Cher Threinen-Pendarvis works with both traditional materials and digital tools for her fine art and illustration. She often makes several conventional sketches, carefully observing how light and atmosphere affect the color and shadows.
For the study Light and Shadow Play, she used Oils brushes that incorporate RealBristle capabilities, developing the study by painting on both the Canvas and transparent layers. She planned an asymmetrical composition with interesting negative space around the flower, dynamic curves and subtle diagonals, and arranged the still life so that there was no busy background to distract attention while painting.
Pendarvis began by creating a detailed drawing on a layer. To add a layer to her image for the drawing, she clicked the New Layer button on the Layers panel. Then, she sketched from life using the Pastel Pencil variant of Pastels. To read about working with layers, see Chapter 6, “Using Layers.”
Next, she laid in the base colors and began to model the forms. Pendarvis painted over the sketch with the Real Oils Short variant of Oils. The brush laid down a lot of smooth wet paint. To lay in paint and blend as she worked, she used the Real Tapered Wet Flat variant of Oils. Carefully observing the subject, and focusing on the composition, the forms and the natural light, she blocked in the flower shapes and base values, resizing the brush as she worked.
When the forms were established, she added accents of brighter opaque color to a few of the petal edges, using a small version of the Real Flat Opaque variant of Oils. For richer brush textures on the background, she sampled color from the image using the Dropper tool and then switched to the Real Fan Short variant of Oils.
Using the Real Fan Short variant, she loosely brushed back and forth in a soft cross-hatch pattern, sampling a different color every few strokes. To add final touches to the center of the flower, she used the Real Tapered Wet Flat variant, painting with gentle, curved strokes that followed the direction of the forms. You can see this final brushwork in the center of the orchid.