Composition

Tips for still life composition

1. keep arranging your props until you feel good (it sometimes takes her quite a long time)
2. make things uneven - spacing between things colours number of objects, edges, direction of strokes, warm and cool colours
3. avoid awkward kissing of objects (2 apples just touching)
4. the rule of thirds (divide the canvas into thirds (vertically and horizontally  and the sweet spot is where the lines meet
5. fool around with the light

And most of all don't be afraid to break the rules.

Exercise: "Take a simple object, some pieces of paper and make different compositions. 

NOTE: she said take a simple object so I pulled out a salt shaker.  Salt shakers are quite complicated but I really enjoyed doing this exercise. It just took me longer than I would of liked.  I am having a show and in conjunction gave a talk.  The title was painting in a series.  This little project shows that even with a one object you can see me getting more comfortable painting it.

No salt was spilt in the making of this art. 

 

Double Espresso

I wanted to try to paint 2 mugs - one inside another.  Carol does it all the time and of course she makes it look easy.  There are a lot of angles and ovals that are hard.  I started with drawing lines at the edges, filled in the lines, and the shapes.  A little more paint and I am done.  Now I see something wrong with the upper handle, but I am pleased.  I really learning a lot from her book. I would continue to work on it if it was for a complete painting but this is an exercise learn and move on.

Connecting the dots

Today's lesson is setting out your composition on the canvas.  First mark dots on the midpoints on the canvas.  Second put dots or little lines on the edges of each object. Third start rounding.  Here is my setup

 Then I added mid dots (I confess I drew a line to make it easier for me)

 I then connected the dots.

My first pass

 2nd pass

 And my painting.  I could have gone on for ever but this is just an exercise.  It was fun painting the teapot because at first glance it is black, but as you stare at it the colours come out.
Besides which I would really like my pot back as it is now time for tea.  - Lady Grey tea hot.

Here is Monday's weekly hint - yes I know it is Tuesday but consistency is not part of my vocabulary - don't even know the meaning of the word.

David Kassan is an amazing artist who is now having a Kickstarter fundraiser for a palette

palette kickstarter

If I were an oil painter I think I would get it because I love new things for my art.  His palette is unusual in that it is vertical.  His point is, a vertical palette means the light falls in the same manner on the palette as on the painting.  I am not comparing myself to him and I really don't think that having vertical is going to instantly make me as good as him but then you never know.  I have a little palette which I now keep vertically and it is easier physically so you don't twist to get at your paint.  I am now very aware of how repetitive motions come back to bite you.  

Watch the video - I think the palette is a  brilliant design. And before you ask - no the paint does not drip down but the glaze does so I just put that on the bottom.  

View Finder continued

Here is another one I made with a view finder,  She uses the viewfinder throughout the painting but I made a sketch to use instead.

and then painted this work. If nothing else I am working from life

Lean to the left, lean to the .....

I love this book.  The more I read it, the more I want to.  After saturation, came the fact that colours have a lean.  For instance Cadmium yellow leans blue while  Cadmium yellow light goes red and so on. I love this hint she gave  - put the colours you use on a piece of paper and which way they lean.  This is so important and just this hint is almost worth the price of the book.
You should know which way your colours go because if you mix them you could get grey unexpectedly.  If this doesn't make sense buy the book.

Paint what you see.  She had a problem with egg yolks because everyone knows they are yellow, but really they are not the  bright yellow out of the tube..  I had a similar problem with candles (cheesy plug for my other blog   5minutesfromcool.blogspot.ca ) and the colours of flames.

She warned about using white because it makes things chalky - that is what my evil teacher Suzy always says- maybe I should listen to her more. She talked about burnt umber - it sounded so good I may go buy a tube.

The next exercise was to do colour charts and maybe one day I will do them but not today.  My inner child is having a tantrum and my outer child says she can`t make me.

She did suggest using paint chips.  The exercise is to mix a colour to match the paint chip.  This isn't the first time I have done this but a good exercise is always worth repeating.

I think I am pretty good at this and if the painting career doesn't work out I can always get a job putting drops of paint on a paint chip. You can`t even tell the beige ones I did - I am that good.

The orange one does show but if you squint it goes away.  Squint really hard.

The colour card is from Farrow & Ball.  I keep their card because the names of the colours amuse me.  I would love to paint a room Wimborne white or cat`s paw but the winner is elephant`s breath. Say no more, say no more.  (from monty python it seemed appropriate).

Poppy

The next exercise was to walk around your neighbourhood and take pictures.  I am a little incapacitated right now so I just hung my jacket  on my easel and worked on that.

I am so excited to be working on this book but painting for me is really hard right now.  I am not used to sitting while painting so I am finding it frustrating.  Oh well.  

It is poppy season now.  I make a poppy painting every year. I am a sucker for all those veterans who sell them and I am incapable of walking by without giving a few dollars.  So each of my jackets has a poppy.  One soldier I was talking to said this year the poppies are being bought up.  All of us are distraught over the events in Montreal and Ottawa where soldiers were murdered. Just buying a poppy doesn't seem enough.

That is it for chapter 3.  The book is full of beautiful paintings and I am wasting a lot of time looking at all the artist's websites.  Tomorrow is chapter 4 on values.    

Selfie

Carol`s next exercise is a self portrait.  Boy did I have a tough time with this one.  I hurt my knee badly and I had to paint sitting down.  I just could not get comfortable, everything felt off.  I also didn't wear my my glasses.  I have heard of artists painting without their glasses to make everything a blur but between my knee and glasses I just couldn't wait until it was over.

Where did all those wrinkles come from.  I need a hair cut.  

We interrupt this blog for Carol Marine "Daily Painting"

I have been feeling really sorry for myself -  my knee is killing, my washing machine is leaking and my tooth just cracked.  I just went to the drugstore to get a knee support and as I was leaving there was someone in a wheelchair and I was thinking I didn't really have anything to complain about and I could hear my brother's words "just suck it up".

Well things have  turned around.  My physio called and said she had a cancellation, the repairman came on time and the bill was much lower than I expected and my dentist's line  was busy.

To add to my good feelings my copy of Carol Marine's book Daily Painting  came a week before it is supposed to be released. I am really excited to get this book so I am going to put  "Keys to drawing" aside for  just a bit and go through this one.

Chapter one is about  her background and the advantages of doing a small daily painting.  She gives many reasons but the one that resonated the most with me is that you improve quickly.  I noticed that when I did the 30 in 30 paint challenge.  I learnt a lot and if one painting  didn't work out, well just move on to a new one the following day. Other artists discuss why they paint daily.

Chapter two is about her materials: easels, surfaces, palettes  and lighting.  I liked her tip of cutting a tennis ball in half and using the inside to wash her brushes instead of her hands.  One thing I always have is old tennis balls, the advantage of having a Golden Retriever.

Chapter three is about subjects: lots of suggestions about still lifes, landscapes real life vs photographs.  It sounds like I am just zipping though this book but I really am enjoying all the pictures from other artists and her generosity.  Which brings us to the first exercise - one or more objects on a plain colour background.  I could only find black and pink paper so I used that.  On the bright side, I found an old ink drawing I love, 3 brand new tubes or paint and an empty sketch book, I really have to clean up. I did this painting of weights.

 They are much more fun to paint than to lift. 

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