Monday, September 04, 2006


Hello, I didn't do many drawings while I was away, but I did read a great book on painting that was really inspiring. When I got back I decided to start my training, as instructed by this and other books that I have found, Im going to learn to oil paint properly! So, this is the first stage of a single tone still life......probably a bit boring to look at, but a really good exercise to do. I set up a basic still life and then quickly drew in the basic forms with charcoal. Next I mixed up my lightest and darkest tones. I used Raw umber (it’s the fastest dryer in oils apparently) the darkest tone was almost pure and the lightest almost white. I then put a dab of paint onto the surface at the two points that I felt were the two extremes. This is so I could refer to them when putting in the other tones. Next I put in the back and floor planes with their mid tone (the majority of this stage is the objects mid-tone, the deepest shadows and highlights will be put in later). Next were the shadows and last the objects. I did my best to finish the edges of the objects, looking for where they are lost (fading into the shadows/softest: the edge of the paper top left) and found (most prominent: the objects in the fore-ground) as it is much more difficult to adjust these at a later stage. So here is the painting (its come out a bit dark here) with all the basic forms in mid-tone and some shadow work. The next bit should make it more exciting, its really difficulty to hold back and not put those highlights in!




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