Articles
The Materials of the Workshop “Oil Painting of Elemental Still Life”
Continue practicing on oil painting. This time we will draw uncomplicated still life. Just as we did before, prime a cardboard in neutral colour with toned acrylic gesso. In this case it is dark purple which resembles the drapery in the background. That resemblance will help to work on the study.
As usual we should draw up an outline in pencil first. Considering the sketch put the drawing on the cardboard with a brush.
From time to time you should check the composition and the proportions at a distance. If the arrangement satisfies you and the main characteristic features are taken correctly it is time to delineate big relations. First of all delineate the parts which colours differ significantly from the colour of the primer (illuminated surfaces of objects and drapery). Thereby we will have expressive tonal relations.
Now we need to make them softer and to enrich colours. At the same time we are altering the drawing.
The main purpose is to catch the entire impression as fast as it possible. Due to this you should always try to find the most distinguished parts to paint up to the end of the work. It is a good idea to observe your study at a few metres distance in order to realise better what you need to do right now.
When the most contrast parts are taken you need to add dark areas.
Then you need to add nuances. We do it not forgetting to check the entire impression. Do not neglect that we may observe the work at a distance sharply or with defocused eyes.
Watching with defocused eyes helps us to estimate the work more correctly and make right decisions.
If the depicted subjects are illuminated brighter than the rest of the studio, the work may not look impressive enough. In order to try you may place your work in the lighted area. At the same time it should not be forgotten that if you make a photo of your work placed under the bright light source some details may be lost.
Due to this it is preferable to make photos in an illuminated area, but not in shiningly light one.
You also may tilt your work slightly to avoid highlights, and then stabilise it in the Photoshop, but it is better to place light source minding highlights.
Different results may occur depending on how the light sources are placed.
Oleg Toropygin