Still Life: jar and fruit

Well, last night class resumed again and, boy, am I out of practice with doing still life/realistic objects. Although I've been painting regularly, the stuff that I paint is all out of my head.

Last night's still life was to examine reflection in metallic objects. I did not achieve what I was trying.

Things that went well. I think that the massing of the shapes to create the fruit and the jar are good. The jar definitely looks like a realistic object. The table top and background worked out well and accentuate the jar/fruit nicely.

Okay, enough of that. Now, what went wrong. The very first thing that went wrong was the shape of the vase. It's not smooth and circular. Definite drawing problems with it. The handle is good and the opening on the top looks good. The body of the jar definitely does not have the rounded feeling. The base is definitely wrong with the right side being misshapen.

The fruit looked better than I thought. Although the darker fruit does not look like cherries and the strawberries somewhat resemble strawberries, I can do better.

The main issue (and the one that I was working the most with) was that the reflection on the jar does not look metallic. There is no shimmering surface. It looks more like a painted clay jar than a silver one. I'll have to do this again and try to see what I was doing wrong. At this time, I'm not sure. I think that it has to do with the sharpness of the reflective shape and the greytones.

Not bad since I haven't done a still life for a month, but definitely not good. More work to be done. I'll have to get my still life setup done at home so that I can practice some more.