Steel & glass

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Comment by Annie Hemsley on April 27, 2012 at 16:21

Thanks Richard I see I have a very long way to go. MMMMM Its all good though Thanks for the helpful comments and ideas. 

Comment by Richard Robinson on April 27, 2012 at 9:29

 

Design
No, not the best design in the world, but not the worst either. :-) The more time you spend on setting up, the better it's going to get. The flat white base doesn't help - not much interest or character there. The lighting is the main problem though. You have two or more light sources which effectively removes shadows and detracts from the dark and light shapes of the objects, flattening them. Basically it removes variation, which is the prime key to interesting paintings. It also makes it more difficult to paint as there is less obvious dark/light information to work with. My advice is to knuckle down and sort this all out before you start painting because the most important thing about painting is that you are excited to be painting the subject. One dominant light source - start with that.

Colour
The blue/orange complementary design is one of my favorites. Do remember that when you're using a colour design like that, that both colours needn't be of equal vibrancy. You could gray that blue right down and it will still work well, and in fact that would make the fruit appear even more vibrant contrasted with a more subdued background. At the moment the vibrant blue draws a lot of attention, so what did you want to be the star player here - the fruit or the background? Okay, so you can subdue colours at your discretion to meet the aims of your painting.

When you're trying to paint vibrant coloured fruit, laying on more and more strong colour will not help because you can only go as vibrant as what comes out of the tube, so the idea is to darken and dull the shadow sides in order to make the light sides look bright by comparison. Again, working with a single light source makes this easier.

Brushwork
Waterbased oils do seem to have a tendency to not cover the canvas as well as traditional oils, which means either laying down an acrylic coat of broad colour notes first or laying on lots of thick waterbased oil paint. That's my experience with them anyway. They also tend to muddy in mixture faster than normal oils, making it harder to keep vibrant colour. All that means is that you're battling with an inferior medium and that tends to destroy any fresh brushwork because you'll spend a lot of time just trying to cover the canvas properly. (I may get stoned by some die-hard waterbased oil painters out there for saying this, but it's just my experience after working with them for over a year about 10 years ago and then a few brief forays since then). Besides that, when you start thinking more in terms of light and shade families and start building objects systematically with value plains you will find that your brushwork will improve along with your understanding and confidence. All a matter of brush miles.

Realism
Well I've dragged you over the coals a bit here Annie, but hopefully some of it helps. Actually your milk bottle, which is arguably the trickiest part of this painting challenge is looking decidedly glassy and solid, so well done on that - especially the exaggerated refraction of the orange which shouts out "hey I'm all glassy over here!" What impressed me more than anything was that you did one painting in watercolour and also this one in oils, which reveals to me the curious spirit of and true artist, and that is beautiful beyond all measure. You go girl!

Comment by Annie Hemsley on April 26, 2012 at 19:56

Thanks Dor I think I do do too actually Thanks for taking the time to comment

Comment by Dorian Aronson on April 26, 2012 at 9:10

I like this one best.  Great bottle! smiles to you........dor:))

Comment by Debby Badder on April 19, 2012 at 2:18

I'm drawn to the bottled, that little slice or orange peeking out...and where it all meets the lovely shade of blue backdrop.  Lovely colors. :)