Painting: Yummy Maple Donut; Palette Knife Painting

Yesterday's painting was of a yummy, delicious-smelling maple frosted donut ! It was a palette knife painting, which I didn't mind... or wouldn't have minded if I had the right size. I do enjoy painting with the knife because it allows the painting to be loose as well as a thick, chunky paint application.

We had a variety of donut choices to pick from. I choose the maple donut because of the closeness of the doughnut and frosting colors. I was up for the challenge, and boy was it a challenge ! With a little assistance from my professor, I managed to pull it off. I will be going back and repainting the "bite" of the donut to a pale, warm color since it is practically the same color as the frosting.

painted October 15, 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

Monet Painting

I finished my painting of the Monet painting I was working on. I could have definitely make the tree further back more of a yellow green instead of the matching dark green; same with the green patches through the meadow. The yellow could have been a golder, more saturated yellow as well, along with the bright grany smith apple color to the right of the painting near the horizon. Besides the color being a little off, I think it came out pretty good. Actually it is hanging in my friend's kitchen ! :)

blue print drawing.

my reproduction

Monet's 

painted October 13, 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

First Full Palette Painting

Here is our first two-day painting. When we started the painting we had the yellow ceiling lights on. However, on the second day, we had them off, which made a drastic change in shadows, warms and cools, and the overall painting. This painting could definitely be worked on a little more. Looking at it now, I would sharpen some of the edge just to make the objct a little more distinct and seperate from the background; particularily, the blue cylinder could be brighter, and maybe the green can be sharpened. Also, I would add a little more wrinkled detail in the gold fabric in the background. There are hints of reds and green on the table being reflected off the objects. The change in lighting definitely made it challenging for me to complete the painting on the second day because I had to go back and change some details and colors. 

Inaddition, this painting was done with the full palette, not the limited palette of just burnt sienna, yellow ochre, and ultramarine blue.

painted cmpleted on October 1, 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

Crinkled Paper

Today we had a quick 3-hour painting of crinkled/folded paper. We could've folded the paper or crinkled it and myself and the other student that I created and shared a still life together decided to completely crinkle are papers. We both picked main color (green and purple) and used an off white piece of paper underneath the green and purple "objects". 

A subject with such detail should take more than a 3-hour sitting - the teacher even said so. Even though my painting is far from complete, she liked the looseness of my paint strokes, and the start of breaking down and finding the different plains of highlights and shadows.

I definitely struggled throughout this painting, and pushed my way through frustration with some deep breathes and reminding myself "at least I am attempting it". Crinkle the paper gave me a huge challenge  rather than just folding it into shapes. My challenge was to simplify all the nitty gritty details. I also learned to look at the whole object and see the primary plains and then break them down, and keep breaking them down in detail. 

The focus on this painting was to find the highlights and shadows by mixing complimentary colors instead of just adding white. In addition, we had to find the shadows that reflect off the the papers. The white bottom piece allowed to pick up the greens and purple shadows from the paper objects.

Looking at the painting via photo, I am satisfied with the result, even though it still has a lot of work and doctoring that could go into it.

painted October 10, 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.