Today I got to the studio all worked up to finish the second steam painting….but I had, as I always do when I leave, turned it to face the door so that the next time I walked in it would be the first thing I saw (fresh eyes!), and, lo, it was done. The painting elves had clearly been hard at work because I couldn’t see the problems I meant to fix at all. Steam II: Elbow River is now reposing in the corner waiting to see if said problems resurface.
A few days ago I found a challenge on dailypaintworks I thought I might try. The exercise was to take an object and make a series of 10-minute paintings of it on the same canvas. I had an apple and a blue cloth so I was in business. After ten minutes, though, I’d barely got started, so I dropped the time limit and just went for it. Each side took me somewhere around 45 minutes. Fun.
Here’s what it looked like after the first half was done. The blue lines are just what I drew with a Sharpie to divide the canvas.
And I got to take the pictures with my phone! Will I do my final portfolio documentation with it? No. But for keeping up with the blog, this is soooo good. ADDENDUM: I must have been tired when I published this last night. Revised opinion: the phone camera will be wonderful when I figure out why these look perfect on my photo-editing software, but not so great here. Will replace with nice clear images when I get it sorted. I suspect I will be hiking up and down the five flights of stairs to take my photos outside. Sigh.
How do I like them apples?
I think it’s all going well Frances–good job!
This exercise looks like it is fun and a good way to enhance and develop different techniques without investing heavily in time.
Given that, the result is effective. The reflection of the light and the shading on the apple adds interest and realism.
Me
Thanks for commenting on my blog. beautiful paintings! I love your drawings especially.
Thank you back! I’m having a lot of fun sleuthing down other artists on the net. Life with small boy means no openings or First Thursdays…at least till he’s old enough to come too.
Loving reading this blog. Loving the stream of vignettes.
Although I’m no artist, I completely get the fresh eyes thing. With my writing, though, I have to walk away for more than a day- three or four days will do it- before I can find the honest eye. Which, as in your case, sometimes says nay, scrape those words back post haste; sometimes says mebbee, tweak a little… and sometimes page upon page ends up in the virtual bin. I’m working on a lengthy fictionalised biography and a false move can mean whole chapters trashed. Sigh. But for the better in the end.
It would be harder, I think, with paint. I can save old versions, in case things take a new direction and I change my mind… though I rarely do once the clear eyes have spoken.