"Bowl of Poms"

Heres the poster study and a little bit done on the table and bowl. My goal is to lay down the paint and leave about 80 percent of it untouched. I probably ended up with more like 50 percent, but I'm getting closer. I've been using flake white with some of my mixtures. The bowl is flake white and raw umber which creates some really rich earth tones. It has to be lead white, not flake white substitute. Some of the painters at the GCA have sworn off of titanium white altogether, I don't see myself ever doing that, I like the cooler light tones. The bowl was a bit tricky because the reflected light from the white cloth has pretty much washed out the core shadow area, so I had to squint way down to get some of it and still get that intense reflected light that will add to the brightness of the cloth. I also painted the background first before the object. Usually my approach is to hit the center of interest and then some of the background color. I've noticed a lot of artists, Tony Ryder being one, prefer to get the background in first, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm working my way up the light and color scale to the pomegranates.