Painting Donuts

Normally I paint from a pattern or sketch from photo references, but sometimes it is fun to set up a still life and paint from it….so why not paint donuts.

The best part about painting donuts is having to buy a “collection” of fresh donuts to sketch and then eat them. 😀 Since my husband was more than willing to help and anxious to get started, I took pictures. I stacked them and also took pictures singularly from the top, side and at an angle.  After photographing many donuts I decided on these three.

I then roughly sketched them.

I adjusted the design and traced the pattern onto tracing paper.  After base coating the canvas I transferred on the design. I used two 5x5x2 canvases and one 5x7x2 and painted them Bleached Sand (I used all DecoArt paints for this project).  I then based in the donuts using Sand, Poodleskirt Pink, Grey Sky, Milk Chocolate and Warm White.

Paint a thin line in the center of donuts and then shade from top to bottom with Honey Brown, also shade the cinnamon bun with Honey Brown.  Shade pink icing with Royal Fuchsia, chocolate icing with Burnt Umber, whip cream with Grey Sky and the pedestal with Slate Grey.

Highlight the pink icing and pedestal with Warm White, and the chocolate  icing with Honey Brown. Strengthen the shading on the donuts with Raw Sienna, and on the whipped cream with Slate Grey.  Line under the icing with thinned Raw Sienna.  Dry brush Milk Chocolate in the swirl of the cinnamon bun.

Paint the sprinkles with Foliage Green, Indian Turquoise, Royal Fuchsia, Purple Cow, and Sunny Day or any color of your choice.  Highlight the cream with Snow White and paint the jelly with Deep Burgundy and shade with Burnt Umber.  Paint the icing on the bun with Warm White and line with Raw Sienna.  Shade around donuts with Slate Grey and reinforce with Burnt Umber.

Here is a closer look at each of the canvases.

I hope you will feel encouraged to paint these pictures or something of your own.

For your convenience here is the PDF line drawing of the canvases

Happy painting and creating,

Jane