ASSIGNMENT ONE

As this was the first assignment of the course, I wanted to produce a piece that had a personal touch, in order to convey my personality and tastes. Out of three options of  a still life, a landscape and an interior, I chose a still life as this subject is my favourite out of the three.

I wouldn’t say I have the usual tastes of a 20 year old, and so I believe the objects that I chose to be a connection to this. My chosen objects were a checked scarf, a bottle of wine, a vinyl record player, a Victorian novel, the Holy Bible, a tea mug and an apple. These objects all had rather an autumnal feel to them not because they had a connection with the season, but because they all had earthy, rich, warm colours and shades, which happens to be my preference of colour.

My first move was to draw a couple of compositions from two different angles of the arrangement I had made of them, and having produced direct light with a table lamp, even though one cannot see it from the basic sketches, the two sketches had a large contrast in light and dark areas, as one was in direct light and the other arrangement was in front of it creating a mass of darkness .After selecting the bottom arrangement for my assignment, I produced two studies on A4 sheets with watercolour of a rough colour study that would be painted in acrylic for the final piece, but also a tonal study to see if there was a decent variation of light and dark tones. As one can see and agree with as I said before, the colours in this composition were very much dark, rich, bruised colours, rather than bright pastel and pale colours.

For the base of this assignment I used a cotton canvas sheet for my surface, and gave the entire sheet a wash of burnt umber watercolour, so that it might give the piece a traditional and historic twist rather than a blank white sheet staring at me. After sketching the composition and proportions out with a pencil, I went straight in with the acrylic paints, first concentrating on blocking in the bulk colours and then continuing onto the reflections and shadows that the table lamp provided. In particular, having mentioned reflections, this was a connection to the tonal study on a white ground and the reflections in that, as I wanted to in cooperate reflective surfaces in the assignment, and as it turns out that was the most enjoyable aspect of the process for me.

Below is my first assignment for the Practice of Painting course with the OCA and as my first painting in a couple of years, I am pleased with the outcome. I believe that in the piece I show a variation of highlights and shadows, benefitted from previous exercises, and that the way I applied the paint was more controlled and planned, rather than spontaneous strokes. As one of the criteria points of the assignment was to paint what I see, careful and precise brush strokes were necessary, and constant observation was key, as I found myself repeatedly checking after painting little sections of the piece. For myself, using the acrylic was most familiar as I have worked with the medium for a long time and with this I didn’t feel the need to blend or manipulate the paint, as I believe that layering the acrylic gave a better result, especially in areas where there was light shining on the surfaces of the objects.

I do know that there is an improvement that can always be made on paintings, and accuracy, and true attention to the finer details is where I would like to concentrate on more in the future, but as my first assignment, I am pleased with how I planned the composition, worked with the acrylic and considered using a variety of dull and shiny surfaces to replicate the use of light and the variation of materials in the still life.