Green Apples: Stage 1

Okay, the years out-of-practice show. This very thin sketch stage should only take an hour, tops, in my opinion, but instead it took me a good two hours. And lots of frustrating moments not liking the way the paint mixes, the viscosity, the wash-like application despite what I would consider good amounts of paint and my not-so-steady hand (damn, wait till I start to detail!). I like the "sketcherly" style anyway so I may need to finish my paintings as such, but as you can see, even if I were to stay loose, I still need to deepen the chiaroscuro and intensify the colors. I need to make the final brush strokes much more "carefree" and unfussy as well as imparting a "buttery" and lush texture.

Notice I'm painting the bowl as if it were something like terra-cotta. As you can see from the source picture, it's actually white porcelain but I found the composition needed more color.