it comes to a this element tend to create volume in this area. So make sure that you observe the shifts in value, and this is what will really help you create volume in this area. So here, I actually made a mistake when I wanted to start blending my colors together and create a nice transition, I picked up a brush that still had some black paint on it without realizing it. In the end, it wasn't a big deal. As you saw, I simply tried to remove the excess paint with my brush first just to get rid of that black from the area. Of course, a little bit of black still remain, and that part was impossible to fully erase. But that's okay. I just work it back into the rest of my paint by applying a lighter color over it. This softened the black, lighten it up, and now it bends nicely into the rest of the grays color. As for the gradients here, I worked on creating smooth transition, so the shift from darker to lighter areas feel natural. And now with a slightly fine brush, I can fill in the small white gaps I had left behind in some places, and most of it, most of all, reinforce this area in the center of the cone, which I felt wasn't dark enough. So I am going back over it, and as I apply these colors, I make sure they blend smoothly with the surrounding tones. You will also notice that I left the top right corner blank. That's simply because when I applied the paint with a larger brush earlier, it wasn't precise enough and I didn't want to risk spilling over into the Fry's black background. This would have created more work and more corrections which I wanted to avoid. So now I will go in and finish that area carefully with a smaller brush. You will notice here, too, that I didn't choose to paint the entire cone all at once. I started with the top area, and I will move on to the bottom once the top is finished, not because I was afraid of getting lost in the shaves, but because when I start working on the text, I will need to be quite precise. And for that, I might need to rest my fingers on the paper. I figure there is a good chance I will have to place my hand right on the lower part of the cone, and if that area were already painted, it could have caused some issues. So to avoid that risk, even though I wasn't sure whether I would actually need to rest my hand or mouth, I decided to leave the lower section for later and only paint it once the upper part is complete. Now, I am going to pick some black paint, and I can start working on the writing we see here. Well, it won't be made of pure black. Some areas will be mostly some gray. What is important here is to create that subtle curve that shows the text isn't laid out in a straight line. It follows the rounded shape of the cone. I am talking about the upper edge of the writing area, which clearly forms a curve, and that needs to be respected. As for the writing itself, you actually can't read what it says, and that's perfect because it makes things easier for us. What we will do is simply make some loose slightly messy marks. That suggests the presence of text. One more thing to watch out for, in some areas, the writing looks darker than in others. That variation is important to keep things believable, so pay attention to that while working. Otherwise, this part is unnecessarily more difficult than the rest. And I am using a fine brush to keep things precise and making sure that my strokes blend in slightly with the background tones to create a bit of that blurry printed look. So just keep in mind that top curved line I show with the brush and I talked to you about just before and the slight shifts in value over the text area. Those are key to making it look convincing. Okay. Now I am going to do the same thing on the lower part. It is exactly the same process. The only difference is that it takes is oriented a bit differently. That's why I sped up the video slightly, but I still leave this part so you can see how I handle the writing in case it helps you as a reference. So that's it for this section of the cone, and the next step will be painting the little dish just underneath. It is a small element, but actually quite interesting to work on because of all the little raised details it has. So here is where we are at this stage of the painting. We have made really good progress. It's really starting to come together, but there are still quite a few elements missing before we can cut it to complete and beautiful composition. So now we are going to work on this little dish. It's not extremely complex elements, but it is still quite interesting to paint because of all the little volumes it contains. And that is exactly what we are going to work on now. The first step, the very first thing I am doing is applying this very light color that you can see inside the dish. It is almost white. I am starting with this because although the area does require a bit of precision, it is mostly covered by this light tone. So I figured it makes sense to lay it down first and then come back in with slightly darker touches on top to build a volume. These darker details you see later on, blend nicely into the rest of the color, which makes them easier to apply over the light base. They are just a bit darker than what I had already put down, so layering them on top should be no problem. And so that's exactly what I am doing here with this small brush. I am applying these darker touches and I make sure they blend well with the elements. It is worth noting, and you can see it very clearly in the reference on my painting that I left a fairly light strip just above the darker areas. This strip is important because it is also what helps suggest the three dimensionality of the darker elements. And here, when I am adding These gray out areas with my base color underneath, I don't want there to be a sharp edge, really straight line of the shading, because that's not what we see at all. And as you can see with this element, I make sure there is no straight edge and that my gray tones blend well with the underlying color so that we get a fairly natural transition between the darker elements and that lighter color. So for this area, it is almost done. I am just going to rework the darker elements a little bit more because I feel they don't stand out enough. So I will go ahead and adjust that and then we'll be able to move on to the area just below. I am going to start by applying the lighter tones and gradually work towards darker grays. I began with the somewhat light gray, and now I am adding slightly darker touches than even darker ones and so on. What we also notice is that in areas that are going to be very dark, there's usually a lighter base underneath, for example, with a medium gray. So on top of that, I will have even darker touches where I think there should be some, and that's how we'll give this little bowl that's effect of small highlights and indentations in different places. So I am applying my slightly darker tones, and it is important to make sure they blend well with the other colors to ensure the different grays connect smoothly with one another. Once I have blended everything and created that soft transition, if needed, I will readjust the colors. That is because every time I blend, the colors tend to become a bit too light as they mix with the ones underneath. So I often have to make small corrections, but that's part of the process. It's no big deal, and I will adjust them accordingly. The blending started off well in this area, and then with some brush strokes, I make sure everything blends nicely together. If needed, I don't hesitate to go back over it and rework it until I am completely satisfied. Now that I have a zone that looks pretty good, I'm going to reinforce it with even darker elements on top of what I had painted. Then I make sure that these slightly darker elements blend well with the colors that are underneath. By smaller brush strokes like this and every that there's too much paint on my brush and that it becomes a bit hard to blend everything together. I remove the excess paint and go back in. And if needed, I can also add a little bit more smaller of light elements if I feel that my area is a little bit too dark. What I also noticed is that this upper part that we painted before has some darker tones in here that helps to distinguish the different zones, the inside of the bowl and the outside. Right here, I realize that the gray area in the middle is too dark. It stands out a bit too much, so I am coming back to apply small grayish touches on top like this. Then we are going to paint the ketchup, you can see in the bowl. So I will mix my color based on a slightly brownish red, which I will need to lighten because I don't want something that dark. And to lighten it, I can simply lighten it while I'm making sure it blends well with the rest of the area. I know I am painting over very light elements. So naturally, by painting on top and blending everything together, I will end up with a slightly lighter color. So there we go. These final touches need to be added here, and then we'll be done with the grayish tons and move on to the wood tons so that you can see on the palette, starting with figuring out how to mix them. 12. Mixing the wood colors: Let's take a look at the browns. The final mixes we are going to create for this subject. As we can see, there is a wide variety of browns in this scene. We've already looked at the browns in the small bowl. You can see that they are quite intense and also fairly dark in some areas. Now, with my arrows, I can point to all the different browns because we are a bit limited in space. But if you look closely at this bowl in the upper part, you will see that the left side is quite light with slightly orangy browns. And as we move toward the right, we find darker elements with some areas nearly turning black. Then underneath we have this wooden board. Again, there is a wide variety of browns on it, some slightly yellowish, some orangy, and especially some very light browns that we need to mix. And if you look at the stain underneath the burger, you will notice that it is a rich orange brown that we will have to recreate for that. Now, looking at the side of the board, extending to the right, you can see I have already created a color. I have picked a color for this area, and it's the last one at the bottom. And as you can see, the brands there are much less intense because they are in shadow, leaning towards duller brown. So I took this example to illustrate that. But the others in the photo, which we'll look at later, belong to the same color family just more dark, just darker. So that makes a large number of browns to mix, and we'll see how to do that because brown is a color that often causes trouble when it comes to mixing. So it's very interesting to work on that and practice mixing brown colors. So let's start mixing the browns, and I will start with the kind of orange ones that we can see with the bowl. So I will start creating different values for this bowl and starting with the darkest one. So at first, I am mixing some orange and I am adding a good amount of burn timber to get something pretty dark. But I notice that my color is a little bit too orange and so two incense. So I decide to add some ultramarine blue to it, which also darken it because that's also something that I want. And then from this color, I can create another one. So I like to pick a little bit of color and then create my mixture. So I'm adding some orange to it, which will lighten it because it will reduce the amount of burnt umber that I have in my mixture. The propultion of burnt umber. And now, once again, I realized my color is way too orange. So I had the opposite color of the orange, which is the ultramarine blue, which makes my color less intense because even though we noticed that the area is a little bit orange, especially in the light area in the lighter part of this ball, it's not an orange that's too intense. So that's why I needed to tone it down. Now I am creating a light value that is even lighter by adding some white to it and more orange to my color, which also reduced the amount of burnt umber its proportion. But I realized that my color was a little less was a little bit too light, so I decided to darken a little bit more with some burnt umber to it. Now I am going to create the colors of the wooden board. We saw that this wooden board tends to had some kind of yellow orange colors. So I am starting by adding a good amount of yellow to my color with some red, but I realized that my color was a little bit too green because of my good amount of yellow and this blue I had put in my mixture. So I am adding some red to make this color less green because the red is the opposite color of the green. And I decided to darken it a little bit more with some ver timber, which also helps me get something a little bit more neutral and a little bit more brownish. And now I am creating a lighter value by adding some white to it and even more yellow, which will lighten my color as well. And so we are getting a pretty nice color, but I think it needs a little bit of some adjustment. So that's what I am doing right now, making it a little bit more orange. Now I am going to create a very light color for the edge of the board. We can see that on the left side, it is extremely light. So this is why I am adding a good amount of white and a little bit of all my colors. What I can also do is pick a little bit of this color we mixed just before to get something that is quite close to this color, but still very, very light. Now I think that the gap between these two colors that I have just created is too important. So this is why I am going to create some intermediate color between this last one and the one I made just before. And this way, the transitions will be easier to go from one color to another. I think it is very important to have a large variety of of colors like this and a lot of intermediate tones when we work on a wooden board like this one. And finally, what I am going to do is create this orange that are pretty intense, this brown orange that we can see for the spot just under the burger. And so this is why I am using a great amount of orange color plus some burton bird to get it that brown aspect. And I'm going to create this color, but I will also create another one because it is important to have several values. And so we have a good palette with a lot of colors, and I think we need to create some others along the way. And so we'll see how it gets and what we need to mix during this painting. 13. Painting of the wooden bowl: He Let's get started and begin our work with the bowl. We will see how to create the wood texture, and what is quite interesting is that both with the bowl and the board, we are going to have two wood texture that will be quite different from each other. And I found that really interesting for this subject. So once again, we have a multitude of textures and effects to create, which makes this a fantastic subject, in my opinion, one that I personally really enjoy painting. And it is a pleasure to teach you this and show you how to do it. So here I start by applying my base color in the area, and I found that the color I had on my brush could be made a bit more intense in terms of orange. So that's what I am doing. I am applying this orange brand here, and the areas I am working on for now are quite broad, and it is only later once we have clearly defined our areas and achieve the good blend between the different colors that we can start working more precisely. On the right, the area is so dark that I think I can already apply pure but burnt umber. Even if it might seem a bit too dark as a starting color, I figure it's going to mix with the over browns anyway, and as it blends, it will become a bit lighter. What you really need to be careful about is not spilling over onto the hamburger. That would be a shame and could ruin the work we have done so far. Um In this area of the bowl, the elements are so light and so intense that I realized the colors I initially mixed wouldn't work. It is true that I hadn't really thought much about this part, and the color I have on my brush now is actually more of a color I had intended to use for painting the board underneath. But still, you shouldn't hesitate to use the colors you've already mixed. And even if they weren't originally meant for that specific area, it works just fine for me. And even if it hadn't been exactly the right color, I could just have easily taken the color I had mixed for another area and adjusted it a bit to get closer to what I was aiming for. And now with some small brush strokes, I make sure my different browns blend well into each other. I also make sure not to have too much paint on the brush, and if ever there is too much, I don't hesitate to remove some to ensure that the elements blend nicely together. And here we can see that this area, which was originally very dark now appears a bit lighter as it blends with the other browns. Now that the blending is well worked, I'm going to start focusing on more precise areas. I have a thinner brush, and I will look at my reference photo and ask myself where the slightly darker or lighter areas are, the smaller ones. So I start applying my colors. In the end, whether we are working on the wood or on the burger bun tone, the approach is more or less the same for a large part of the elements and the process. That is we begin with a good base layer, then we blend different area as well, and then we work more precisely by defining smaller zones. And really, it's only at the very end that we will be able to give the impression of texture, the kind that makes it feel like wood rather than burger bun. So I keep adding these little touches. Then if I want my texture to be more or less pronounced, I will either blend these areas or leave them as they are. We will see. Once all these small zones are a bit more defined, I will decide what I want to do. Sometimes when I paint or draw, I have a clear plan, and sometimes I don't. I just move forward intuitiv. I might think, in this area, I initially plan to do this. But then I realize it might not be the best idea, and instead, I go with something else or I might I have absolutely no idea how to handle this part. So I start by marking the elements that are more obvious and as I progress, I will create this or that. That is sometimes how I move forward, and in this case, that's a bit what is happening with this area, especially with the application of these little touches of color. After giving it some thought, I feel that the elements I just added might look a bit too rough as they are, not refined enough. So what I do is gently blend them in, but not with the same intensity as I would for first layer. I am not aiming for perfectly smooth blending here. Still, I let some elements stand out a bit more than others. There is a light blend, but it is not as for or pronounced as the initial blending we do right after applying the base colors. At least, this already helps create the first sense of texture in the bowl. Now what will really bring out the texture effect in the bowl, all the small touches I am going to add here and there. So I will observe my subject and ask myself where a few darker or lighter spots might be appropriate to create the impression of more detailed textured wood. So I will study those spots more closely. The slightly more defined, darker elements that we can see on this bowl, I will add them with this brush, this fin brush using the tip, trying to place them without blending them too much into the layer underneath. This way, the very dark areas really pop. In some spots, those dark areas might blend slightly and become lighter. So I will do that in certain areas, but not everywhere. Something else that is important when working on the texture of the wood is the direction of over strokes. You will notice that not all the little lines we had will go in the same directions. Of course, many of them will be vertical, but not all. It is important to pay attention to that, to work on it and emphasize the small irregularities, especially in the various colors that can be seen on the details of this bowl. An I have switched brushes, and now I am going to work on the texture in even finer detail. You can see that there are quite a few vertical lines. There will also be tiny dots, very thin, very fine little elements that help create a realistic, good texture. As I like to say, I go into predator mode and think for every little detail that can refine the texture and make the result more realistic. As you saw, I started with the very dark elements, and whenever I spotted a small dark touch somewhere on the bowl, I added it. Now I have moved on to a lighter brown, and I am doing the same thing. I like working this way color by color. It allows me to focus on one element that is present throughout the bowl, a color that is everywhere on the bowl. Then I can add all the little touches that match that color. Next, I will do the same with the lighter tones like the elements on the lower part of the bowl. These small touches will be enough to give the bowl a three dimensional and very realistic look. And you can tell it is wood thanks to this texture we are working on and its colors. I will keep working on this a little longer and then what also needs a tantrn or the edges. Here, we have a lighter rim that helps define the thickness of the ball and we'll also need to work on the darker areas on the sides which show the inside of the ball and help suggest it's three dimensional shape. So just a few more elements to add to this object, and then it will be ready and we can move onto the board. I o. 14. Painting of the wooden board: Now we are going to paint this fairly classic wooden board, real cutting board. This is a part I really enjoy because here we are diving into a completely different texture than what we had with the ball. We are getting into the real wood texture. The you would actually see if you slice through a tree trunk. It hasn't been modified or shaped by human hands. It is raw, natural material, and that's what makes it so interesting to paint in this tutorial. At this point in the process, I know it might feel a little long. We are working on wood again, but it is exactly the kind of moments where real progress happens. Here we are forced to observe closely to notice all the subtle shifts in color and to a small details that require precision and care. We have already come a long way. It's been over 2 hours since the tutorial started, and keep in mind that I have painted some sections of camera. So if you are still here, congratulations. That is true perseverance, and you should be really proud of yourself. So keep going. Stay focused because this is the moment when everything starts to come together. Maintaining that same level of care and consistency across every part of your painting is what will make your final result really stand out. Right now, I am simply applying my colors, just observing the areas and the tones I can see. Remember, when we mix the colors on the palette, we didn't really focus much on the ones found in the shadows on the right on this area we are now painting. But in the end, by slightly adjusting the ones I already had and re using some of the mixture that were already ready, I managed to get a result that is pretty realistic and convincing for this area. I like this color, and actually, I thought that using these existing colors rather than mixing new ones that might be a bit dull would give a painting a more vibrant look. Even though we are working in a shadowed area and using darker tones, the color still has a certain richness to it, and that is definitely a good thing for the overall effect. So now I am starting to work on this stain or mark on the side of the board. It is a kind of brownish gray patch with a lot of subtle variations. And those variations are what will help us create something that feels well texture and detail. So I have already built a decent base for that section, and I am continuing to refine the different areas with a bit more precision, adding small strokes here and there, just like we see in the reference. Texture isn't just about the final little details we had at the end. It is also build up through the slightly darker or lighter touches and through the careful work with color right from the beginning. This is what gives us a strong foundation for the rest of the painting. So here, it is true that I have chosen a rather unusual camera angle, but it was really the only way to show the entire board and allow you to see the progression clearly. In the end, though, you can still see the painting well, the full board, the reference image, and the palette. I know it might feel a bit surprising compared to the usual setup, but really the result is the same. The three essential elements are still visible. Now I feel like I can start going into a bit more detail on the side of the board. We already have a solid base, and for this brown gray patch, I can tell that we will want to add some slightly darker touches, almost like lines, and between those lines, a few lighter strokes. Those will help us create a bit of micro relief in the area. And in the end, just adding those few details will be more than enough to give this section a strong sense of texture, a very realistic wooden effect. So at this point, I would say that I have applied all my colors pretty precisely in this area, and we are really moving into the detailing phase, the one that brings everything together that finalizes the texture of the wood and gives this part of the painting a real bust. This is a delicate work because the wood on the side is actually more textured than the surface on top. The top of the board looks smooth while this side appears a bit roofer, and that roof effect is exactly what I have started to work on in the bottom left corner. Those slightly darker touches, the little dots, those microlines, they are more enough to suggest a rough wood grain. And there are very fine details, but in the end, you can see that adding this kind of subtle work doesn't take forever. It's actually pretty quick to do, and it makes a huge difference in your final result. Now I'm going to wrap up this area by adding the final details in the same way I have been doing so far. So just a few more motages to complete the texture and bring everything together nicely. Now we are moving on to the top part of the board. Here I am just adjusting one of my color because on the right hand side of the board, right next to the burger, there is a fairly bright area, but it's not intense. It's more muted, almost desaturated. So I am modifying my color a bit for that zone. Then I am going to start applying the colors in that area with some precision. Focusing on laying down the main browns, we'll see across each part of the surface. At this stage, the color application is quite straightforward, so I'm going to move through it quickly in the video. After that, we'll really dive into the texture of the wood and see how to build all these little lines, these kind of veins of the wood. But take your time with this part because the video is sped up doesn't mean you should rush. Feel free to pause. Take your time with the colors application, and we'll meet up in a moment to work on the texture together. Here my base colors are nicely applied in the area, and I am going to start working more precisely on the details near the burger and on the upper part of the board. In this section, the wood is much smoother, far less texture, so we won't need to have as many fine details as we did on the right side of the board. So that is what I am focusing now. What I am focusing now is observing where we can see those lines some thick, some thinner, that appear in the wood grain. But what is interesting here is that in many areas, those lines will actually blend into the base color of the wood. There's no sharp border between the grain and the background tone. Everything is quite connected and subtle. So I will focus on creating smooth transitions using the colors I apply in each zones, aiming for soft blends rather than sharp contrast between these kind of details I am applying and the base colors I applied before. M For the details I am adding, I try to be fairly precise, but not down to the exact millimeter. Keep in mind that we are painting wood here. It's not a portrait or anything that requires ultra precise rendering. Just by carefully adding a few darker touches here and there, little elements that blend in with the rest, that is more than enough to create the illusion of realism in the wood. What is also really important here, and don't overlook it is to make sure we clearly define the shadow underneath the burger. That shadow is what gives the burger some lift, making it look more three dimensional and grounding in the scene. So I am starting by applying a fairly dark tone for the shadow, and then I will make sure it blends smoothly into the color below, aiming for a soft and gradual transition between the two elements. H At this stage of the painting, I don't really have many new technical tips to share with you for this section. What we have done so far, observing the colors, applying our colors, blending gently, adding small variation, drawing subtle grain lines, that is exactly the process to continue using for the rest of this board. So if you are wondering, is that all well, yes, in a way, that's the nature of texture work. It is steady, a bit repetitive, and it mainly requires patience and close observation. But don't let that discourage you. On the contrary, this is when you really reinforce everything you have learned. You have already done the hardest part. You have found your tones, built a solid base, developed a convincing texture. Now it is just about keeping that same level of quality to the end. And I know that this is the point when many people tend to give up. You might want to move on or feel like this part isn't as important, but that's not true. What you are doing right now is what gives your painting its realism. This is what holds everything together. At this point in the tutorial, it is tempting to speed up and think, Okay, I get it. Let's just finish. But that would be a shame. You have come so far the bowl, the fries, the burger, the first sections of the board, you might as well finish with the same care and attention. We are almost there, really, and every brushstork you at now is just reinforcing all the good work that you have already done. And even if it feels like you are not learning something new at this moment, you are actually developing something even more valuable, consistency, control, and focus. It is this ability to keep your standards high until the very last detail that will make you progress faster than most people. Right now, you are building a solid working habit, a quiet focused discipline. And that abbot will follow you into all your future paintings. So hanging there a little longer, take your time and enjoy the process, and I promise that when we step back and look at the final result, you will be proud of what you have done. What you are creating here is a piece that is coherent, consistent, strong, and well crafted, and that is truly the word for your persistence. Now we are going to work on this mark that you can see along the edge, a stain that is quite similar to the one we painted earlier on the right side, which had a fairly dark tone. But this time, this stain has more of an intense reddish brown tint. Reddish kind of orange brown tint. So I'm going to start by laying down the base with that kind of tone. Not everywhere, though, as you can see, it gets noticeably lighter on the left side. And again, this area will require some precision. We will need to add a multitude of small touches here and there to gradually build up a detailed texture within the zone. You will also notice that along much of the border, there are slightly darker elements, and I am going to add those now while making sure, of course, to blend them gently into the surrounding colors. So like I said, I am applying these darker elements, and once again, patience in close observation will be key, taking the time to spot all the little variations and subtleties scattered throughout this section. For the rest of the board, the work is pretty much the same as what we have done together, so I will continue this part of camera just to keep the video from dragging on too long. But don't think for a second that just because I am not showing this, you won't be able to do it. You already have everything you need. You know how to apply your colors, how to blend, how to observe those little details, and how to build that nice wood texture. So trust yourself, keep going with the same approach at your own pace, and I will see you right after this part is done. You absolutely got this, and we'll meet each other again to paint the background together. 15. Painting of the background: So let's get started with the background painting. I'm going to paint the background using broad brush strokes with my flat brush, which allows me to stretch the color nicely and avoid having areas that look too fig or have heavy patches of paint where they shouldn't be. Because those fig blobs if the paint isn't smooth, can create uneven textures. And as I mentioned earlier, that can lead to paint clums. And those clumps don't look good. They create unwanted shine and reflections that really hurt the overall look. So be mindful of that. And as you can see, a large part of the background has now been painted. And for this area I have just done, it was the exact same process every time Brood Stroke stretch the paint well. So make sure to pause the video to progress at your own pace. In the reference photo, you will notice a small subtlety. The top right section is a bit lighter. There are slightly grayish tones in that area. So what I did was apply some gray in certain spots, and then I painted in with black areas like this. This way, I am creating a background that is a little more irregular with some lighter touches in certain places. Then I blend these elements together. Nothing too complicated, no need for extreme precision. I just want to have those slightly lighter spots that stand out a bit. So I use random brush strokes a little to the right, a little to the left. And whenever I notice that there is too much paint building up on the brush, I wipe it off, then get back to it. And this is how I will end up with a background that has a bit of variation and lighter area in the top right corner. Now I will admit when I paint background, I I tend to go in a little heavy with the paint even without meaning it. So that means I have to regularly wipe off the excess paint from my brush before continuing. Human. Alright, now let's move on to the tablecloth. And this tablecloth, let's be honest, is quite tricky. So we are finishing strong once again. We have another interesting texture to work on. But that's a good thing. We have covered a lot of different techniques in this painting, so this is great. And what I am thinking here is that to start, it would be good to mark out those brownish orange lines that define the grid pattern, kind of like ties or squares on the tablecloth. Then we will need to create a sort of gray for this area. I had this kind of grayish mix that wasn't bad, but I realized that the grays in this area tend to have a slightly purplish, reddish tone. So I decided to add a bit of burnt amber and red and maybe a little yellow just to tone it down and make it less intense. I am mostly using the colors I still have left on my palette at this point. I am running a bit low on white, so I'm mixing with something close to white just to lighten the tone. And now we've got a color that looks pretty good. For this tablecloth, we are going to work in layers, gradually building up the texture. We'll move through small sections going from light to dark. So we'll start by laying in the lighter shapes using this color, and then we'll come back over with darker elements to enhance the texture. Now, just so you know, a lot of the work of the tablecloth will be done off camera. It's really repetitive, and I didn't think there was much value in showing the same steps over and over again. And well, as you can see, I have already painted this whole section using this approach with this pretty light color. Well, right now, you're going to see it. So now I'm going to darken the color and begin layering in some of the deeper touches. I am adding small spots like you are going to see some spots like this here and there, not being overly precise, just estimating the general size of the marks. So I place them in, and then I blend them gently into the color underneath. As you can see, I left a white area in the upper part of the tablecloth where it blends into the background. That is because the base color I applied at the start wasn't right for that section. It is a much darker area. It is in shadow, so that light purplish gray didn't belong there. I needed to begin with a slightly deeper base tone. Now now that all of my shapes and forms are blended in, and by the way, don't hesitate to post the video and go at your own pace as well. Now I am going to start adding some slightly darker touches on top. And as you can see, the more we progress with darker and darker elements, the fewer we actually place. The light elements we wear all base. They were everywhere. The midton wear a bit less present. And now these dark tones are even more sparse, and that's completely normal. This is how we build up the texture gradually. So right now, I am adding small irregular touches. I am not looking too closely at the reference at this point. I am just focusing on where I feel I need to place a few dark details and where I don't. And that is working just fine for this area. Next, I will also add some lighter touches in here as well. And it's really this alternation between light and dark elements that helps create visual irregularity we want for this kind of texture, square pattern tablecloth. So now I'm going to go in with those slightly lighter accents on top once these dark elements are finished. So as you can see right now. So once again, don't hesitate to pause. Now that those lighter elements are in place, I am going to add the shadow cast by the wooden board. And as you can clearly see you can clearly see that in this area, the shadow is quite dark and very visible. So it is really important to add it in order to create a sense of depth and volume. I don't hesitate to go over it several times to make sure I get the precision the precision just right. Also, with a few small strokes in the lower area, I make sure that the shadow blends softly into the color of the tablecloth because shadows never have a perfectly sharp edge. That is almost never the case. They always fade in either a little or a lot with the surface beneath them. And it is the same here with this straight line of the board. I can trace the shadow line and I go over it in stages without hesitation to make sure I shape it properly. I am now going to paint the very last part of the tablecloth, which is darker and therefore my base color are darker as well, and I will make sure that it blends nicely with the rest of the tablecloth. And well, this means that we are reaching the end of this tutorial, before wrapping up, I really encourage you to take your time and carefully finish the tablecloth. It is the final step, so try to maintain the same attention to detail and patience you have had throughout the whole painting. Very often, it is those last touches that make the difference between a good painting and a truly great one. In any case, it's been an absolute pleasure spending this time with you and to paint this hamburger. I hope you enjoy the tutorial that you learned a lot and above all, that you are proud of what you have created. Thank you so much for sticking with me all the way to the end. Well done for your perseverance, and I will see you very soon for another project. So thank you very much for watching.