Still-lifes... oh still-lifes... I haven't done any for quite a while - I've been working on portraits all winter for my show in the fall with Gary Ruuska at the Jaffrey Civic Center. I want to have a full half a gallery of my portraits and I'm getting there, but in the meantime I need to freshen up my still-life stock!
Its funny though, I spent all day yesterday and today working on some compositions. I started like I always do - going to buy some produce at the grocery store and chose some key pottery pieces, but everything felt "out of practice.". Its kind of like when you work your way up to a rigorous exercise regimen and then go on vacation. When you come back everything is more difficult. In no time however you're up to speed again so I am hopeful it will be that way with the still-lifes!
Here's the best products from yesterday and today. I don't know how I picked such drab colors for the fruit still-lifes! Its like I was just thinking about what I like when choosing but forgot about color! I love the rusty and gold combination - but its just not what people want in the spring!
I always photograph my still-lifes unless just sketching for fun. It started out that I photographed them because it was hard to keep the arrangements safe from the kids when are working on the kitchen table, but even though I've moved to a studio I still like to work from photographs. Photographs don't rot, move, or change their lighting. I can also store up ones I like or think I like and take them out later when I have time to work on them. My hours of work are pretty unpredictable so knwoing that the grapes don't have to wait another week and a half to finish a drawing is reassuring! I do find that its harder to get myself to change things from the photograph, so I work hard on "photo day" to get some good compositions right with the camera. Then I might move things around in photoshop.
So today I went to the flower shop on Main St (In the Co of Flowers) and bought one of their gorgeous vased flowers. :-)
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing all this, is really educational for me. (I like your second and fourth compositions :) I know you didn't ask but... can't help it
These look exciting to work from. I like to think of my camera as an extension of my sketchbook.
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