Today I spent a couple of hours working on the background of my latest painting, Bird Jug and Figs. I've tried to be a bit more loose with the the background than I normally am, it's something I really have to fight with myself to do. My natural desire is to paint the whole image in a hyper realistic style, with all brustrokes smoothed out. What I'm going to attempt with this painting is a looser background with the main items painted in more detail as per my more usual style. We'll see what happens.
So far I've painted the underpainting with Raw Umber Acrylic and used my favourite combo of Burnt Umber and Ultramarine with Titanium White for the background.
I'll probally tackle the foreground next, then the jug, then the figs.
More updates soon.