This has been quite a learning experience, in that i ignored some basic “rules” and paid the price.  For doing a still life i should have had good subjects in a paintable setting; and, probably more importantly, a good reference photo.  I glossed over both these preliminary steps, which then left me kind of winging it from my imagination about how things “should” look.  Next time I’ll try to correct these omissions.  the trickiest issue was trying to figure out how the lighting should look — highlights, reflections,  etc.  and still have the jar looking like a jar.  Learned a lot, but mostly how to do this process differently next time around.

I know i haven’t posted anything in quite a while. I worked for a while on drawing but didn’t post any of my work. At some point i decided i would try to learn something about doing still lifes. Did some arranging of various objects — fruits, vegetables, cups, pencils, etc. and made some drawings, intending both to keep drawing and to try to paint something from these efforts. Eventually decided I’d try to paint some paint brushes in a jar. In one iteration i had a couple of palette knives in the frame; in another, i had a paint tube. Nothing is finished, and i ran into quite a variety of issues along the way. But since it’s been so long since I’ve entered anything in this blog, thought I’d just share some of this process.

One issue that came up early in the painting was that it was pretty clear my background (top half) was way too light – highlights on jar were not going to show up. So i repainted all that in a much darker color. then the paint brushes didn’t show up, so altered their brightness and hue. I’m liking the paint brushes — the jar not so much. Definitely continuing to evolve!