Last week I decided to paint a still life. I looked through my collection of "stuff" in my studio. I was looking for - a tall object, a shiny glass object, something colorful and some small fill-in objects.
Back at my easel, I placed my objects in my shadow box in a pattern that appealed to me. I use a shadow box to confine my objects and eliminate any distractions. My single light source comes from a spotlight. (You can see extra highlights from my regular studio lights but I ignore them.)
So now I had my basic composition. A little boring perhaps.
After laying in a basic underpainting as a foundation, I rarely look at the set up again. I just paint. I try to remember the basics of good composition - unity, variety, balance, color, edges and values.
I'm not interested in just copying these objects. I'm not creating a catalog for a department store - I'm creating a painting.
As you can see I changed the little glass vase and added the flowers. And then a few more changes...
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| My set up |
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| Late Summer Roses, 9x12 |
Something to think about... Are you an artist? Or a copyist?
