Making of “Illumination”: Oil painting of a candle

First things first, I cannot stress enough on my love for candles. I love it in all colors, sizes, shapes, scents and decoration. More the number of candles, bigger the smile on the face. For someone with so much love for candles and painting, oil painting of a candle on canvas was just the sweet spot that I targeted in one of my paintings.

While making this painting, an utmost concern was to get the flame of the candle as realistic as possible. I wanted to capture that softness, those shades and that aura of the flame in the painting. As the flame is not constant, taking a photograph of the flame could be one of the approaches.

Approach in making oil painting of a candle:

So I painted this huge orange red candle on my canvas. For better pre-preparation, a rough layout in water colors was made by me and then I worked on what color combination would look best.

Blocks were included in the background that you can generally see in most of my paintings. In order to have some connection with the soft foreground flame and cylindrical candle, some circular rings in the background were also included.

Brown and yellow background complimented the yellow white flame in the foreground perfectly. The rings in the background added softness and their red color added boldness at the same time.

I had to work on the flame in several layers to get the flame right. Transitioning from lightest yellow to the darkest brown in the background was a challenge too. When you include such wide range of tones in a painting, you can use a tip. Make sure you have separate brushes for lighter shades and darker shades respectively. Even while mixing shades, choose your brushes wisely. This can save you so much time and reworking.

Final stages in the making of oil painting of a candle:

After several sittings, this oil painting of a candle got finished. I have to say that I have various candles in my house at different locations which I might/might not ignite. However, one candle that is always ignited is the candle on this canvas painting.

This painting was titled illumination as an illuminated candle stands for hope, inspiration and optimism.

P.S.: You can buy this painting – “Illumination” from the gallery and have an ignited candle in your house permanently.