Shiny baubles

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

■ Paint reflections on shiny objects

■ Create a three-dimensional form in paint

■ Paint on a white background

It’s always fun to find painting subjects that not only bring lovely memories and emotions, but also hold a certain painterly appeal. If like me you love painting light and reflections, then you’ll enjoy subjects like Christmas trees with fairy lights, Easter eggs wrappings, marbles, festive glasses with champagne, birthday cakes with candles, fancy china teacups, and last but not least, shiny Christmas baubles. These are great to practise seeing things in an abstract way, focusing on colours and tones and depicting lovely and juicy reflections. So I do hope you are ready to step into the Christmas spirit and join me in this fun and festive step by step demo.

The set up

I set up a few Christmas baubles on a table with a direct light placed very close to the subject, in order to achieve great shadows and highlights. This demo was painted in one session, by looking