Still Life in Red

I did this still life to play around with complimentary colors, in this case red and green. I tried to set up the biggest contrast at the focal point, which is the Oriental cup and the apple. The darker cup stands out more when placed against the lighter green apple. Feel free to comment or criticize.

"Jars"

I haven't updated my blog in a while so here's a still life. I've been busy working on new things for a show and some upcoming competitions. I'm planning on entering at least 5 this year, most of which are national. Anyway, feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life with Radishes

This painting is another try at finishing in one session. It took about three. The clay pots were really hard to render faithfully because of the texture (it's a mix of grey and red with lots of rough and smooth surfaces.) Feel free to comment

Geisha

Lately I've been trying to do still life paintings in one sitting. This one was done in two sessions, so at least I'm getting a little faster. I think I had a problem with getting the values right, even when I left out most of the details. The vase in front looked a lot brighter than the doll from what I saw, but I didn't push the contrast as much as I wanted to. Anyway, feel free to comment or criticize.

Guajira

This one was done in conte. I spread the conte shavings with a paintbrush, and then erased the lights out with a kneaded eraser. I apply the dark values with a darker conte stick. I tried to really push the darks to create more contrast, and focus the details on the face to establish a focal point. I wanted to show the figure in the context of a background without taking away from the focal point, so I avoided using lines as much as possible.

Feel free to comment or criticize.

"Matt"

Here's a portrait of a fellow artist who volunteered for a portrait. He has strong facial features, especially the nose and the eyebrows, and I thought a profile would be the best way to show these features. Feel free to comment or criticize.

Still Life with Daisies

Happy New Year to everyone. I just realized that I hadn't posted anything in a while, so I'll start off by posting a still life. I've been working on a lot of these lately and I'll upload some more work in upcoming posts. As always, your comments and criticisms are welcome.