Colour – Tea and Doodles

This still life was inspired by the incredible skills and arrangements of the Dutch Golden Age painters. I have been in awe of their richness and detail and am already a little concerned that the perfectionist in me will struggle with making this picture become realistic without looking cartoony.

img_1007-1 — Adding detail and lifting tone

2019-04-22 15-52

I initially enjoyed working on the fabric but ended up spending all my time on it. I had to move away from it. I was struggling with the making the tones looked realistic and accurate. I realise that I have probably made work for myself in making the painting up by referencing and observing only parts at a time.

2019-04-22 22-36

As I have progressed through this piece, I think what I would do differently. A more cropped version is a possibility.

2019-04-23 14-37

In the feedback given to Assignment 1 I made noisy brushstrokes on the stool holding the flower pot. I remember thinking I liked the effect as it was a rough wooden trunk. Looking at it, it seems that it was a noisy effect across the whole picture. I thought this was a more relaxed, fluid approach that some artists have, with brushstrokes being visible. Maybe it was the texture of the paper making the noise. I think I have avoided that in Assignment 2 with smooth working and texture across the most part.

Looking back over the process of this painting, I see I have lost myself in each element and although I think I have flowed from one to the other in my composition, it feels disjointed to me. I could work on several aspects differently if I were to try this again. For a start, I would relax more. This took some time as I was constantly observing my still life elements in parts. Looking at the photograph of my painting I see that I need to add more shading on the flowers, leaves and the lantern and mountain shadow on the beach. I need to work on the glass vase as well. The perspective on the window stones is glaring at me. I think I could have made the window aperture bigger. With an infinite amount of time I could work on this continuously to amend and perfect. I will spend one more session amending and will call it a day.

I added a dark translucent wash over the blue sky as well as the beach.

2019-04-23 21-53 — Completed Assignment 2 – idea 3

2019-03-26 15-19 page 6

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2019-03-26 15-19 page 8 — These were my initial colours to play with but I anticipated difficulty in creating a consistent starting colour every time.

2019-03-26 15-19 page 6 — I initially found this concept hard to imagine so I tried it out in coloured pencils. This did help me especially where to combine the hues if to create shadow, where to lift tones for lighter values. It didn’t really help me think where to use which hue and its appropriate tone. At this stage RO was for lighter tones and BG was for darker tones in the objects.

2019-03-26 15-19 page 5 — Black and white helped me establish the levels.

2019-03-26 15-19 page 4 — Perspective lines

2019-03-26 15-19 page 3 — Building up and lowering the values. I was starting to see how this works, especially in the darker shadowy areas.

2019-03-26 15-19 page 2 — The blue became functional only in the creating of shadows where it was combined with vermillion.

2019-03-26 15-19 page 1 — The dark glass bottle was tricky but I feel it needed the blue to dominant as an object rather than combine to make a shadow tone.

If I continued working on this exercise:

The surface was too vibrant and needed work to reduce its chroma. It is too high-key against the rest of the picture.
Create shadows around the jar lid
Experiment with creating the dark blue bottle in shadow. How would I combine colours to do this?
Keep the fluidity of my work pace. I was loose and relaxed and this allowed brushstrokes to remain and add atmosphere.