How I Paint a Still-life

Pear and Silver,  11 x 14 inches, oil on canvas

                                Available at DPWs

Blue Plate Special, 12 x 16 inches, Acrylic on canvas

                                          At Bishop Gallery, FIA, Flint Mi June 2014

Thought I would share a peek at how I work on painting a still-life.  

One of the most important things I do to start, are small drawings of a still-life set up.

The drawings helps me plan the composition to work from.  Even thought I have a physical set up, deciding how I want to approach the painting really begins with the rough sketch.  

The drawings are tonal, white, grey and black, three basic values.  I do several of these drawing focusing on areas of the set up I find most interesting. Once I pick a favorite it used as a guide for my painting.

In this case I did four drawings, and ended up with two different painting. For one painting I followed the colors present in the set up and focused on the pears. 

For the another painting I went with more earth tones, and work directly from the drawings.  I also utilized my color charts to help with the colors.  

Drawing in a key part to painting because it give you a foundation to work from.  Drawing is not just for paper and graphite.  If you want to paint better, take time to draw.  Draw with pen, ink, graphite, and paint, especially paint.  Quick sketches with a paint brush helps build skill in handling a brush, and can create some very interesting pictures, also.

Mary

Schiros-Art

Mixing up some blues

Sunlit Blues, oil on canvas, 12 x 9 inchesAVAILABLE AT DPWS

Another day of taking time to learn more about the oil colors that I have.  Have found it interesting how much more I have discovered about color by doing simple color charts.  Having the charts handy when painting,  has simplified the process of picking what colors to go to when painting.  The latest chart I did because I wanted to find a green that would match a sunlit green bottle, I knew it had to be mixed but just was not sure what green to use.
   Using 7 of my favorite oils from blue to green,  I mixed the colors with whites; zinc and a titanium,   yellows,  and a complement Permanent Rose.  Found the colors I wanted and have the chart handy for future paintings.
    The chart does not have to fancy, I used Arches oil paper, the colors, and a painting knife to mix and apply the paint to the paper.  No brushes to clean, pretty easy:)

A handy idea, hope you give it try.

Mary
Schiros_Art

Color Study

                                               

12 x 9 inches oil study

I have fallen in love with a new color:)   When resupplying some of my oil paints, I picked a new color,  Rose- Violet by Holbein.  Often when I have a few new colors I will work up color charts.
Using a color, I will make a chart of the color mixed with white, and mixed with the complement, and a mix with black, to see the values and tones I can get.  Having just picked one color the chart seemed boring to do.  So, I took my new color Rose violet, some white oil paint, and a sheet of  Arches oil paper, and did a study.
    I did the study with a video going on my pc from Bright Light Fine Art .   The video was excellent, but long, so painting while watching and listening, helped.  Double the learning, information from the a wonderful artist;  David A. Leffel, and getting to know a new color.  Nice way to spend 90 minutes.

Mary
Schiros_Art

Why I paint, what I paint

                                              At fineartamerica.com
I went to bed last night with my mind in absolute turmoil, could not stop thinking about news and issues.
The last few days I have been drawn to painting a couple of subjects, Buddhas, and horses.  At first I could see no reason, but this morning it all came together.  

                                                                            At Fineartamerica.com

                                                                           AT Dailypaintworks.com

With the Buddha paintings I was reaching for some serenity, in chaos, I look for peace.
But there is a saying I love; “Chaos - where brilliant dreams are born”.
This morning I grabbed a coffee and immediately started another horse painting.  While painting I contemplated the nature of the horse and our Country.  The horse was not native to this Country.  But it was brought here and built and work our lands, together with cowboys, farmers and ranchers, to help build something wonderful.

Our land is a vast mix of people, plants and animals, some native, some not.  How all these mixes work out, depends on if they work together, or if they destroy. 
 The tumble weed is not native, it causes much destruction, it does not blend in and benefit the land, the Starlings take natural areas away from native birds, but he horse has an iconic role in the portrait of the US.
Sometimes I just have to look at the complicated high tech world and break it down to what I can wrap my mind around.

As an Artist, the subjects I paint may seem random, but I guess they really are not. 

                                     Watercolor work in process

Mary

More than three

16 x 12 inches, ink on watercolor paper

                                                        Available at DPWs                  

Winter is over, and time to celebrate Spring.  After working on yard work for several days, decided to treat myself to some flowers.  It will be a while before there are any flowers blooming outside,  so having some in the house feels wonderful.  Of course with fresh flowers, they must be painted.

14 x 11 acrylic on canvas sheet

I pick a few flowers from the bouquet, set them on the table with just the right light and started painting.

14 x 11 acrylic on canvas sheet

  After three paintings set the blooms aside, back in my kitchen.  Studied the paintings, although I liked them, they just say what I wanted the paintings to say.

 14 x 11 acrylic on canvas sheet

 Today while walking through the kitchen, I noticed how well the light and shadows looked on the bouquet, so got my watercolor pad out, a couple brushes, and my inks.  Standing in the middle of the kitchen, I painted them just as they looked, (minus the dishes in the sink), and was finally happy with the painting.

Sometimes it takes more than 3 times to get some right.

Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

                                                                               Click here to buy

One of the advantages to oil and acrylic paint is how layering can be used.  Thought I would share this painting, where it started to how it was finished.   I started with a textured grey tone gesso, a slightly rough patchy texture, when it was dry sketched in my idea with vine charcoal, and white pastel.  The first layer is a colorless, using only the light and darks as my guide. 

layer one, shades of grey

With second layer I decided on my color scheme and added my first layer of colors in a light painting of oil color.  The finish at this point is fairly easy, building up the colors, redefining my lights and darks.

First layer of color

    It is amazing how colorful a painting can be created form just a grey tone under painting.

Mary