Little Oil Paintings: July 2008

Friday, July 25, 2008

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Mum and I went to visit John and Trish in Invercagill...we spent a splendid and very memorable day on gem stone beach collecting beautiful little stones...the best ones are somewhat translucent when wet. Trish does delicate watercolours of these stones and more...real gems in themselves. I'm attempting them in oil now by way of inspiration....something more tangible and poetic about hers though.....but I did enjoy looking so closely as I painted mine.

Friday, July 18, 2008

As prematurely stated below...

Oil on board

I was cleaning up my still life for the series of egg and glass, and I dropped the egg...the result - a contained mess - so it was decided that I should put the remains inside a glass that didn't feature already in the series. Voila...of coures...this all happened days a go....still hopeless at remembering to post(I've since moved on to painting rocks and orchids....to come!)

Final in egg series.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Blog glass drawing demo..

I've decided to do a little step by step demo for Tan, drawing a glass.....'tis a funny thing drawing something see through, its time to suspend what you think you see, and draw what you see...here is the glass of reference...

Begin with a line drawing of the perimeter of the glass..draw a centre line to help you find the symmetry in made made objects. Keep your lines VERY light. This is the time to make judgements on measurements and angles..it is easiest to change ones mind now...not after shading begins.

Shade entire shape a medium tone, then find large secondary shapes of darker tones, keep shading flat not patchy. This reference glass is placed with nothing behind it....if this were not the case you would find and shap in the darker shapes of any objects behind it...also any next to it as these too will reflect on the surface of the glass. Draw with very little pressure -keeping marks light.

Now observe very closely and locate the darker shapes, IGNORE detail, it may help to squint in order to find the shapes more easily(squinting gets rid of detail) render edges and keep thinking in terms of shapes rather than lines-there is no such thing as a line in nature, just a place where different tone/colour shapes meet. Line is an element of design in a drawing/painting and will sever a form. Start rendering(shading) the nuances of the tones as well...darker where shapes gradually change to darker etc. You will also begin to see the lighter shapes ...but do not think of them as reflections just yet...just shapes. Keep looking back up at the reference class to see what I have drawn.

Now....with a putty rubber...(exmple of this tool at the end of blog) start pulling out the lighter shapes that you see....again have a look at the reference glass above. The reflections/light shapes that you see are most likely windows so they will square..your shapes should be as such..they will be white blobs to begin with but with your pencil in the next stage reshape them. Almost time to see detail....at this stage make sure your darkest bits are quite dark -it is the variety and the stretching of the grey scale that make a drawing really pop(ie. include darkest darks and lightest light and all in between)

Now return with your pencil and place the smaller shapes and the detail of the reflections that you can see....the frames of the window perhaps....juggle the light and dark forms...for example the reflected light from the window will be lighter than the secondary reflected light stripes(in the example) adjacent to it. Use you putty rubber and your pencil freely...Look back and forth at the blance of lights to darks....et voila!

A grey putty rubber is an instrumental tool...it is soft so is maleable to any shape you might need in order to get at thos odd spaces....and no pesky shavings.....the pencil I used was a mechanical one with 6B lead....also......when drawing from live reference that is upright in front of you, it helps to draw upright too...on an easel for example, or tilted 45 degrees on you lap...taking it down for detailed work...when referencing from a photo on a flat surface it is better to draw flat. Have a go...I enjoyed that!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Egg and glass.....

Egg 5

5"x7"

Oil on Board

I received a message from Tan yesterday asking how to draw transparent objects, which I'm delighted to answer ....The trick is to not draw what you know but draw what you see. When drawing/painting realism you are attempting to recreate the three dimensional into two dimensions, and in time rendering it to appear to be three dimensional. The only way to do this is to break your reference down into shapes, like flat cutout shapes and draw/paint them on your surface next to each other. Ideally start with all shapes that are in the middle range of tone, then the dark, the lights, and lastly the very brightest highlights. For drawing use a putty rubber to pull out the highlights....with painting use the cleanest of whites. Difficult to explain without the assistance of a demonstration, but hopefully this simplifies a bit. I use a number of books in my classes...I'll have a closer look and see which ones may teach drawing transparent objects...alternatively just page through any how to draw books...there are many out there. Hope this helps Tan...let me know if you have any other questions. Perhaps this calls for a blog demonstration!