Embroidered Collage

Finally a blog entry on this class that doesn't start with Aaaargh!  I did a much better job of painting appropriate colors last night than I have been lately and have hope that if I continued to do these at home I might actually SEE some of these colors in the neutrals instead of having to theoretically extrapolate them.

I was able to pick up a shot of a corner of the classroom.  It's not nearly so dark, but I think the spotlight was throwing off the sensors.  I work sitting down, with a table easel on a tv tray in front of me and wax paper and paints spread out on a tv tray to my left.  I tend to go through two or three sheets of wax paper in a session, because I run out of room.

I started with the bulk of the pitcher because I knew it was the color that I would need to relate all the other colors to when I moved forward.  My first try was lighter than you see above.  Jim stepped in and asked about it, then suggested that I might not have enough room to get a full value range if I started with it that light, so I darkened the color a bit.  I didn't change it again throughout the process, except for adding shadows, even though it looks lighter in the pictures to follow.  I went with a pinker color for the white plate to show that it was warmer than the pitcher but still in the light.

 To the left is the result of my first efforts in covering the canvas completely.  I thought I was ready to break up the shapes further, but it didn't turn out that way.  The first thing that jumped out at Jim was how cool and intense I had made the shadow.  Shadows are usually less intense in color than the objects that make them.  I agreed that I saw the color as more purple, but I had had trouble getting the right value with purple, so I went blue.  He also suggested that there was some green in the purple.  I had difficulty seeing it, but agreed to give it a try.  Jim also mixed up a few colors on his palette, showing me how he made more muted tones.

I asked if my value relationships worked.  He approved, except for the right hand portion of the plate, which needed to be darker.  He asked me to compare the plate to the spout in the still life and then look at what I had done in the painting.  I noticed immediately what he had been talking about.  In the still life the spout just popped because it was so much lighter.

 For my next iteration I muted the colors of the plate overall while I was working on the shadow and value issues.  For example, I remixed the pink of the left hand portion of plate in the light and added touches of purple and green to it.  I also added a little extra shadowing on the pitcher because the lack of form was driving me a bit nuts.  What jumped out at me now was that the pear's shadow was way too cool and the pot looked too dark, although that last is hard to see in the photo. 

Jim and I talked again and he suggested that instead of making the pot lighter I should move on and make the pear darker, since the yellow I had begun with was more the color and value of the highlight and not the form.  After he said it, this made a great deal of sense to me.   Why touch my initial reference color when I hadn't made adjustments to the rest of the painting?  He also mentioned that the shadow might work better if I softened the edge, which would better approach what was in the set-up.

 And he was completely right!  The whole picture pulled together better when I added the shading to the pear.  I think I went a little too dark, but the relationships and image are  still closer to reality than they were.  I warmed up the shadow as well, then added a little more shading to the pitcher and put in the highlights.  We had a few more minutes at this point but my brain hurt, so I stopped and watched Jim talk with some of the other students.

I still do not have a fully developed color study because the relationships are not just right, but I am closer than I have been since the first class when all we had to contend with was bright clear colors.  This is still difficult for me, but I have been learning a great deal and am very glad to have proof that some of it is sinking in.