Back to Painting and Back to Posting

I have not posted nor painted for a crazy long time, but I have set new goals to try to do more of both. My painting goal is small, but I feel obtainable, at two hours a day. By keeping myself mostly to smaller paintings I am hoping to jump start some good practice, as I am painfully out of practice, while still feeling like I am accomplishing something.

So far I am doing well at 8 hours for the week and two finished paintings. For the time being I am painting fruits and vegetables, maybe even some baked goods (aka donuts, maybe a chocolate chip cookie?), as I know I can knock those out quickly. I am not thrilled with the two that I have finished, but I am not unhappy with them either; I was terrified that I would be.

Below are the progress and final images for what I have done this week, both are 8x10:

Notes on the progress photos: 

I first drew the image out, blocked in a quick colored underpainting, blended the underpainting using a fan brush, established the shadows, then the midtones, and finally the highlights. For the radish I used an image I found online, but for the avocado I had a fashion shoot. 

I like how blended the color transitions are in the radish, but the leaves got away from me. I like the colors in the avocado, but I wish I had blended the colors more like with the radish. Things to think about for tomorrow!