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Dear Subscribers,
Greetings!
New still life painting. Here is the setup. My initial visual concept
is to play equal parts warm (candle) and cool (glasses with partially
evaporated food-coloring-altered water) off of each other, with the
pitcher as a temperature-neutral focal area between these clashing
elements. In the end there's a battle for focus that I find
interesting, but we'll get to that later.
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You might recognize this pitcher. If you do, it might be because I've
painted it a few times before, lols:
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First stage. Here is the umber block-in/shape-of-shadow in brush. The
rest of the painting will be by knife.
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Next stage. Even before starting in on the objects, I need some
background for context. If I'd taken the time to put down a tone/ground
on the panel that was closer to the value of my intended background, I
would go straight to the focal objects instead.
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Next stage. Starting objects and a fading of the colorful background
into a neutral.
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Into the cloth. By pushing the cloth to the slightly cooler/greenish
side, more focus is being pushed towards the candle instead of the
pitcher. At this point, I'm ok with that, and wondering where this will
lead me.
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Adding more warm background and cloth helps to balance the temperatures
and slightly reduce the focus on the candle--sharing more focus with
the glasses. This increased balance begins to frame the pitcher:
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I want the neutrality of the pitcher to "bleed" into the cloth below
it, giving the pitcher more of a presence. I continue experimenting,
trying to further equalize warm vs cool:
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After working on the lid of the pitcher, I try a similar neutral effect
going upwards.
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Adding flame and smoke to the candle.
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Refining all elements while continuing to experiment with the colors of
background and cloth. Notice that I'm giving the primary fold shadow
beneath the pitcher the darkest value, while the other folds are pushed
to a higher key. This will help to direct focus.
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More refinement and details. See stems of glassware, grooves on
pitcher, flame reflection on pitcher, and the beginnings of some cloth
crinkles:
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At this stage of the painting, I posted the following comment (and
picture below) on Instagram. It was a thought that I still like, so I
think it's worth repeating here:
A process through fits and starts. This most slow and stammering period
of my painting journey (over the past year) is helping me to realize
that creative momentum is not as inflexible and fleeting as I once
thought. I'm starting to question whether the availability of
relatively uninterrupted intensity over 8ish years had in some ways
become a limiting factor….It allowed me to perpetuate my tendency
towards creative impatience. My tolerance for lingering on the same
painting is expanding, which is exciting. Shown here is the tip of a
Holbein 1066S-303 painting knife.
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More detail and crinkles in the cloth. More experimentation with
background, although it's not quite right in the upper left: too jagged
and distracting, stealing too much focus:
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More refinement everywhere:
And the finished painting "The Mage's Flame" (16x12, $3100):
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While I usually create paintings with a very clear singular focus,
there's a bit of a battle for attention here. To my eye, the pitcher
with its more neutral colors and brightest highlight dominates (as
intended), but I could easily see a case to be made for the candle as
the primary focus. Either way, I'm pleased with that tension.
Details:
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Thank you for reading! See you in a month-ish. -David
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