Apple & Banana Still Life. Painting #103. Taking Off the Training Wheels

**Apple & Banana Still Life**
Surface: 6×8 canvas paper
Date Painted: June 21, 2020

Painting #103 is a banana and apple still life — a simple setup on a board.

The Inspiration

The inspiration for this banana & apple still life came from a Twitch community. An artist friend on Twitch shared a photo of a banana with an apple in front of it, sitting on a board, and encouraged everyone to interpret it however they wanted. Some people sketched it, some painted it, and some used colored pencils. I went full realism in oil paints. The timing lined up with my still life studies I’d been doing.

By this point, I’d already been experimenting with fruit still lifes, and I remember thinking, Why not push myself a little further? Unlike the apple study in Painting #102, this one was done completely without a tutorial. No Lena Danya video, no Bill Alexander guidance. Just observation, patience, and the lessons learned.

Materials Needed

Surface

I did this on canvas paper, cut to size. But you can use normal canvas.

Mediums

Colors

As you can see, there are a few non-Bob Ross colors. Ultramarine blue is a very common blue used in traditional oil painting over Pthalo Blue. See why here.

Equipment

Techniques

Surface Prep

Once you cut the canvas pad to the size you want, I did 6×8, tape it down on your desk, or other painting surface. Then you apply a coat of gesso. Once the gesso dries, give it a light sanding with a fine grit sand paper. This removes some of the rough gesso brush texture. Repeat the process one more time and you’re ready to get started.

Toning the Canvas

Since this is a more traditional style of oil painting, versus the wet‑on‑wet technique, the previous still life tutorials introduced me to toning the canvas. It might not have been the first time I’d heard of the practice, but it was definitely the first time I actually tried it. This tutorial also required toning.

Toning serves a few purposes. It knocks back the stark white of the canvas so you’re not fighting bright, reflective white while you paint. It also gives you a middle value to work from, which makes judging highlights and shadows much easier. And depending on the color you choose, it can subtly influence the mood of the painting as the undertone peeks through later layers.

To do this, mix a small amount of Burnt Sienna with Gamsol to create a very thin, almost watercolor‑like wash. The goal is a transparent film, not a solid coat. You brush that mixture over the entire surface in a thin, even layer—just enough to push the white back and give the canvas a soft, warm undertone. The value should stay very light; you’re not trying to stain the canvas heavily, just set the stage for the rest of the painting.

Painting the Fruit

This apple and banana still life painting came together over several slow sessions. Painting without a tutorial meant relying on observation and noticing how the light curved around the fruit, how the shadows softened, how the colors shifted. It was slower than a landscape, but more meditative.

While I don’t remember every step six years later, I do remember the general approach: building the forms gradually and working from the darkest values outward. I blocked in the shadows first then blended into the mid‑tones and finally into the highlights. That dark‑to‑light workflow is common in traditional oil painting and plein air work, even though I didn’t realize I was following that principle at the time. The board beneath them grounded the composition and added a bit of texture.

One thing that does stand out from this piece is a lesson learned about darkening yellow. A lesson I didn’t learn until many years later. I used black back then, which technically worked and still gave the banana a realistic look, but I’ve since learned that a better approach is using purple, the complementary color to yellow. It deepens the value without killing the saturation. So even though the final painting turned out great, that little “happy accident” became a useful takeaway I will use in future paintings.

Final Thoughts

It’s funny looking back: I started with Bob Ross landscapes, never imagining I’d be capable of realistic still life work. And yet here I was, painting a banana and apple with careful highlights, soft transitions, and a sense of form that felt new to me. It was a realization that my skills were expanding beyond what I thought possible when I first opened that Bob Ross paint set three years earlier.

I also remember the atmosphere around it. A relaxing Covid‑era Sunday morning stream, coffee nearby, Twitch chat hanging out, and viewers watching the piece come together layer by layer. It was calm, steady, and surprisingly rewarding.

This painting marks a small but meaningful milestone. It was one of the first times I trusted myself to paint a realistic still life without guidance, and it showed me that fruit studies were becoming a genuine part of my artistic growth. What started with a Bob Ross paint set turned into a subtle confidence that I could handle more than landscapes.

It’s a simple piece — just an apple and banana — but it represents a moment where my skills and my curiosity lined up. I can definitely see more still lifes in my future.

Where to Find Me

If you enjoy following along with these backlog posts, you can find more of my work on the socials, where I share new paintings, works in progress, and the occasional behind‑the‑scenes look at my process. You can catch up by reading my blog or browsing my gallery.

This apple‑and‑banana still life is currently available, professionally matted and framed. You can find it in my shop if you’d like to give it a new home. Thanks for reading and for supporting my art. It means more than you know.