Creating a Still Life, #2

Our fall session of art classes have begun, and for my first painting project, I decided to create and paint a still life.  A lot of work goes into combining the perfect colors, shadows, lighting, spacing, and objects to form a good still life.  (I showed you another one I put together here.)  Artists spend hours and hours getting it right.  Thankfully, camera phones can ease the process these days because after a still life is set up, the camera can reveal if it is okay or still needs some tweaking.  Many of the same rules can apply to creating table top vignettes.

My first plan was to paint lemons in a blue and white container.  (Ignore the background.  The painted background would be black).

 

 

The first take seemed flat, so we added a dish towel for interest and depth.  However, when I started sketching the arrangement, I knew all of those blue lines would give me big time problems when I was painting with my oils so I decided to simplify everything.

 

 

So,  I found this yellow enamelware container on the prop shelf and added it to a lemon, a pear, a pomegranate and a clear bottle.  Everything in a still life needs to play well with each other.  My art teacher says they need to talk to each other.  We didn’t like the clear vase.  (Again, ignore the background.  It will be a different color in the finished product.  I’m just not sure yet if it will be black or burnt umber.)

 

 

We removed the bottle, took the lid off of the container, and used it as one of the props.  We picked a flower from outside and used it.  We liked the way the colors in the flowers worked with the pomegrate, how the green pear worked with the leaves, and how the lemon worked with the enamelware.

 

 

We then felt as if the lid was too prominent, so we leaned it against the container.  We still thought it was playing too big a role.  There needs to be a star with a supporting cast, and the lid was competing with the star (the container) for the main role.

 

 

We decided to put the lid where it belongs and play with the position of the flower.

 

We also kept moving the way the container was pointing because the handle had to be just right.  And do you notice something else that is different about this photo?  Yep!  We added more light so that we could see the shadows.  We knew we were getting close.

 

 

And this is the final one.  Everything is playing/working/talking/acting well together.  The colors are good together.  The spacing is right.  The light is interesting.  I will start painting it in class next week and will be sure to show you the final result.  Don’t hold your breath, though.  It will probably take me till Christmas.  Seriously.

 

Take care.