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