New Still Life Painting Develops

I thought I would post the progress of this piece in stages, to give an idea of my method. This is the first color stage after the toned ground is applied and the initial drawing is done. Sometimes I draw in charcoal or Conte on the panel, and sometimes I will just jump in and compose very quickly with a brush. I lay in the darkest darks first, and build from there. Not much detail in the drawing at all, it's just a guide.

This toned ground is more neutral than usual, and we''ll see how I like that. Each object develops pretty substantially in sequence, as I prefer to work wet-into-wet and don't care to try and lay in local color on every object at once. I work, normally from background to foreground and from dark to light. Both the china and the brass items shown here will continue to gain more color and detail as I go, picking up reflections form other objects as well as highlights. There will also be a floral/plant pattern on the China vase, at some point, which I will invent.

There are flaws in the drawing (like in the leaves), but I'll adjust as I go. I will also make stuff up as it suits me. This is being painted both from life and from a reference photo (mostly for the leaves, which tend to wilt and droop in a few hours).

I'll try to remember to post more as things progress.

I'm also trying to figure out how to create time-lapse videos of my paintings as they develop, and then set these to music. Any tips on a good program for this would be appreciated.

Comments

[pcNielsen]

I quite like the light/coloring on the vase in the foreground.

[pcNielsen]

And Animoto might be worth looking at for videos, but I'm guessing there are better options. That's just the one I know of.