Still Life with White Rose (click on picture to enlarge)

You find interesting objects which you think would fit  together to make an interesting still life but what about the background? This painting had 3 changes of background. If you decide on a flat background, OK you just colour it in and place the objects on top. If, however, the background has depth then you are into the realm of ‘landscape’. Here the rules of perspective are important and because you are close up, the extreme end of the perspective issue usually comes into play. There is no easy way around this. Its complicated, suffice to say converging lines are the most important part of working out the shape of items when viewed obliquely.

Converging lines

The shape of the table top was decided by constructing a sketch as above. This is a simple example but the right hand side of the painting was created using the same technique.

I am working on the YouTube videos (2 parts) at the moment, compressing about 6 hours painting time into 2 ten minute time lapse videos. More on this in the future.

So far, so good…

I’m working on a difficult still life at the moment. Difficult in that it requires several sessions before completion. Under painting is generally painted with very little medium and much thinners, such as white spirits. These layers dry quickly allowing the painter to continue painting without the usual long wait of the final layers. I have also decided to include a lot of detail in the subject items. At the same time I’m making a video of the process for a future post on the subject.

The most disconcerting part of this type of painting method (paint, allow dry, paint again) is that some of the colours dry to a very matt finish. When you return to the painting the deep rich shadows are much lighter in colour and not at all like the painting you left after the previous session. If this happens you can apply a thin layer of ‘Liquin’ to the dull patches before you apply fresh paint. Be careful if the under layer is not completely dry as the ‘Liquin’ can soften or even mix with the under layer. Don’t use a thinner, such as white spirits, or this will worsen this effect.

Hopefully I will have this painting finished in a few days and I’ll post the movie.