The middle photo is the original painting. The bottom is the 1st revision and the top is the final version.

First,I made some changes to the original painting:

some might be difficult to discern from the photo....

Obviously, I set the tray on a surface and placed wallpaper in the background. There are hints of orange,pale blue and black in the design.

Then, I muted the intensity of the reflections on the tray surface and softened their sharp edges. Reflected objects have softer edges.

The orange reflection was as intense as the fruit itself...so I added a touch of blue to the orange to neutralize it a little. I also lessened the intensity of the reflected vase.

The tray seemed too bright now..it didn't match the painting's tonal key.

So... I took some of the color used in the wallpaper and repainted the tray to make it less bright.

I know this is a more fully realized painting so why am I still drawn to the original ??
The top version will be the last! It is very similar to the original, but the tray is 'grounded' now.

Grids etc.

There is a kind of purist snobbery in the art world about how one gets the drawing onto the canvas.
Some say it must be drawn freehand using only the eye to acertain position and size and proportion. (although,of course, holding up a pencil as a marker seems to be OK !!)

Others say the grid method is acceptable
Some trace.

All methods show a greater or lesser degree of personal involvement...personal ability.

Compare the person who takes a blank canvas, looks at his still life and draws his forms to the one who takes a photo and traces the forms onto the canvas.

Both get the drawing down and can begin using paint.
Yes, the final work is a painting and that work stands on its own merits as a painting.
But one, perhaps, can claim a bit more credit as an artist, having used his skills from the beginning.

Personally, I'm not overly concerned about using grids etc.
I just want to know that I can draw.

Right now, my drawing, seeing, measuring skills are not developed.

Some people take years to train the eye to be able to look at a composition of objects and render their size, shape and relationship to one another accurately.

I'd love to have the luxury of time to develop these skills !!

I'm not a young student with years ahead of me ...so I cut to the chase.

But it makes me feel a little less authentic.

Classes

One Landscape Painting class left to go.

We have been working from photographs ...mindful of their limitations.
Photos, especially those taken outside, can fail to record important subtle changes in shading....bleaching out light areas and reducing some darker shadows to black.

Photos are designed to keep everything in focus whether near or far.
One convention of aerial perspective is that objects in the distance tend to be in softer focus, with softer edges. A Painting that reproduces a photo exactly will lose that effect.

This is done from a photo of a Western or Arizona Sycamore

Today was the penultimate meeting of my Still Life class. Next week we bring in all of the work we have done as a way to survey our progress. Afterward a small but elegant party to mark the end of our course


This is my still life class final project...

Oil 12 x 16

Its been a wonderful class.

My teacher is a master ! ..... and a very sweet and decent man.

One thing my teacher did was raise my standards.

What was 'good enough' before is not good enough now.
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I originally had a quite light background.

He told me to darken it so that the darkness level of the book cover would almost blend into the background. Why?

To increase the visual power of the contrast made by the light pages.

The drama created by any high contrast between the dark book cover and a light background would take the eye's focus away from the point of major interest...the book's pages and the way they lie upon the bowl.

I did a 'value study' before employing color so I could assess where the lights, darks and halftones were.

It isn't a very interesting subject by itself... but it's an exercise in careful observation.
.

Temperature Study

In class, we set up white objects to be painted showing the effect of light as a warm hue and shadow as a cool hue.Pigments used were Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White.

Value of Drawing

Left: my teacher's drawing and the finished painting.

After yesterday's Still Life class I was quite demoralized.

I set up my subjects, looked at them, and didn't know where to start drawing. I held my arm out straight, pencil in hand, trying to measure heights and widths.....of the vase, the tangerines, the tray. My head was spinning because I just didn't know where to begin or how to proceed in the task of placing the scene accurately on the canvas!

I made the effort, but it looked inaccurate.

After half an hour, my teacher came by and sat at my easel. Trying not to be a whining student, I calmly explained that I was having trouble...that although I had taken a drawing class in 2008, I hadn't been practicing at all.

( I didn't tell him that I had been using photos and transfering the contours of my subjects to the canvas not by drawing from life but with the grid method).

He extended his arm, pencil in hand as I had done, measuring and comparing and relating the size and position of one object to another...calculating angles etc. and with a sure hand he corrected my drawing. I so envied his ability.

Now, the school I attend follows a very classical tradition. A student, in time, may adopt any style, but only after mastering the art of accurate rendering.

My teacher told me about a colleague of his, Anthony Ryder, who is a master drawer and has written a book: The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing.

He said that Mr Ryder spent an entire year doing nothing but drawing the contours of posing models...not the interior of the form, just the contour. Measuring, comparing distances and positions and angles etc.

For an entire year! Training his eye. Training it to know what to see, where to look. Constantly re-adjusting the marks on his paper until everything was in right relation to everything else.

A very valuable skill. A skill I don't possess....yet. lol

So here I am...at a fork in the road. One path leads to working on my drawing skills, the other to the camera and an easy way to get the contours onto my canvas.

I have to be honest... I will probably from time to time, transfer from photo to canvas. But I will be working on my drawing too.

Here is what Anthony Ryder says about drawing:

" It is easier to draw the figure than it is to paint it. And you can only paint the figure as well as you can draw it. If, through the medium of drawing, you do not understand the surface of the human body, nor comprehend its subtle formal structure, there is very little likelihood that you will master it in paint. All the great painters have been great draftsmen. This is because drawing is the essence of painting.
It is therefore essential that all aspiring painters learn to draw: to draw, not simply to sketch. Sketching is in itself a beautiful art......Drawing on the other hand builds an image of the figure, an image replete with every subtle curve, both in the outline, and throughout its entire visible surface. This is accomplished in drawing through the work of shading. Through shading is described the ever turning, ever modulating form of the surface of the body that occurs within the confines of the contour.
The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing was written for those who wish to develop an in-depth vision of the human figure. It was written for painters and draftsmen alike, who, having seen the drawings and paintings of the masters, desire to work in that ancient and venerable mode. As, to the refined and sensitive palate, fine aged wine is better than newly squeezed grape juice, so the great art of centuries past is infinitely more pleasing than much that goes by the name of art today. Would that we all might discover the richness of the beauty of the human figure as it was once known to artists of old."

Just to remind you...
I'm currently taking 2 classes: one in landscape painting, one in still life.

The reason I chose a still life class was because I had become rather addicted to painting from photos and this became worrying to me.

The class was designed to wean me from photos and toward painting from life. I've done a few 'live' paintings and have proven to myself that I can, in fact, do it !

The landscape class is difficult for me. .The teacher is certainly qualified but I am having trouble understanding what she means.
Others in the class don't seem to be having as much difficulty as I am.

First day she passed out snapshots she took in the parks around town and told us to paint from them.
Ironic to be painting from photos again !!

Her style is very traditional...no impressionism or 'painterly' application of pigment. Very realistic. Which is OK with me. But I suspect it isnt the style I will want to adopt doing landscapes. It's fine for still life...but I think my landscapes will be looser.

I've recently been introduced to and developed a great liking for the landscapes of George Inness. Above are two.

Thumbnails

I read all the time..in all the 'how to...' books about art that it's a good idea to make small sketches..thumbnails first. ...to establish size, proportions, shading, masses of dark area etc.
I know it's the wise thing to do.

Why do I resist?

I'm taking a landscape class. Although we have stayed in the studio, I know that I will go outside one day and stroll through the woods and fields looking for a spot that I want to paint..

I expect that I will not set up an easel for an alla prima piece, but will try to capture the essential elements of the scene to take back to the studio.
Those elements being the shape, position, color and value of plants, trees, rocks, water..the sense of light and shadow ...cloud patterns etc.

My impulse is to take a camera to record these things because I don't have faith that I am able to capture the vital information through a sketch even with notes about color and light .
I much prefer to do everything from start to finish by my own hand and eye.

I will give that a try....
I really don't mind using a camera but as I've said before, I want to use it as an adjunct to what I draw..not as a crutch or replacement for drawing.

This is after a painting by Pierre Henri de Valenciennes "Convent of Ara Coeli with Pines"