There are few objects as familiar to us as a bottle. I suggested starting with the simplest shape of all, the silhouette. Leave a few bits of paper-white for highlights. Let one wash run into another. Don’t start too dark. Save darker marks and shapes for last.
Don’t be overwhelmed with trying to make a bottle look glassy. Study the shapes within the silhouette of the bottle and pay attention to the values of these shapes.
We were not painting just one bottle. We were painting a group of them so it was important to observe the relationships between the different bottles. Look carefully along the edge where two bottles touch each other. Which side is darker? Also, consider the background. How can it be used to best advantage?
I presented a useful brush-handling technique which I call ‘feathering’, as in feathering an edge. The tip of a slightly damp brush gently touches the edge of a shape, giving that edge a soft, feathery appearance.
We had a lot of paintings and drawings to look at during our critique! Some of our artists completed two works and one industrious individual finished four watercolour paintings. She picked two of them for the critique.
Sustained Saturday Critique
Tags: Barry Coombs, Canada, Ontario, pen and ink, still-life painting, Studio Classes, Toronto, watercolor, watercolour classes, watercolour demonstration, watercolour painting
15/04/2012 at 10:52 am |
Really nice! Glass must be so difficult to paint.
15/04/2012 at 11:33 am |
Thanks for your special mention – and your encouragement during the class.