A recent tiny painting I finished between other works in progress.
Two Is Better Than One.
5" x 7"
Oil on linen
Greetings fellow Steemians!
In today’s post I thought I would share this recent tiny still life (5” x 7”) I finished and discuss its creative unfolding.
As for these past few weeks I’ve been juggling a few works in progress and waiting for some to dry so I can varnish them and not too long ago as I was taking a break with some cookies I thought it would be a good idea to paint a couple of them.
With this painting in particular I decided to retrace my steps by embracing a very methodical approach in which I learned while studying in the atelier.
At first I began with a precise block in drawing before transferring onto the painting surface. In doing so this would allow me to free up my head space in having to concern myself with another crucial variable. I could focus my attention more on value, form and color.
Beginning with a piece of pre toned linen (raw umber), I then transferred my drawing onto the painting surface by coating the back of the original drawing with charcoal, attaching it to the surface of the linen, and then retracing the graphite drawing with a ballpoint pen.
I then removed the drawing and “sealed” the charcoal transfer with a red Faber Castell Pitt pen.
In the efforts of accurately judging value, temperature and chroma, I then proceeded in aiming in covering the entire surface as quickly as possible. I did not want to concern myself with form at this point. As of now I wanted to compress the largest shapes as much as I could without the subtle variations in value. As you can see here I first concentrated on massing in the background.
And after the background, I then proceeded onto the largest and darkest dominant shadow shape which was under one of the cookies, then with mixtures of burnt umber, ivory black and a small amount of venetian red I then massed in the wooden ground plane.
At this stage I then started on focusing in on keying in the lights to establish the range of values.
Using mixtures of course with titanium white, yellow ocher and raw sienna I then began to fill in those larger shapes with the intentions of connecting those shapes later with form turning starting from the core shadow.
Now that I completed the goal of covering the entirety of the surface, I then decided to focus on the subtle and neutral transitions coming out of the core shadow, being careful not to render too much into the lights. I wanted to preserve in keeping those strong lights connected and opaque. The next step was to refine some edges.
At this stage where the painting is nearly finished, I then decided in that to emphasize the atmosphere, I would need to flood it more with light. In doing so I then decided to rework the cloth in the background by increasing its value and chroma.
..Aaannd it's finished!
Please feel free to let me know what you think?
Thanks for reading Everyone!
-James Hansen
Really interesting to read about the process and see the steps you take. I wonder how long this took.
Thank you so much! :) This painting took a few hours and was done in a single sitting.
making me hungry ;) !
Ha! There never seems to be a shortage of cookies where I'm at ;)
I like seeing the stages!
I really liked working on this painting not so much for the results but for the experience of each of the stages seamlessly flowing into the next which I admit doesn't happen all too often for me ;D
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Nice painting, I like the blue background. Well done with the shading!
Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it :)
They look good. I like the way you described the process, some of it I understood, and some if it not, but I am not a painter so I did not expect to understand it all. The chroma part, and flood it with more light, but that is okay, because I could see the process.
Thank you so much! Yeah, I can see how parts of my explanations could use some clarification. The problem I find though is that every time I were to write up a blog post, each one of itself would turn into a novel ;D
The best way to understand color is to conceptually separate its attributes to better interpret problems. The value is concerning with how light or dark it is. The temperature is finding out whether or not it is hot or cold. And its chroma is interpreting its saturation or intensity.
I can understand the novel part. A lot of post especially artist leaning post, if the artist tried to "fully", I am not sure there would be enough bandwidth for the explanation. So simple like you responded is enough for me. Thank you.
I think your still life cookies look fantastic! I really like seeing your process in a step-by-step fashion. I know very little about painting but still, it was neat to see the cookies come to life through your photos.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate that :)
steemy cookies, but has somebody noticed the cloth in the background?
You contrast it in so adept a manner that it allows the cookies to stand out.
It is a fine painting @jameszenartist
And just so you know, i had almost missed this fine work, if it wasnt for the @asapers! This was in their daily curation trail post.
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it :) Yes, I can see how it could be confusing. I used a cloth for the background but I didn't elaborate on it by rendering any subtle folds or indentations.
Still, it came out just as fine. You paint well.
Nice to see another artists technique and I could just grab one of those cookies. !! Resteeming so others can see too. Very nice work...also heading to your web site. ;-)
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it :)
Wow! When I first saw your picture on the @asapers curation post, I thought it was a photo - but you painted that! Very good and thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the compliment :)
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Congratulations @jameszenartist, your post has been selected by the @asapers for a resteem and a feature in our brand new curation post. Issue 30
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