Capsicum Still Life ProjectPainting a still life set up is vital practice for beginner painters! This type of painting is controlled by you the artist in the way you light your subject and what subject you are going to paint. I recommend painting simple still life scenes to start with. In this example I purchased two Capsicum peppers (Bell Peppers) in the U.S.) Next, I placed them on a table with a cloth over the top and positioned the light in such a way so that I could see a shadow underneath the subjects. I intentionally overlapped the two peppers to give a greater illusion of depth to the painting. Here is the photo I took of my set up.
First thing I did was to get a previously toned board ready for this project. This was a 6" x 8" canvas board. I had previously toned it (painted an orange/red acrylic paint over it and then let it dry so I have a warm base to paint on) (see toned board in painting techniques page) Here is graphic...
Next, using a piece of charcoal stick I roughly drew out a base drawing to give myself some guide for the painting. Here is the graphic of the initial drawing...
Next, I began to paint in the dark areas using my dark mixture that I use.See the graphic below for this stage.. 
Next, I began painting in the dark reds first then lightened this (up to 3 shades lighter all the way up to a dark orange colour)See the graphic for this stage... 
Next, I painted the small green stem on the top of the red pepper. I used two different green colours for this and a lighter colour for the tip.See the graphic for this stage.. 
Next, I painted the yellow colour, this was the shaded yellow areasee the graphic below.. 
Next, I painted the lighter shade of yellow... 
Next, I had to decide what to do about the background colour. So I thought if I painted it the "compliment" of red which is green it would make the peppers even brighter and more brilliant in colour. So I painted the top part of the background a dark green colour and the bottom part is a navy blue colour so that you can still see the shadow of the peppers. Here is the background being painted...
I finally got the painting finished (except signing it) I like to wait till it is dry before I sign as it is a little easier to do. Here is the painting up to this point..
The painting was dry enough for me to sign my name on the bottom left corner.Here is the finished painting... 
This photo shows my signature on the lower left side. 
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