what I Have Been Working On These Past Weeks

Where I Am: Mid-Term Reflection

So far this term I have not been able to complete as much work as I would like, but I have learned valuable lessons about oil painting. Even though I have not created as much work as I would like, I have felt that I have made a lot of progress because of my research on glass, and what doesn't work, or what does. I have a goal of finishing my painting, and begin a new one. There have been a lot of challenges with this glass painting, but even though it is hard it will prepare me for my next one, and will hopefully make glass objects easier for me in the future.
I have also started a self portrait, and set up a still live for the white objects painting that I missed. I will work on those as well as my glass one.

Glass Drawing

Because I am taking a portfolio class, I have been drawing as well. I decided to take my glass study one step further, and draw glass instead of just painting it. I am using the same set up as my painting, only this time I am using pencil.
Drawing is different than painting because the color tints that make my painting resemble like glass wont be color at all in the drawing. This drawing will be based on dark and light shadows with a color range from graphite/gray to white instead of a palette of green, blue, and black from the painting. This is a different learning experience because there are no paints to experiment on making the objects look transparent in the painting.
I will add some pictures as soon as possible to document my process for this glass drawing.

Paul Cezanne paintings

Paul Cezanne

Paul Cezanne was born in Aix en Provence. His father was not too keen on him being an artist, but Cezanne was determined to continue his passion. His work is very unique, and he is known for his landscapes around Aix.
He used vibrant colors in many of his landscapes. However, his painting of the Sculls has different color range than the landscape. The sculls have more grays, and blacks then the landscape, which has brighter greens, blues, and yellows. In the skulls, you do see some whites and yellow, but the shaded background makes the painting very different from the landscape. The sculls painting is also a still life set up, where the landscape is from life.
In terms of texture his individual brush strokes (as opposed to smoother brush strokes) makes his paintings look looser, and especially in the trees, which gives the branches an airier look, as if they are moving. His brush strokes also help indicate the shadows and highlights on the skulls, which form the shapes of the skulls nicely. He was able to make his sculls look hollow, especially in the eye sockets.

Glass Painting Pictures

here are some pics, the painting is obviously not completed yet, but now everyone has an idea of how far I've come, and how much more I need to work on. Since then, I have filled in the rest of the background, and started working on the heater (radiator) that stands under the glass objects. I will continue posting pictures of my progress.

My Glass Painting So Far

On the first day, I picked a few glass objects to arrange and paint. My goal was to improve my skills in making objects transparent and shiny. I figured out the hard way that any painting that involves glass or shiny metal should begin with the highlights and shadows. Once those are in place, the real painting begins. So far, I have struggled with my painting because I am still new at the whole "see-through" aspect to glass. I found myself thinking, "wouldn't it be easier to just paint the outline??!" but, no, that created one crappy painting. Over the remainder of the week, i focused on getting in more highlights and shadows, which so far have improved my painting.
Ms. Roberts refused to help me with my panting until I filled in the basic colors, which reminded me of the phrase "general to specific." I have found that phrase difficult to implant in my brain, because I would begin to focus on one object, instead of the entire display. But I have began to notice that it is in fact necessary to start "general", because it makes the it easier in the end, with less mistakes mistakes to correct.
I feel that I have a long way to go, but this painting is good practice to experiment about the necessary skills for painting glass. My painting so far has a little too much blue and green in it, because white is hard to see on white canvas! I have decided that once I get in all the background colors, and basic outlines and highlights and shadows, I will go back in with white to make the brightest highlights pop.
I will soon post pictures of my painting as a work in progress.