Today I publish in this post my final projects for the Assignment #2 of my Painting 1 course. In my Tutor`s report, as well as in our course book, it is mentioned that we have to show our thinking process while developing an overall idea and details of a particular project. Usually that requires some preliminary sketching as an evidence of creative thinking process. However, in regards to my art work, I usually start with experimenting with different set ups and checking the potential of every set up option using my smart phone camera. I don’t sketch that much because I find making photos of different angles of my set up options and photos of different set ups as very and, frankly speaking, much more helpful than just sketching with developing an idea of what I am going to paint, what direction to follow and what details to introduce and develop as well as deciding about the medium. It can take hours and days for me to finally come up about what objects to pick up for the set up and what kind of set up would be equally inspirational, challenging and doable at the same time. Personally I find sketching worth of perfecting separate details of the project but not as an only mean to develop a concept of the project.
Project #1: Still Life with wooden cutting board, a bottle and fruits;
Project’s set up options and developing sketches to decide which direction to go.
For my final project I picked up some objects in my kitchen. I liked the wooden cutting board because of it`s rich and complicated texture and uneven beautiful pattern. I also thought it would perfectly unite all the smaller objects in my still life project especially because I was going to paint natural objects like fruits. I also liked the half of the apple because of its delicate warm yellow skin. Firstly I tried to throw some leafy clementines with apples. But the set up option with fruits only seemed kind of too simple and even boring. So I introduced into the set up a dark bottle of olive oil I had. I liked a contrast of the dark, firm and cold bottle of olive oil with a delicate skin and tender colour of the half of an apple. I also wanted to keep the bottle in the set up because I wanted to paint an object with a reflective surface to show my progress during the course work. After confirming the list of “participants” I started to take photos of the set up to determine the allocation of my objects in it, trying to build up a most favorable composition with a most potential for the art work. I did some sketches too.
After extensive reflection I decided to follow the direction with a “view above” set up because of the following reasons: a) this set up is symmetrical and favourable in terms of catching a whole viewer` s attention instantly. All other options where the view was frontal the eye had to look for separate objects and there was no unity what would make the perception from the painting less powerful, attention did get some kind of scattered; b) the “view above” allowed me to efficiently incorporate one more object such as silver spoon – another reflective object which brought more detail to my project; View above allowed to paint the silver spoon easily and I could show it as a whole piece and not just a side look of it if I would have to paint it in frontal view; c) The “view above” set up was most favourable in terms of developing the potential of reflective surfaces. While I was moving my objects on the cutting board and jumping around the table with my camera I have noticed that with a “view above” I could paint the yellow reflection of the apple in it`s most advantage making this very small but very sweet detail. Also the “view above” revealed the most of reflection the cutting board could have – the shining perimeter, what gave the painting a sense of completion and wholeness. That was my logic and thinking of the Project. In terms of medium I decided to use my soft pastels by Senellier and pastel coloured pencils by Derwent. I used a special tinted coarse paper for Pastel painting also by Sennelier. I used a special fixatif for pastels drawings. I found pastels as a most appropriate medium for this Project because all my objects contained rich, intense and deep colours combined with a delicate softness of their surface structure what usually is best revealed with pastels or oils.
Sketches:
During the work I was quite challenged by the pattern of the wooden cutting board. It contained numerous unevenly coloured and sized streaks from very large to tiny and not so visible. I used mostly different shades of brown pastel and added thin details with a dark brown and black pencil. As I watched pastel drawing tutorials in YouTube I started my work from the cutting board in order to prevent it`s pigment to be occasionally mixed with another pigment staining my pale yellow half apple or bright red apple and orange clementine.
Reference: These tutorials I watched for my previous artworks done in soft pastels over the course of my studies. This project was not my first attempt with pastels and I felt quite confident with a technique for this Project. 1) Graeme Stevenson YouTube channel. “Pastel Painting Techniques and an amazing tutorial with Lyn Diefenbach; Colour in your life”; 2) ArtTutor.com “A Beginner`s guide to soft pastels”, Youtube; 3) SENNELIER COLORS “How to begin with soft pastels”, YouTube; 4) Drawing & Painting – The Virtual Instructor, “How to paint a simple still life with pastels”, YouTube;
After I completed the main structure and most of the details of the cutting board I started to paint the olive oil glass bottle. It was quite simple and fun because the reflective surface was dark and reflections of light were very located and easy to spot. For the bottle I mixed green and black pigments and it was very interesting to explore and observe some bright blue colour in reflections of light! I didn’t wear anything blue and I didn`t have any blue things around the bottle on the ceiling in the kitchen but the light reflection through the dark green surface of the bottle gave such beautiful bright blue spots. Then I did the fruits and the silver spoon. For the silver spoon I mixed two colours – light brown and light grey using white pigment for the rich reflections of light the silver spoon had. The surface of the half cut apple I painted with yellow incorporating white pigment and some brownish dark yellow pigment around the seed. For the seed I used the pencil. I paid special attention to the reflection of a yellow apple in the dark glass bottle. At the end I touched up the details of the wooden cutting board paying special attention to the reflection of light along the perimeter what brought dimension to this piece and elevated the general quality of the work.
Conclusion and self reflection: Actually I am quite happy with a result and I think this art work today really reflects the current point in my growth as a visual artist. The strong point of this work of mine is, even though the objects were quite simple to paint, the painting catches the attention and certainly reveals a character and gives a lot of good mood. That was achieved by the right composition and my progress with pastel painting technique. Things to work on: If I would paint this composition again I would pay more attention to the shape and dimensions of the bottle. The “view above” made the bottle to look shorter but I think I made it shorter than it should be. Also I would place the bottle more precisely. I pushed it a bit too much in front.
Project #2: A Still Life with natural objects.
The Project described below is one of my most difficult, most ambitions and not perfect at all project so far. It absolutely deserves to be included here as a final project in terms of the amount of work it required and challenges I faced doing it. It is not perfect – I will write about it below but this project is really special to me because it was where I learned most, understanding my strengths and current limitations in my technique.
I started to develop it at certain stage of my Assignment 2 studies while doing required by the Course research about Old masters, studying Dutch painters of XV-XVII centuries ( my post in this learning log from 01.11.2019). I picked up typical for fall objects such as a small pumpkin I found in the supermarket, a very ripe pear and a classic apple. I picked up some garden flowers to make sure that they would fit into my composition with their size. I took a dinner textile napkin and placed the objects under the artificial light trying to build up a nice composition. I was very much attracted by this small size pumpkin which looked so cute but was very difficult to paint and I can not miss almost any pear because of its always interesting texture and amazing colours.
Project’s set up options to decide which direction to go.
The pumpkin naturally went into the center as a special object, the apple and the pear went by sides to balance it. The pear or the apple in the middle would reduce the symmetry of the composition. It just felt odd not to put the pumpkin into the middle. Then I started to think how to incorporate the flowers. The first idea was to put 3 of them in a front row but that seemed too simple and too straightforward. The flowers I picked had very thin yet shiny and flexible stems. So I started playing with them putting between and on top of the massive objects – The pear and the pumpkin. At some point I became absolutely sure that I needed those tender green stems in the painting and I placed one on the left hand side putting a white flower on my pear. Also these stems contained very beautiful young flowers in tiny bâtonnets. I found them in a a good harmony being at the centre of the stage in front of the massive object – the pumpkin, and they were giving a very interesting shade. I imagined my still life in Old Masters style with a very dark background and done in oil paints.
I decided to do Preliminary study in pastels.
I did my study with my Sennellier soft pastels set and used the special paper from the same brand. I also used pastel pencils from Derwent. The main outcome was that fruits and vegetables appear much easier to paint than flowers. Flowers posses much more sophisticated beauty and I definitely need to obtain a better technique. I think I did not bad with the pear, the pumpkin and the apple but the flowers came out as flat and not appealing at all. I will spend time on my flower painting technique.
The same still life in oil paints.
For this project I used professional quality oil paints from different brands and a special paper for oil painting. For the background I used a black colour “noir d` ivoire” oil paint from Le Franc Bourgeois. For the base surface where my objects had been placed I used “old Holland yellow medium” from Old Holland classic oil colours (OHCOC). For the pumpkin i used “yellow brown lake extra” (OHCOC) and “brilliant orange from Norma professional. The challenging part of painting pumpkin with oil paints was the fact that it` s surface contained a lot of uneven shades. It was actually a bit easier to do the pumpkin with soft pastels because with pastels tips of the fingers give you an advantage of creating small circles of shades. With oils creating shades on the pumpkin appeared much harder for me. I had been painting this project for several weeks waiting the paints to dry and every time I had to re do and add up something so the pumpkin in particular contains lot of layers.
For the apple I used # 618 “Rouge cadmium foncée” from Sennellier and “Auzarine lake extra” from (OHCOC) to build the main red part of the apple and “Cadmium pale”; “ Gold ocher” from BLOCKX and “yellow brown lake extra” (OHCOC) for yellow and brown parts. To create highlights I used white “Blanc de Titane” from AMT. In order to create tiny stripes of dark red I used a flat firm brush.
For the pear I mainly used a mix of yellows – “Cadmium pale” from BLOCKX and “Jaune” from AP, some grey colour and “Gold ocher” from BLOCKX. The pear is multilayered to. To create more texture I intentionally scratched some semi dry previous layers leaving some residues and painted on top of them so the paper would not appear too even and flat.
For the flowers I used a #28 “violet cobalt clair” by Pebeo, Blanc de Titane” from AMT and black “Noir d` Ivoire” by Le Franc Bourgeois. As I mentioned earlier the flowers were very tricky and difficult to paint. I really tried hard using my observation skills to identify the shadows and lights but even though they were clearly visible I failed to bring them into my work in a perfect way. Another problem was the tender light of their colours. The petals possessed a very fine transparent light coming through giving them that beauty and I just could not bring it on paper with my brushes. Obviously this is a matter of technique which I have to master.
For the stems I used “Cinnabar green” and “Mixed green” from BLOCKX.
Self reflection: This project is my most difficult and complex project so far. I think I did well with composition because I find it balanced, symmetric and interesting for viewer `s eye. I like how I came up with stems because they add nicely to main objects. I think the pumpkin, the pear and the apple came out quite well in pastels and oils. The shades and tones are also came out well. The weak part are flowers as I described above. The black background helps with strength of artistic expression because it enhances the colours, brings out the lights created on the objects.
JeanArt 