Greek Breakfast

An exercise in darkness.

The inspiration for this painting was the breakfasts at a Greek hotel near Mt Pelion. The breakfast was so hughe nobody could eat it all. Unfortunately the hotel while great does have a shonky madam that will flease you if she can... so no recommendation from me.

The painting itself started when I decided to make an entry for an International Painting competition. The work had to be small (under 30 inches by 30 inches). The work would also need to project a clear indication of my level of mastery of the brush and colour. Tonality would also have a place in the requirements.

Going through a now large collection of reference drawings and photos I found one that looked very interesting. To execute this would take the careful establishment of values, supported by very subtle colour changes.At the same time the painting would be a challenge, as I generally avoid dark interiors as a subject for painting, if I fail at least I have an excuse for myself as to why the entry would not be ready.

To avoid making the image look like the photo I started by drawing in black felt tip pen direct to the canvas. The reference photo was displayed on my computer screne at full size so only part of it was visible at a time. The result is an image that varies from the reference in a number of respects, but at least I've been over the image in detail and can appreciate the importance of the multple glasses, cups and plates in the composition. I delibarately avoid using the photo image as anything but a general guide, despite what people may think about photos, they do not represent what a human sees.

The first image shows the canvas drawn up with the first colours being added. The table clothes were first because they gave me a reference in both the shadow and muted light. This in effect gives me a relationship within one colour for value. At the same time the relationship between foreground and background is established. The foreground is darker than the back, thus making a silhouette within which detail colour and light changes will establish the major area of interest.

Don't take the face drawings seriously, at this stage I have no idea what they will look like or how the heads will be positioned.

I continue to establish the back ground value and colour relationships. The chairs are left unpainted, they play a major role is the middle ground in the painting, acting as a connecting shape through the painting.

Next a block in of the mid tone flesh colour. This enables me to start to work towards the remaining values in the room. Inparticular I'm interested in the highlighting that will reflect from the glass and earthenware as these will establish the deep contrast in the painting.

The table cloth and other dark areas are blocked in, again only as the mid tone. The purple colour has a relationship to the final but is really only to set tone. Note at this stage the painting is relatively flat.

The male figure gets some attention at this stage to start to separate the dark forground from the mid level background. Shadow also starts to take form on the forground to set the scene for the full painting of the table.

Here the depth starts to appear with the darker earthenware items taking shape.

The curtains are now painted in. These are the light in the back ground, that sets the lightest point in the painting and gives a greater visual depth than the limits of the room.

This image is interesting to show how I can be overly intent on detail of clour relationships. I took this photo after a couple of hours of fiddling with values and thought that I had made a significant change to the work. When compared to the photo above it looks like I've taken a two hour coffee break and absent mindedly taken a photo without changing anything.

At last we start to see some food appearing on the table. The food provides a number of new colours in the painting and is a focal point to draw attention to the foreground of the painting. It will take considerable development to take form, attract attention but at the same time leave the focus spread across the entire foreground.

Up to this point I've left the figures as undefined as possible to allow my eye to work on broad colour areas and the detail. The male figure is started to start building a reference point against which I can continue to work and progress the overall composition.

Developing the male figure further leads me to darken the background wall and start developing the detail in the left background. The table cloth is worked up to reduce the purple look and detail the damasc.

The female figure has highlights developed and a start on the shadows. The food at each pass is developed in further detail, the photo is not picking this up well.

Continuing the female to develop the face. This is no more difficult than a face in light, except that the colour range I can use is more limited and I cant rely on complexion to render/ infer, the facial mussels (since writing that I've reconsidered and conclude I need to practice the subtlty of face painting in restricted light, what I have here is not acceptable to me). The look is more masculin than I'd like.

Reflections and highlights are worked in to pick the silhouetted figures out and to better define the chairs which are an important part of the composition.

More detailing and the light fitting are now inserted. The light fitting is found to be an unnecessary element that confuses the composition.

The light fitting is taken out. The final cutlery is added. Minor touch ups are as always being done.


With the light fitting removed and some final adjustments of value. Particularly the relationship between the right and left walls is modified to bring the room into looking unified.

What is left to say. Not giving adequate attention to the canvas prep has left me with a grainy painting that reflects the intention I originally had... but it is not very pleasing. This is obvious from the difficulty I had getting clear photos to put in this WIP, they just dont look clear, no matter what I do. With this canvas I'll pay more attention to surface in future.

February 25th 2010.... I'm so unhappy with this painting I'm revisiting it. Starting with the flesh to both improve the appearance and establish a better relationship with the background. This process will likely consist of applying a lot more paint to smooth the surface, enhancing the facial and body painting (I'll admit I was rushing to have an entry for a competition.. and deservedly did not get hung).

Other areas that will get a revisit include the walls, door jambs, floor, chairs. It will be a much slicker painting after these changes.