I really enjoyed the next section of Foundations' Lesson 3. The assignment was to paint the shapes of 3 objects and then to paint the shadow shapes. I found Liz Steel's advice really useful:
- Place a piece of cardboard behind your still life. I know, that sounds obvious, but for years, I've tried to paint these objects with the mess of my desk as a background. A simple background helps to see the shapes!
- First, draw a thumbnail (I know I know, Liz is not the first person to give that advice, and I should always do a thumbnail before I start painting something, but I keep being lazy, and then I end up painting the same thing 5 times over because it doesn't work out the first 4 times!)
- Place the shadows on the thumbnail - that's really important if you're outdoors and the light is changing while you're painting, and by the time you're finished, the shadows have turned around and I'm really confused about what's in the sun and what's in shadow
- Then, use a light-coloured watercolour pencil to draw the shapes.
- Then paint the local colour of each object and of the background.
- Then paint the shadows, using a nice mix of ultramarine and transparent orange, without worrying about cast shadow or reflected light or any of these difficult concepts!
I like how my still life worked out!
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