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Stage 1

I made an initial sketch of the composition on paper, placing the orchids on the tip of the pyramid and the crab at the intended focal area. The crab was slightly turned to the side to avoid the less dramatic frontal view.

Stage 2

Satisfied with the arrangement, I transferred the sketch into the canvas. I placed some peripheral and diagonal lines to aid me in drawing. I made sure the crab is situated right at the golden mean, the point where the diagonal line from the upper left corner is intersected by the perpendicular line coming from the upper right corner.

Stage 3

Using acrylic, I did the underpainting in black and white. This helps to assess the overall value (lightness and darkness) pattern in the composition.

Stage 4

Once the underpainting was dry, I began to add colors in oil. Realizing that the small dark areas on the right are overwhelmed by the large dark areas at the left, I decided to make the grapes purple instead of green for more value balance. Initially, I kept the the flower vase light blue (complement of orange) to contrast with the crab. I balanced the color combination of beige, orange and yellow (basket, crab, mangoes) on the right with a similar combination (lanzones, clementine, karamay) on the left.

Stage 5

I continued developing the forms and adding more details, such as the leaves of the yellow orchids. I decided to change the wooden table into marble.I also made the flower vase white to harmonize with the table cloth. Together, they help to tie up the composition into a unified whole. Note that I replaced the purple-pink orchids from the resource photo with yellow ones for unity's sake.

Stage 6

I did more fine-tuning work on all the elements especially on the crab, the center of attention. To break the monotony of yellow in the basket, I replaced some mangoes with other fruits.

Final Stage

FINISHED PAINTING - In this final stage, I refined the features of the claws, feet, eyes and shell of the crab to give it a sharper focus. I then painted the wine bottle lable with a mini-landscape, the reflections on the shadow side of the flower vase and the wine glass. Then, I carried out the most enjoyable part of any painting process which is to place or strengthen the opaque highlights in all the items where they should naturally appear. Finally, I marked in the transmitted light on the eyes of the crab to make them look more real.

It is generally accepted among artists that every painting must have one and only one focal point and that it should not be situated in the center. In this work, what it is should be pretty obvious. Nethertheless, I took some care that the viewers' eyes would feast first on the crab before moving on to the others. The crab stands out in the arrangement not only because it occupies

the golden-mean area but also because it is the only fauna in a sea of flora. Likewise, it gets noticeable first because of its color red that gets highlighted by green, the dominant color, and because the most elaborate work was done on it. And, if none of these techniques works, at least, I made sure the crab's eyes feast on the viewers instead.

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Deciding what to paint is not always an easy task. This is true even when one already has a specific theme in mind - a landscape, a still life, a portrait or a floral arrangement. The still endless possibilities for each theme almost always lead to indecision and inaction.

I was once browsing a book of classical paintings in 2003, while in a similar state of paralysis, when the "bright" idea of creating a painting by combining cut-outs from old masterpieces hit me.

This was how the model for this featured painting came to be. In a desperate effort to jumpstart a new project, I resorted to this cut-and-paste method which resulted in a triangular composition with the conch shell cup as the main attraction and the shells, platter, fruits, flowers and drapery as supporting cast.

This collage of Old Masters became my guide for this piece, and so, it should not be surprising if many of the items in the picture sound familiar.

I was still a neophyte then, a time when my primary concern was just to paint forms correctly, obsessed on realism but understandably oblivious of other equally important elements of a good painting like linear and aerial perspectives, unity, variety, harmony and contrast.

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