I feel so stupid when I have to tell the grocery store people to be careful with my produce so it will still "look good" when I get home. I can't say how many times I've said "I'm an artist - I paint still lives," thinking maybe they'll be impressed, and they just look at me like I'm crazy. Oh well.
These persimmons (finally found some that looked pretty good) are very square-ish, hence the title. I actually started this one twice. The first time I painted in the blue background first and when I tried to paint in the orange it turned to mud. So I wiped it all off and restarted with the orange first - much better. I've decided that so much of painting is about putting the paint down in an order that works well. So far I've only seen some vague patterns that I haven't yet analyzed. I swear I will soon so I can teach it!
Someone asked me recently to talk about cast shadows and reflected light. I think these two things specifically should be as accurate as possible. Many other things can be exaggerated, but these two things ... it is so impressive to have these things look REAL. And how do you make them look real? Really observe them, and paint what you observe. It CAN be as simple as that.
7 comments:
Back to colour with avengeance. I saw this one on Daily Paintworks and had to come and take a look at the bigger version!
I found with cast shadows and reflected light that it really helped me to see the colours in shadows when I looked with somebody who could see colour. They asked me what colours I saw. Then they told me what they saw and asked me to look again. And then I understood how long it can take for your eyes to adjust and how hard you need to stare before you can really see - and before you can see what they saw! However, having now trained my eye to look for colour I find it gets easier and easier.
Unfortunately the technique really only works when you are standing next to the person and doing it 'real time in real lfe' - it doesn't work on the Internet because of the differences in the way our monitors see colour.
Mind you that makes it a jolly good reason to take a workshop with somebody who can see colour!
These persimmons look great. That orange color is distinct to them. Nothing like and orange or pumpkin. As for seeing the cast shadows color. Use Kevin Macpherson 's color isolator. Little card with a hole punched in it. Go out when the Sun is getting low in the sky (4 pm) place a sheet of white paper down and place an orange on it. Now, hold up the isolator and observe the cast shadow. If you put say and grapefruit down and look at it's shadow you'll see that it isn't the same as the orange. It's easier if you put two holes in the isolator and observe both shadows at the same time.
mark
Another gem ! I admire the spontaneous, raw, un-blended brushstrokes.
and the scintillating edges rock!
What great comments too. Lessons in themselves.
I'd love to see a photo of you painting sometime. Do you stand over the subject? You always have a quirky approach that seems so perfect and new.
Love the composition and vivid color! I really agree with Katherine's comment about having someone really tell you what to look for. Seeing something when you know what to look for- one of the most vivid examples for me was standing outside watching shadows in the late afternoon with my plein air workshop students. As the light grew warmer and warmer the shadows became cooler and more saturated. Being able to point that out to my students - as it happened- really seemed to make it click for them.
I hate telling the grocery people that too! I usually avoid it by telling them I want to bag my own groceries. They look at me slightly less crazy when I say that vs when I tell them I'm an artist.
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