Oranges and Royal Blue

Instead of a quick "blue print" drawing, we did a more detailed wash drawing. The colors were vibrant (bright clementines with a royal blue background), and our professor suggested we take a black and white photo of the still life to double check the values. I am pleased with how it has come out. I probably could've had one more class on it, but if I don't get to it, I would say it's finished. To my surprise the plastic wrap on the clementines was pretty bright and the values shared those of the clear vase. For the ground plane, I used the palette knife while for the background I did more of a wash. I dulled out the royal blue background into more of a gray, which I think helps the oranges pop out more. If I kept the blue bright and saturated, I think the painting would've looked more graphic.

painted December 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

Still Life: Final - Plate and Slippers

For our final, we chose our still life. I wanted mine to be sentimental. Everything in the painting is from a family member. The table was my maternal grandfather's; the white cloth is actually a piece of lace from my paternal grandmother (I decided not to paint the lace detail because it would've competed with the rest of the objects); the white milkglass vase from my mother; those little pink ballet slippers are my little lady's first ballet shoes; and finally, the plate is from the first dish set I bought for my apartment.... and the box is just a box filling in the negative space between the plate and vase, and it adds another pop of color besides the red. 

The most challenging thing about this painting was getting the temperature right in the whites and then in the table, specifically the plate and the vase. At first, I was going to exaggerate the temperatures. I wasn't satisfied with the outcome. Taking more paint, I layered on whites of varying yet slightly-shifted temperates. The table was equally as frustrating. We all know real wood isn't a straight brown. The table is a dark cherry stain. After struggling with the table, and deciding what technique I should paint it, I am pleased to say with a lot of layering, and hits of highlights and shadows here and there definitely helped! I am always pleased how temperate makes the painting instead of the actual darkness and lightness. I definitely learned that, which is evident in my shadows and highlights from the start of class to the end. I am very pleased with the final painting even though I want to hit in once more to doctor it a little.

I do want to note that the photos are edited accurately. I really did paint the plate a gold and the vase a green. However, in the end, the colors were totally different! 

painted December 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

Still Life Miscellaneous/Statue: Impressionism/Pointillism

This still life was very challenging. We were studying the technique the impressionist used of jumping colors around the canvas, and observing how colors react when placed next to each other. Eventually layering the paint. These two photographs are how the painting began and the final result. The shadows were too dark, and the hot spots were too large. The statue was actually all white, which I initially painted too warm, and as you can see brighten it up in warm white and cool shadows. The statue was difficult for me, especially because I am not one who draws/paints portraits or the human figure. I am pretty pleased with the final painting and solutions to overcome frustrations, but I am not thrilled.

painted November 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

Hockey Gloves: progress photos

These hockey gloves were a painting I did on my own. I started with my blue print drawing. Then, I used washes of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue start shaping the gloves. I started with a thin layer of washes, and eventually got thicker, and more saturated as the painting went on. I used a lot of thinned out paint instead for the slight temperature changed in the black of the glove. Even though I like how the painting came out, I want to go back and add really thick globs of paint instead of the washes. I'd like the brushstrokes to be more lively.

 

(colors are more like the photo above)

painted October 2012. Fall 2012.

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.

Intro to Painting, Attempt #1

Here are my paintings from my first attempt of taking Intro to Painting: Still Life, when I was pregnant with Little Lady !  We prepared the canvases with a thinned out burnt sienna, and painted with the palette knife for most of the paintings.

(painted with a brush)

palette knife

those shadows really need to be lightened up!
palette knife

Here is the start of the painting from class the class I am taking now. I am repainting Monet's Meadow with Poplars.

Claude Monet, Meadows with Poplars

"blue print" sketch

first layer of paint; base color layout

Hue and Temperature

Yesterday we did a painting focused on hue and temperature. Hue refers to the color (red, blue, yellow, green, orange, violet), and temperature refers to if it cool (blue, green, violet) or warm (yellow, red, orange). The subject was "pure" white onions, or garlic sitting on white paper. I choose to paint two little onions sitting on the corner of the paper. The angle of the paper draws the viewer into the painting. The shallots had a yellow hue from the the light source. Even though the paper was white, it had a blue hue overall with some warm tones throughout it. Our main source of light was yellow with some natural light coming from a high window which gives us the mix temperatures on the paper.

painted September 19, 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

Warm and Cool Colors

So, I have decided to take an Intro to Painting:Still Life (ITP) course this fall.

We started with gradients of a limited palette: blue (ultramarine), red (burnt sienna), yellow (yellow ochre). Using those three colors, we mixed violet, green, and orange.

My first painting for class focused on finding the undertone of a specific color. For example, the white cup isn't a plain solid white, the shadows were a cool blue while the highlights were a warm yellow. Here is my painting, which was a one-day painting.

painted September 17, 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.