Grapes, cherrys and the eyeball
3-2 THE GRAPE, THE CHERRY AND THE EYE
A friend once wrote ... 'There is such evident sparkle in the eyes of intelligent people which if
often missing in others, but always present to some degree. One of the things that led me to
believe this is possible, was when I had the unfortunate experience of having to put one of my
cats that had a fatal disease, to sleep. I can't tell you what a horrible experience this was as I
loved this animal deeply. As the fatal injection was given, I actually watched the eyes go from
sparkling to a dead grey. I have never gotten that image out of my mind.'In this lesson we are going to examine how to do the reverse ... to put a sparkle back
into the eye.To do this we must look at a white grape and a red cherry and see what makes them appear
real. First the grape:
Many artists love putting white grapes in their still life paintings because they have a wonderful
transparency which shows up particularly well against a bunch of dark grapes and other items.Fig 1 Fig 2 Fig 3
Many fruits have a light grey covering on their skin I call 'frosting'. This occurrs on the skin of
most fresh stone fruit but is particularly noticeable on peaches, plums and grapes. I have added
this frosting to Fig 2 above.
In Fig 3 I have added a top 'highlight' and a secondary highlight (180 degrees apart) where the
ray of light 'emerges' from the grape. This occurrs because the grape is semi-transparent
allowing some light rays to 'penetrate' the liquid in the grape itself.In the examples of the three grapes shown above I have altered their hue slightly to allow for
various stages of ripeness. Also, since the 'frosting' is sometimes removed as the grapes are
handled or moved about I have cleared certain areas allowing the smooth skin to show through.
This has the effect of emphasising the frosted areas even more.Now all we need do is assemble our bunch in as a convincing manner as possible (see below).
This should not be difficult for those partial to eating grapes.http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/advanced/grape.htm (1 of 3)1/13/2004 3:37:25 AM