Artist - Part 4 - Life is for Learning

I started painting in my background in a dominant grey (cobalt blue/trans oxide red). This made my painting look monochromatic and hopelessly lifeless. I’ve decided to paint the bottles; this should brighten things up and help me decide on how to continue with the background. In my experience a piece doesn’t come together till the final 5%.

I recently went back and looked at some paintings in books to see how they simplified glass. Something exciting happened! It was obvious and I have overlooked it many times. To phrase it politely… curves are treated with respect…. Translation… curves are to be omitted! Painters that I study replace curves with other elements eg: soften edges, blocked in lines that aren’t refined to curves. This becomes even more obvious in the non-focal point areas.

This lesson I’ve learned is also important because it is how I already draw and paint my underpaintings. My painting should have followed suit but I guess all those pieces that I painted using fat on lean were counter to this.

I am very excited to continue this painting, it should be very interesting.