Running with Scissors 12x12 oil

First, there was nothing where the marble is. Then, it didn't seem balanced, so I added a pencil. I will post below so you can see what a bad comp idea THAT was ; )! Finally, I had to call on the neighbor kids to supply a marble.

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Comment by Britt Greenland on February 21, 2014 at 5:55: Michael, thanks for that synopsis! It is a dim warm lamp light a bit higher than the vase of flowers. Would folks who live in the Southern Hemisphere want a south facing window? My studio has a south window, but it's overcast here 85 percent of the time. Some days the auto lights of the houses in my neighborhood never turn off even at noon! Today looks to be one of those days. I like schmid's white paper test. Maybe I will try that outside and inside with various light today.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on February 20, 2014 at 13:12: Hi Britt. Still life paintings, when the light source is from a north light facing window (cool light), will have cool lights and warm shadows ..relative to each other!! Most of us ..that includes me ..are not blessed with a north facing window ..so .....we can elect to either light our subject with a warm light or cool light. An incandescent bulb would have a warm light and thus cool shadows relative to each other. It looks like your light source is coming from the upper right and is pretty high? ....The shadow planes on your objects and the few cast shadows look good to me ...as long as they are consistent on the red table top, I think you are fine. It looks like you are illuminating this setup with a warm light source?..BTW, the closer your light source is, the more sharper your shadows will appear. Your fine on this painting. :)

Comment by Britt Greenland on February 20, 2014 at 10:25: Wow, thanks for that explanation, Micheal, and for your compliment, Cristina! The reason I got rid of the pencil right away was because the point of scissors and pencil glued my eye to the one spot they were both "pointing" to instead of letting me move around the painting. Micheal, I don't feel very confident about my shadows, here. I struggle with the application of the idea of warm light/cool shadows and vice-versa. Do you have any wisdom on that for this particular painting? I'm reading about that in "Alla Prima" right now, but it would make more sense to me with a specific problem like this in front of me.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on February 20, 2014 at 9:37: I love the painting with the marble!! ...BTW, the reason why the marble is "better" is because it relates to all the other round elements ..which are all of different sizes, shapes, and textures ..excellent. The point of the scissors is the counter point to the round objects ...wonderful. The pencil was acting like another counterpoint ..and was messing up the contrast the point of the scissors made. I hope I explained that okay? Anyway, you now have UNITY where the pencil was causing CHAOS.

Comment by Cristina Mihailescu on February 20, 2014 at 9:18: I like both, but the first one is my favorite, the addition of the marble was a good idea,beautifully done!