A Couple Still Lives from Life!

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Avocado Blues

I’ve been painting a rash of veggie still lives from life on this blue plate, lately! The blue is SO much fun to work with and a striking backdrop for the colorful veg. I’m certain there are plenty of folks out there who would find these colors overkill; they speak to the graphic designer side of my taste preferences. “Less is more” and “keep it simple” are mottos written on my heart and are most evident in my limited brush strokes and color mixtures. I try to paint with as few pigments as possible, preferring to mix colors I need with pigments already in the painting instead of introducing a new one. The results are often surprisingly satisfying with an intuitive feel. For example, instead of reaching for viridian to paint the avocado’s dark skin, I mixed a little cad yellow deep into the manganese blue (the primary pigment in the blue background) and alizarin red mixture that I used for the shadows on the plate. And it reads like the correct green. Manganese blue already leans toward green, anyway.

Still in the “less is more” vein, I’ve been experimenting with covering as much area as possible with a single color before laying down a new one. The results have been very satisfying as well as liberating! Not being overly distracted with all the wonderful details in my subject has allowed me to paint my subject “how I think it should be.”

And lastly, I’ve been working on developing strong value patterns early in a painting; which also speaks to the graphic designer in me! Whether or not a graphic design piece can communicate at all is dependent upon proper value contrasts between the individual elements in the design. Successful paintings hinge on this rule as well, and I think these paintings demonstrate good contrast.

Enjoy!

The Color Sketch

Summertime Stories

Here’s an 8 x 10" color sketch that I finished up recently! Artist’s frequently find it helpful to paint small, practice versions of their subject before working on larger compositions. Color sketches give you a chance to experiment with color combinations and value patterns. They free you up to take more risks and make it easy to step back and objectively decide what’s working and what’s not working. 

The main challenge for this piece is that it falls into a warm light/cool shadow color scheme because of the sunny, outdoor lighting. The reason why this lighting is challenging is because it works against the limitations of the pigments available to artists. White is the coolest color on the palette, and white is what we use to lighten yellow paint to resemble sunlight falling on objects. If we use too much white in the yellow, the light will appear too cool for the rest of the color scheme. The way around this difficulty is to establish a mix of white and yellow that is light enough to pass for sunlight, but still feels warm. The light that you are seeing in real life is probably lighter than what you are painting; so, you transpose the rest of the colors and values darker to compensate for the light, warm yellow not being as light as what you see. This creates a believable impression of the lighting you are looking at, and that is how artists get around the limitations of their pigments in painting warm light/cool shadow. Next time you see a painting of the sunny outdoors, look to see if you can spot what I’m talking about!

I think on the whole that this color sketch turned out successfully, and I’m really looking forward to fleshing out this concept further in a larger size painting!

Lemon!

Lemon

When I was a younger artist, I used to think that painting fruit and vegetables was BORING. Now, I understand that this subject matter isn't so much about ideas and feelings as it is about COLOR. Lemon is a study in simplicity as far as the number of brush strokes it took to get here and letting the color take over and do the talking...so to speak. I am a wee bit obsessed with simplicity in regards to all of life, and painting is no different. Why use more when less is beautiful and sufficient?

Apple

Apple is my final addition to a series of works of the fruits and vegetables that appeal to me most. They were so much fun to do, and I really love them all! But it’s time to move on...I took pictures of this last still life in progress to show how I think and work. If you’d like to view any of the images larger-click on them.

This is my favorite way to begin, with a neutral undertone scrubbed onto the surface and a simple drawing that divides the space pleasingly and captures the most important characteristics of the shapes. How one begins is very important; interesting composition makes or breaks the interest in a piece! Painting all these little works really helped me learn how to arrange a simple subject in a manner that highlights the character of the subject and flatters it. It’s all in how you allow the shapes to divide up your canvas. 

My brave, first stroke is also featured in this photo. A thousand insecurities rush to the fore when you’re pondering the opening shots. But once you get it down and have something REAL to analyze, those nagging fears go back to where they came from-the unknown. And most of the time, the most frightening part of the painting is over. Most.

Here I am starting to block in some basic tones, and defining the very important edge between the apple and background. The edges that define boundaries of individual parts of the subject are very important to a painting. They give the eye lots of important information that tells us what we’re looking at, and they can be manipulated to create the illusion of depth. If I used a hard edge all around the apple, it would look flat and lifeless. Most edges in a painting need to be somewhat soft to communicate properly, reserving the hardest edges for the center of interest.

I’m still blocking in tones loosely. I often have to discipline myself at this stage of painting to stay loose and broad. The beautiful details in my subject tempt me to focus on them instead of my overall impression, which temptation if given into, can cost me time and can fragment the over all vision of the piece.

I’m defining more important edges and continuing to block in color throughout these two pictures.

Now, I’m defining my range of values from lightest to darkest. I have a tendency to paint my darks too light if I put off blocking them in too long. So, here I am trying to get the full range in an early stage of the painting.

Now, I’m added transitional tones between the lights and darks in the right apple. I’m a great lover of simplicity; so, I have to discipline myself to put in enough transitional tones between the main values. If I don’t, the Form of the apple will look flat and unconvincing. 

The Form Principle is made up of six basic parts: highlight, direct light, mid-tone, shadow, reflected light, and cast shadow. The highlight has a somewhat hard edge and is the direct reflection of the light source on the subject. The direct light encompasses all of the values in the light side of the subject as opposed to the shadow side. The mid-tone is a small transitional area between the side in the light and the side in the dark; the most intense colors in the subject are found here because the color is not diluted by either bright light or the absence of it. Most artists make certain to put their brightest colors in this small but very important area of the painting. The shadow is the side of the subject that is not receiving any light. Reflected light is the small amount of light reflected into the shadow side of the subject from the surrounding surfaces. In Apple, you can observe this phenomenon just above the dark shadow under the right apple. The color here is usually influenced by the color of the surface reflecting the light; hence, in Apple, the reflected light area has a yellow brown feel to it. And the cast shadow, is the shadow caused by the subject blocking the light falling onto a different surface. The cast shadow is always darkest directly beneath the object casting it and gets lighter and softer in edges the farther it gets away from the object casting it.

How an artist arranges these relative values into an interesting pattern is MOST important to the success of a painting in my opinion. It’s the first thing an observer will notice from a distance; it’s what invites the observer to come closer and be drawn in by beautiful color and edges. If a painting doesn’t stand out from a distance of 10 or 15 feet, it is likely to be passed by. And value pattern is what one notices first from that distance.

Whoop! I got really sucked into the painting, and forgot to take enough photos. Both apples have been blocked in, and I’ve refined the edges between color shapes within both apples. These edges will all be soft to communicate the roundness of the apple. The edges defining the exterior of the apples are harder by comparison.

I’m blocking in more of the surface beneath the left apple, and you can observe here how the bright orange red of the apple is influencing the color of the surface beneath it. 

I’m blocking in more of the surface that is not in shadow, here.

And here, I’ve finished up what is called a vignette. A vignetted painting does not cover the canvas from edge to edge. It’s a fun “arty” approach to finishing a painting. I think it mirrors how the eye naturally sees. The eye naturally zeros in on a focal point, and everything surrounding the focal point is blurry and gets more blurry as it approaches your peripheral vision. 

Vignettes can be challenging to do as there are no hard and fast rules to follow for success; you have to really “feel” your way through them. I like my vignettes to feel as though they are an extension of the subject and to divide up the space interestingly with a variety of edge work. This basic criteria usually works for me, but is not guaranteed. But the more you do them, the more natural they feel. And I’m happy with how this vignette turned out.

In this final picture, I’ve added a stem to the right apple to help communicate that it’s an apple. The actual apple I painted didn’t have one; but without it, a casual observer may have difficulty identifying what they’re looking at. This is something else that an artist has to watch out for and especially me. I get caught up in the beautiful abstract shapes of my subject and forget that it may appear differently to some one who hasn’t seen the original subject. My husband is especially good at watching out for this, and he helped me see how the clarity of the painting would benefit from adding the stem. In retrospect, with some distance between me and the process of this artwork, it was clearly a good idea!

I like to be active in all the local art events, and I was fortunate to win 2 ribbons in this year’s Pensacola Interstate Fair! This was the first year in several years that they allowed an artist to be awarded more than one ribbon, and I was one of three artists to be so honored!

Westport Fishing Boats received a second place ribbon.

Their Favorite Story received a fourth place ribbon.

Their Favorite Story

If you’re asking yourself if this artwork is a drawing or a painting, the answer is both! This is a little known technique called charcoal wash, and the way it's created is with both wet and dry applications of charcoal to a surface. Using a brush dipped in charcoal powder and water, I begin by painting in simple tones creating beautiful brush strokes. One awesome benefit is that it's much faster to cover large areas with a brush as opposed to a pencil point. After the first application of wet charcoal dries, I assess whether I need to paint darker anywhere or if I want to switch over to conventional charcoal sticks. The charcoal sticks come in handy to draw the fine details, and I switch back and forth between drawing and painting until I’m satisfied. So, the finished piece is a painting and drawing combination and looks more artful than a regular drawing.

Why paint in black and white when you can paint in color? You'd be surprised at the moods you can capture when you’re focusing on value patterns and edges alone. These pieces can really teach artists the importance of having well-developed value patterns. 

The other interesting thing that charcoal washes illustrate is how an artist overcomes the physical limitations of our materials to create beautiful effects. This charcoal wash doesn't have a full range of values from brightest white to darkest black, but it’s still interesting because I've created a beautiful pattern within a limited value scheme. If you'd like to view it closer, click on it.

Head Study 10.18.12

The Fat Man

Figurative artists like me like to paint sketches like this from live models in a short amount of time to keep our skills sharp. When done on a regular basis, these exercises really benefit our drawing, composing, and color mixing skills which in turn improves the rest of our work.  

This is my most recent head study, and the title isn't meant to be insulting to the model. His hat and the way it shades his eyes made me think of private investigator Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon; so, I gave him the villain’s nickname. In my last head study post I mentioned various weaknesses that I’m trying to improve: not getting a full-enough range of values-particularly in the light, using too many hard edges, and not laying down broad enough basic tones. 

Upon scrutiny of this piece, I think I am continuing to improve in the loosening up category and in edges and composition. I wanted to flatter the model as much as possible and consequently left out as much as I felt I could get away with which made for an interesting vignette. Painting vignettes can be tricky because you have to feel your way through them and each one is unique to the subject. Looking at the work of artist’s who do vignettes well and a plenty of practice is the best way I know to learn how to paint them well yourself. I think this vignette was reasonably successful. 

In the previous study, my biggest failure was not getting a full range of values. So, I was really watching out for it this time around, and I think I did much better. The painting could use a few darker accents, but the result that I’ve got is still pleasing. Now, I need to start pushing for more exciting color as well. It’s there in the skin tones of every model if you’re looking for it. One nice feature of this head study is the interesting light pattern on his cheek resulting from light filtering through the glasses. I probably should have put in a slight indication of the bottom of the right lens, but I’m obsessed with simplifying my subject as much as I can. Working this way actually has the effect of engaging the minds of viewers of the work because they have to “fill in the blanks.” I bet you've never heard that before! (unless you’re a painter)