Week Two
Contrast, Value, Reserve and the Still Life

The presentation from our class is below in video format (no sound) and you can stop it anywhere you wish.

• Ellipses in Space (Drawing Tips) Attribution to Mike Sibly’s Images
• Ellipse Exercise (Creative Commons Video)
• Value, Contrast and Color
• How to Paint a Red Apple in Watercolor (Creative Commons Video)
• Composition Tips
• Image of page of today’s demo:
  
• Week Two Exercises  (3 Tasks) – light all from one side
  • Task 1: White Object on White Surface
    Place a white object such as an egg (and they are hard to draw!!!) or head of garlic on a white sheet of paper and first draw lightly in pencil the contours and cross contour lines. Remember, the focus is on the paint not the pencil, Then paint the object using color. The shadow can be done with a gradient wash (lightening as it moves away from the form). Instead of choosing gray for the shadow consider blue or purple. Back track to the Creative Commons Video in Week 1 on how shadows change when light moves across forms. Try to leave some reserve (the white of the paper) in your painting.
  • Task 2: Colorful Object on White
    Place a colorful fruit or vegetable on a white sheet of paper. Draw the object’s contours and cross-contours in pencil and then paint using watercolor. Use a round brush. The shadow can be done with a gradient wash in blue or purple. Use the same concept of lightening as the shadow moves away from the object. Look for other colors in the object asides its natural (local) color. Try to leave some reserve (the white of the paper) in your painting.
  • Task 3: Pairing Up
    Set up two natural objects (or more), draw in contour and cross contour then paint. Also, keep in mind that overlap is more interesting than placing the objects side by side. Try to leave some reserve (the white of the paper) in your painting.
    When done you may attach your three watercolors in an email and send for a critique. A video critique will be returned. Critiquing is optional.
• Suggested Still Life Artists to Look At:
  • Eileen Goodman: Nature’s Perfect Beauty, the Watercolors of Eileen Goodman (with gracious permission from local filmmaker and videographer John Thorton)
  • Charles Demuth and Demuth was using some Cubist tactics in his work: Google Results of Images
  • Demos (Still Life in Hyperlapse)
    • Purple Garlic in Hyperlapse
• On Facebook I have been posting hyperlapse demos in my Isolation sketchbook. I will add the links each week as I complete:
  • Hyperlapse Demo from Photograph: Three Figures Sitting on a Beach in Florida
  • Hyperlapse Demo from Two Photographs: Two Figures From Two Photos in One Sketchbook Spread
• Books:
  • The Sketching and Drawing Bible by Marilyn Scott
  • Conversations in Paint by Charles Dunn

All lessons are the property of and copyright of Cheryl Knowles-Harrigan except where attributed.