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.
