New Still Life in green

I have not yet spoken to my new tutor but we have corresponded by email to arrange appointments. Sheila has looked at the blog and although we haven't discussed any of my work she did correctly observe that it was incorrect of me to begin a watercolour painting with a charcoal drawing.

I think I did know this but I find charcoal so much easier to draw with than pencil and would use pastels over paints and pencils any day! So to remain, clinging on to my comfort zone I sketched out the original still life in charcoal. Having barely used watercolour since I was at school I was also curious as to what effect it would have with the charcoal. When I use paints it is nearly always acrylic and lashings of it so I was confident that the charcoal would soon be submerged. But water-colours aren't like that and I do freely admit the final picture was not as good as it should have been had I started in pencil. Also I am not very keen on the colours and think that the theme of having one colour running through the picture is not as strong as it could have been. The background is too strong in the wrong colour as well!

The one thing I do like very much is the table cloth!



So I decided to begin again.

I set this still life arrangement of green objects up outside and photographed it.


Unfortunately this arrangement soon got blown over by a very strong wind and the table I was using is our only table outside and as a barbecue was planned for this afternoon then I knew that this still life's life was short lived!!

So I recreated it in my art room and promptly forgot to photograph it. But here is a first draft in pencil (hb, 2b & 5b)




The composition is similar to the previous one but I think is more balanced. I think I have drawn it with a good representation of perspective and the objects are of a good size so that much of the papers space is used up. I am not used to drawing still life at all and I am quite pleased with the results of this drawing. It has given me the confidence to draw more and even though I like to draw from imagination I can appreciate that it is good practice for correlation of size etc as well as shapes to regularly draw still life's to practice drawing techniques.




This is the green still life with colour added in the different shades of green. I have tried to pay attention to the shadows and light and the shapes that the light creates and the colours this causes. This picture is about two thirds of the way through. I will post a picture when it is finished but I wanted to get this post done ready to speak to Sheila on Tuesday.