(Home) – Studio Painting – 4th Still-life Project: A Seven-Colour Challenge – First Steps

STEP 1: Ok, so I chose the composition of my items for the still-life. Then I played with placement of the lighting. Then I printed out a monochrome image, framing the composition in my minds-eye. Finally, I drew a rough and faint outline of the composition with a charcoal pencil…

Step 2: Choosing a seven-colour pallet, of complementary colours… All to contrast dark and light.

Black & White (mandated by the challenger/teacher)

Pthalo Blue & Lemon Cadmium Yellow

Alzarin Crimson & Chrome Oxide Green

And for the oddball mid-tones… Raw Umber

Step 3: Painting in the large colour areas and see how it feels…

I started with the smaller areas using the yellow and green, then the Raw Umber… once I saw the raw umber on the canvas, I felt sure it was the right mid-tone for this work and started to visualize how it would be used later on.

I made the decision to not-respect the colours of the model… I made the draping cloth blue, instead of red, so that I could contrast the central sculpture in the opposing red. With the yellow standing in front of it for a three way contrasting tension.

This feels like the easy part… now the real work begins: molding, shading, adding volume, highlighting, etc…

More to come soon, so stay tuned…