Last Tuesday I gave a Still Life Demonstration up at the
Glenview Art League. Given the Limited amount of time, it was a challenge to finish a painting and answer the viewers questions at the same time.
Because of this I thought I'd post the demo and talk a bit about what I was thinking during the process and to hopefully give more
incite to those who attended and perhaps share new info to those who did not attend. This also gives me a chance to learn from my own experience as well.
I began the painting with a color wash. not
necessarily in transparent washes though in parts they were used but also with a bit of thicker paint. My focus was in getting the abstract shapes down using color and value. I was not thinking about edges at this time only to keep everything soft in the beginning. I was anticipating sharpening edges up by carving things out using the background or adjacent shapes. * Note there are lots of ways to start a painting, given the time limitations and what I wanted to accomplish this seemed the best way to begin.
Once I got the initial abstract pattern in I began working on drawing, that is carving things out as a sculptor would, not using line to guide me but thinking of the shapes at they met each other. I also used some highlights ( the shapes of the highlights) to guide my drawing.
In this painting I started on the large pot
because it was an easy shape that I knew I could get right as apposed to say the grapes or flowers that are far more difficult to see the overall shapes.
At this point as I was carving out the shape of the pot I thought about each edge of the pot as it met the cloth or grapes. I squinted down to see the relationship of the pot to the edges around it, and painted that
relationships as I saw it at a squint.
I then moved to the grapes. As I had already done a color wash there was not much to do to make the initial wash begin to look like a cluster of grapes. The value and color were already there and rather then spending countless amounts of time "rendering" each grape, I only needed to pull out a few grapes
causing the eye to read the abstract shape as a whole cluster.
To make some of the grapes pop out even more, I painted the shapes around them. The cloth and shadow pattern helped to define a few grapes and started to really read well at a distance.
As I moved along to the flowers, I noticed that in order for them to read well I had to paint the leaves and shadow pattern on the side of the pot to make the simple design of the flowers read
accurately. I had mentioned several times
during the demo that I was trying to paint these shapes simply, not getting wrapped up into what things are but painting only a few strokes and then letting your eye fill in the rest. Its amazing what your eye will
interpret, I think because we are visual people, we see things everyday we know what things are, all our eye needs is a hint of what things are and our minds eye fills in the rest. Isn't that amazing.
If I were to continue on this painting a bit more I would still keep things simple. The little cup on the right perhaps a few more strokes in the light and maybe a few strokes along the edges of the shadow pattern.
That was it, I know it has helped me to write about the small demo and I hope you enjoyed it as well. I find repetition of information to be so helpful in getting it to stick in your brain.
I actually went through with last years resolution, that was to draw more. I'm so excited because I have seen the improvement in not only my drawing skills but how it has helped my paintings as well.
Another sneak peak .
PREVIEW.
This painting was awarded an Honorable Mention at the Reception on May 13th.
Here is a painting I did in early december. It started out with a little bit of line work but mostly coming in with masses. My goal was to get the color and temperature right. I really wanted to show the strength of the spot light. That was what really stood out to me on that particular day.
Why do I Paint? I came across an old sketch book of mine the other day. I started flipping through the pages, curious to see if I had in fact progressed in my drawing skills after a few years. There were a couple of drawings I was quite impressed with, considering how long ago they were done, and others, well lets just say they were "nice" if you know what I mean.
I've been painting a bit of quick hand studies, only 25minute poses. So often I paint head studies and figures but never seem to have enough time to get to the hands. I guess I'm also sort of preparing for a workshop this January with Clayton J. Beck III at the Palette & Chisel. Its given me incentive to really understand the shapes and characteristics of the hand.
I have recently begun painting still lifes again. I had forgotten how wonderful they are to paint. They don't need a break as a model does, The light doesn't change when using a spot light, and If you are one to spend lots of time on a painting, you don't have to pay them an hourly fee. One caution though, just because you can take a long time to paint a still life does not mean it would be the best option. There is such a thing as over working a painting. You have to know when to stop, when enough is enough. I found that as long as I can stay focused on my original idea I'm ok to continue, but after a few hours when I begin to lose focus, I know I'm approaching that time to stop, start a new painting or call it a day. It is a good idea to take breaks though even when your subjects do not need one. Just as if you were painting a model and needed to give them a break, You need a break too. Set a timer and when it goes off, stop what your doing, step back and maybe even leave the room. At times I've found myself staring at my painting close up, As if it would magically fix itself. I'd forget to take a break and step back. You want to be able to look at your painting with fresh eyes. Sometimes it's more beneficial to just put your brushes down, squint down and look at your subject (not your painting) and study it. What values are you seeing, what kind of edges are you seeing, What shapes are you seeing? Then look at your painting and see if you are capturing all that you see when you look up at your subject. I know its hard and exhausting to stay so focused, but as you begin to train yourself you will be able to stay focused for longer amounts of time. In the end its all worth it.
