Still Life: Lemon

For last night's painting class, we worked more on rounded objects. This time, however, we didn't have a time limit. The purpose was to try to remember all of the different methods for creating a rounded object and to study the reflection of other materials on our objects. For this lemon, I had to make sure that I worked on the reflection of the background on the top of the lemon, the table onto the bottom of the lemon and the reflection of the lemon into the cast shadow.

The basic layout of the lemon was pretty quick (about 15 minutes). As I stepped back, I realized that the lemon was pretty flat (I was just defining the light/dark masses), so, it was time to work on the edges.

As before, I remembered the important points for the edges:

1) The darkest part of the shadow is NOT the edge, but just inside of it. The absolute edge of the shadow contains the reflected light and some greyness to turn the edge over.

2) The cast shadow looks flat if you don't add the reflected light of the lemon. This was a problem that I couldn't figure out how to fix, until Karen mentioned this to me.

3) The darkest part of the shadow is where the lemon actually touches the table. However, it can't be too dark or your eyes would immediately move to that line.

4) Use various greys to turn the edges over to get a rounded feel.

After paying attention to these points, the lemon had a more rounded look.

Homework: June 27, 2010

Since the task for this week is to work on rounded objects, I decided that tea pots would be another good subject to paint. In this painting, I had to make sure that I got the drawing correct. So, I worked out the drawing on the paper using terra rosa so that the proportions came out correct.

The toughest part of this painting was to simulate something that I knew was happening, but I couldn't see it. In this case, it was the back of the tea pot. I knew that the back was significantly in shadows, but, looking at the teapot on my stand, I couldn't see the variation in greys. So, I modified it a bit to make sure that I got my rounded teapot.

It worked well.

Drawing Study: Yellow Vase

So, after my oil painting of the yellow vase this afternoon (See Homework: June 26, 2010), I decided that the drawing was pretty bad. Therefore, I took the vase, placed it at the same angle on my table and just did a standard pen/ink value drawing of it.

This is much better. The shadows are similar to what I painted for the vase, but the structure is much better. The neck is more vertical and even and the body of the vase is more spherical.

In this situation, I had a double-light which caused the odd set of shadows coming forward and going back.

I now need to figure out how to get the more accurate drawing done on the canvas.

Homework: June 26, 2010

As "homework" for my painting class, I needed to do some practice work with rounded objects. This was a vase that I found in a yard sale. Not too complex, but not too easy.

Well, there is a LOT to desire about the drawing, itself. The only thing that I can say about the drawing is that it looks like a vase. Outside of that... ick. The base is lopsided, the body is lopsided, etc.

However, the purpose of this exercise was to practice trying to get a rounded form. For that, I somewhat succeeded. I made sure that I used greys on the edges to have them fall back into the table/background. Also, I made sure that I linked my shadow areas and my light area with some reflections of the table added into the body of the vase. That seems to have semi-worked.

As noticeable, there's a lot of room for improvement, but this was a quick study.

Monthly Drawing for a Free Print

Okay, time to get more fans. Once a month, for the next year, I will be drawing a random name of one of my fans. This fan will receive an 8 x 10 print (signed) of one of the paintings/drawing of their choice from my Monthly Drawing Print folder. Suggest this to your friends. More friends who become fans (they have to tell me who suggested them) will aid YOU in the drawiing: one extra ticket. If 30 fans joined because of you, then you will have an extra 30 chances for the print. The print and mat will be mailed to you, free of charge. Let your friends know!

Classroom: June 22, 2010

Last night's class was all about massing (as usual). The time limit was 20 minutes and here's my results of that time. The point of the fast time limit is so that you focus on the essentials and don't get bogged down with the details.

In my case, I finished everything but rounding out the belly of the jug. I had just laid down a large white area on my highlights and was planning to then feather around it, so that it rolls back, when the time expired.

Class Notes:

1) When working on your painting, there are some definite steps to go through:

A) Mass out the general light area

B) Mass out the general dark area

C) Define where the reflected lights are

D) Define the dark area and place the core shadows, lost/found edges, etc.

E) Define the light area and place the highlights, edges, etc.

2) Consider the position of the oncoming light. The area at the highlight is the brightest. The area at the top of the sphere is the second brightest. Add grey or a grayish-background color will help the sphere roll back. As you go down the sphere, it'll get darker and darker where the bottom of the sphere will contain the reflected color of the table.

3) Always model the sphere first based on principle in 2. Ignore the reflections. Once the modelling is done, add the reflections. Don't overdo the reflections or you will lose the form of there sphere.

4) Colors closer to you are more pure (just like landscapes). Dark objects are darker as they get close to you. Contrasts are also stronger.

Plein Air: Flowers in front of my house

Another plein air study... the flowers in front of my house. When looking at the flower garden, it's quickly shown as a mass of different colors. So, to practice my massing, I just laid down the basic colors.

This was a lot more difficult than I thought that it was going to be. I didn't get the rounded form values done correctly, so the entire area looks pretty flat. However, this was just a thumbnail and took about 30 minutes to get done.

I just wanted to play with the general massing of the shrubs and bushes.