Project 2, Exercise- Still life with man made objects

For this exercise, my choice of subject was some of my father’s woodwork tools- a hammer, a saw and a wood plane. These objects are similar in size, but I found that they all possessed differences that would work together, like the different colours of wood or the bulkiness of the object.

My first move was to sketch these objects in different arrangements and see which was the most interesting which are shown above, but also to create a tonal study with watercolours and a pencil sketch to get a grip with the shadows and surfaces of the objects. Whilst producing these sketches I decided that I wanted to use broad areas of colour to convey the solidity and size of the objects, but also that I would like to add a certain amount of detail to create more accuracy.

The photo below shows the final piece for this exercise. For the composition I am pleased with how it turned out as I do believe that they may look like tools left somewhere neglected. I think that my choice to use a combination of broad areas and detail combined together well and with this the tonal values were able to stand out more rather than staring at busy details distracting from the overall painting.

Out of the three still life’s, I think that the flowers were most successful due to the fact that I was able to create a positive mood and a delicacy that worked well with both the petals and stems of the tulips. With the other still life’s I believe that they simply look like studies with a background, but the flowers looked like a part of a scene and looked most aesthetically pleasing, and so I hope to practice on my backgrounds and the mood that should be conveyed within the painting.

In addition to this, after speaking to my tutor, we both agreed that the objects looked lost on the canvas as the background was quite vague and weak, and so to make this piece more solid I decided to produce a simple background of a table and a solid background to bring the objects forward. I decide to give the table a more textured effect instead of a smooth surface and contrast that against a smooth beige background, which I believe complemented the objects and completed the piece to take the unfinished look away.