I thought you guys might be interested in seeing this. On the left is a photo of the still-life setup currently dominating my living room coffee table. This setup was chosen by an elite panel of experts.
On the right is my painting at 50% completion. I need to bring this in to class on Wednesday to be picked apart by my prof (i.e. "grapes too small"), after which I will ignore all his suggestions and finish it.
This concept of the first layer is interesting. The intent is mainly to cover the canvas, because it's hard to measure colors and values against the white canvas. (Also as I'm finding out, the blank canvas is very intimidating!) It then serves as a starting point for subsequent layers. This started out looking really bad, but it ended up being okay. The book is looking good, but it's obvious that the candlestick is too bright. The decanter shape is good, but the cup is looking a little wobbly.
I've never actually done a painting in multiple layers. All of our classwork is done in one sitting, i.e. alla prima (Italian for "at once"). It's good though because it moves me out of scared-silly mode into problem-solving mode which is better for me.
Update: My prof actually liked it. He really liked the book. He suggested putting a small candle in the candle holder, and he also wants me to change my background color. :( He also said that my grapes, if I had included them, would have been too small.
6 comments:
My comment is missing once...
I said I guess the coin should show up later and the desk looks funny in this half-done way...
Ah, I forgot to mention that the coin is just holding the book open. I'm not going to paint it. :)
Even thought you said just covered the canvas, but still it looks like you spent more time on the decanter.
I think I like anything that can be added as developed - oil painting, print makings... it adds up more interests
Wow! I can't wait to see the finish painting.
I was thinking to myself since your last two entries that it would have been great to compare your paintings to actual photos of your subject. It's like you've read my mind.
Because the size of the two tables are different (for now), it sort of threw everything off just a bit. Also, I noticed that the decanter is smaller in proportion compare to other objects such as the glass next to it.
I really like the theme you have picked. It looked like someone just stepped away from their nightly reading hour and you as the artist had taken a peek at what she is reading.
I definitely would love to see this painting in person.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I really like the contrast of the warm foreground with the cool / dark background. Is that a traditional contrasting method?
So many good questions on this one!
Btw Jiin, do you recognize the decanter? It's from Mikasa!
PQ, actually it's sitting on a wooden serving tray that was turned upside down. I used that b/c I don't have a good table with that particular wood shade. So I'm sort of extending it into a 'table' (using magic). :)
Yes I thought the decanter was too small, but if you measure it, it really isn't. I think because I'm sitting pretty close to the setup, it's exaggerating the perspective.
Thanks for noticing how the objects fit in together. AR had some pretty critical comments when I tried to explain it to him! But then, he also laughed at Olympia, so what can you do. :)
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