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Dear Subscribers,
Greetings!
New still life painting. (Or unstill life painting?)
Here is the setup. I found this urn-thing at Goodwill. It is a very
cheaply/crappily made object, but with a deteriorating and partially
reflective finish that, with the right treatment, could become
something special. I couldn't wait to paint it.
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My goal is to make the urn my primary focus, with pears, cloth folds,
and flrrblz as
supporting elements. Here below is the umber shape-of-shadow block in.
I'm reusing a panel with a false start still on it:
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Next stage: Straight away I jump into full color with the knife. I
always go for the focus first, which in this case is the urn.
Recognizing that the light background will be a vital component of my
composition, I start establishing some background. This gives me enough
information to make more decisions about how to paint the values of the
focal urn.
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Next stage. I begin the adjacent pear and the cloth beneath the urn. I
usually work radially outwards from the focus. The focus will always
have a higher level of finish in relation to the rest of the painting.
I try to maintain that relationship throughout the duration of every
painting. Everything is in service of the focus. When more information
is needed to progress further on the focus, I paint the supporting
elements. Back and forth, but with the focus always in the lead.
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Next stage below. More detail on the urn, and I begin searching for
colors to make the reflections exciting:
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Next stage. At this point I need more surrounding information to know
whether or not the urn is succeeding as the focus. So I paint more
background and the remaining pears. I'm making the green pears and the
background become more like each other, so that the urn remains alone
and unique (pears lighter to meld with background, and background/cloth
greener to meld with pears). The urn has everything going for it now:
highest detail, darkest darks, brightest lights (the white background
directly haloing), warmest colors, most saturated colors. Every
decision is made in service of creating focus.
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Next stage. More detail in the urn's reflected light and the first
flrrbl is begun. The flrrbl is kept cooler and at a higher value key to
allow it to meld with the background:
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Next stage: Refinement. Adjacent pear is refined. Color in the urn is
punched up. The pair of pears on the right is pushed back. Since they
were dry at this point, I used a brush to spread a white half-paste
over them (white and medium. A half-paste can be described as an opaque
glaze). The higher key makes them more ghostly. This allows the dark
values and saturated colors of urn to dominate even more. I allow the
single adjacent pear to be saturated since it is close to the focus:
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Development of the background white (around urn) and some refinement of
urn detail:
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The second flrrbl is begun. I start experimenting with edges. By the
way, this painting became around a 60/40 ratio of knife/brush. The
brush was most appropriate for some of these edge effects, the flrrblz,
and other portions of detail:
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Flrrbl #2 is refined and I begin finishing work on the folds (starting
centrally below the urn):
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Finishing folds and more refinement of the urn:
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And the finished painting, "Sacrament" (8x10 oil on panel):
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Here are some closeups:
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_____
Artist Decoded Podcast
I was recently a guest on Artist Decoded, which is an excellent and
long running podcast about art (all mediums), life as an artist, and
the creative process. The host is Yoshino, who is also the co-owner of
NOH/WAVE (the venue of my recent Los Angeles workshop, and the
publisher of my new instruction video
).
We had a great talk. Some highlights: Yoshino draws me out (which can
be difficult, according to my wife ;p), some awkward segues, art and
martial arts, art and parenting, I become suddenly ageist, and other
fun stuff.
Listen to the episode:
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#112: David Cheifetz - "Autopilot Off" by Artist Decoded
BTW, in order to dispel some confusion: Yes, my name is pronounced
"Chay-fits" (and I also went by "high-fits" for a brief time). It's not
Yoshino's fault, I've just become pretty lazy about correcting people.
Lols.
_____
Article
Nice to be included in this list. Click through to read:
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_____
Video Workshop
New collaboration with NOH/WAVE Academy. 6 hrs of streaming content!
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Learn more about the Video Workshop
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Scottsdale Artists' School
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STILL LIFE COMPOSITION & PAINTING WORKSHOP
May 3-5
$525
Scottsdale, Arizona
Taking registrations! I hope you can join us. This will be my first
time at SAS and I'm looking forward to it. As of now this is my only
scheduled workshop left for 2019, and AZ is the farthest I'll be able
to travel until the end of 2020. I might fit in more West Coast
workshops later this year, but I haven't decided when and where.
Currently still a challenge to maneuver in that
parenting/painting/teaching balance :).
Details & Registration
_____
Thank you for reading! See you in a month-ish. -David
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