The making of a Still Life: The Set-up
2009.04.23
I picked the corner of an empty room, which seriously needs to be repainted to set-up this still life. The large window provides plenty of indirect daylight and the room’s corner is casting a shadow that is just perfect for the kind of ambiance I wish to depict. That neglected, ugly wall also helps to simulate the effect I hope for – I want this painting to breathe, to occupy a lot of space and I want observers to feel that space when they’ll look at the painting.
In my quest for space, the mango is sitting very near the front edge of the table with the teapot right behind it. The matching sugar pot was placed in the back, touching the cream pot, which is sitting at the obscured far edge of the table. The silver spoon and sugar jar holder is as far back but on the opposite side.
Why two sugar pots you might ask? I know it doesn’t make sense but it’s purely for balance and aesthetic reasons; Visually, the silver spoon/sugar jar holder is used to balance the composition and add variety in colours and texture, yet without taking away the attention from the main subject. I took several photos at different time of the day and select the photo that reflects the most the desired ambiance. In this case, the canvas will be twice as long as it is high, so it’ll look something like this:
I know that it isn’t ideal to work directly from photos since we have the tendency to want to reproduce exactly what’s on the photo but given my lack (read: none) of studio space and given that I always use real fruits for my still lives (okay, except for grapes because they are very expensive nowadays. I have a set of very realistic looking plastic green and red grapes that I must always hide or people keep trying to eat them!) it is best to take photos or else they’ll be drosophila (fruit flies) all over the place in no time.
To take away the guilt of working from a photo instead of directly from the model (and so folks can’t say that I’m not a real artist) I’ve taken the time to make a quick sketch and colour study right there on the spot ;)
Then using Photoshop I made a print of a 5” x 10” greyscale version with a 1 x 1 inches square grid to later help reproduce the drawing accurately on two large newspaper stuck together, where I drafted a 15” x 30” rectangle with a 3 x 3 inches square grid. The colour version of the photo will only be needed later, either printed or just displayed on my computer screen to take a peek at during painting sessions.
In my quest for space, the mango is sitting very near the front edge of the table with the teapot right behind it. The matching sugar pot was placed in the back, touching the cream pot, which is sitting at the obscured far edge of the table. The silver spoon and sugar jar holder is as far back but on the opposite side.
Why two sugar pots you might ask? I know it doesn’t make sense but it’s purely for balance and aesthetic reasons; Visually, the silver spoon/sugar jar holder is used to balance the composition and add variety in colours and texture, yet without taking away the attention from the main subject. I took several photos at different time of the day and select the photo that reflects the most the desired ambiance. In this case, the canvas will be twice as long as it is high, so it’ll look something like this:
I know that it isn’t ideal to work directly from photos since we have the tendency to want to reproduce exactly what’s on the photo but given my lack (read: none) of studio space and given that I always use real fruits for my still lives (okay, except for grapes because they are very expensive nowadays. I have a set of very realistic looking plastic green and red grapes that I must always hide or people keep trying to eat them!) it is best to take photos or else they’ll be drosophila (fruit flies) all over the place in no time.
To take away the guilt of working from a photo instead of directly from the model (and so folks can’t say that I’m not a real artist) I’ve taken the time to make a quick sketch and colour study right there on the spot ;)Then using Photoshop I made a print of a 5” x 10” greyscale version with a 1 x 1 inches square grid to later help reproduce the drawing accurately on two large newspaper stuck together, where I drafted a 15” x 30” rectangle with a 3 x 3 inches square grid. The colour version of the photo will only be needed later, either printed or just displayed on my computer screen to take a peek at during painting sessions.
The making of a Still Life:
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The set-up
