First Still Life (finished)

savignano

After breaking/remaking a new proportional divider (even better this time as i used my drill press instead of my hand drill) I have started sketching in my first still life

Edit: added finished piece

kierspics

Nice shadow box. I've gotta make one for myself one of these days.

chiaroscuro

Great set up. The light you have on the subject is particularly good. Be nice too see how it develops.

savignano

Thanks @chiaroscuro‌, I tried to stick to Mark's suggestions as closely as possible. The light in there took me awhile to get it how I liked. I had taken a photo so I could look at it while I was at work and decide if that's what I wanted to paint, so I pulled it into photoshop and threw an armature of the rectangle on it to see how it lined up. I got the below (just slightly lower than my actual perspective) without changing positions of anything and was pretty happy with it so I left it how it was. It's not quite as bright, was too lazy to get my exposure and everything right, I'll worry about that when I'm taking pics of the actual paint lol.

savignano

A little progress, finally happy enough with the pitcher after fixing a few wrong measurements. Loving the proportional divider though, Mark!

savignano

Just about time to mix some colors!

Marcus

Awesome. Can't wait to watch this take shape. Just check the right hand side of your wine glass. Looks like its sloping down slightly.

savignano

I noticed that, I didn't know I could kind of erase when I was on it.

Ronna

I really like your set up and I love that purple cloth behind.

savignano

Thanks @Ronna that cloth is actually a navy blue velvet, looks more blue in brighter direct light, but I thought it looked great in there even if it did go purple lol. If I were to hold the purple in this picture up next to it you can actually tell it's blue. I need a diehard Longhorns fan for that orange though!

In case anyone is curious, the cloth is all between 45x36 and 58x36, so it fits in there nicely. Red velvet, sweetheart satin orange, green satin, charmeuse satin purple. They all look pretty bright there, but in person and in the shadowbox they look great. Paid $23 total for those and the navy blue velvet.

savignano

Current progress, if only I didn't work tomorrow!

dencal

savignano

Looking good.

Denis

savignano

Thanks @dencal‌, you were very right in your post in your thread about paint mixed with medium, it really is amazing. Mixing colors with it is actually fun . Didn't get too far, but at least I can say my colors for the pitcher are mixed and I have laid brush to canvas, so it really begins lol

Edit: also scrapped a pile of paint that was way off, and remixed all of my colors for the pitcher because I wasn't happy with them, glad Mark already warned about using a lot of paint in the beginning

Marcus

Looks great already. Take it slow and it'll be an awesome painting.

Marcus

When you've finished painting the pitcher can I have it please!! lol. Lovely item to paint.

savignano

Well, I'd be willing to make a trade if you are , my collection is rather small. If you have anything you would like to trade, even temporarily if you want, let me know. If not I'd at least let you borrow it anyway

savignano

A little more done, thinned up the skinny part of the neck to match better. Went home for lunch today to work on it a little with no kids screaming and while I'm not sleepy lol.

savignano

Vincent said:

Very ambitious still life! I have the highest confidence in you. Can't wait to see it finished. :-h

Thanks @Vincent‌ was good to read your other post about coming back. I thought about going with one item for my first DMP style painting but I thought what the hell, it's like Nike says, go big or go home.


Edit: this will be painting number 4, a landscape, a seascape, and an abstract my mom wanted me to do for her came before (and abstract is definitely not my forté lol)

savignano

So, I am officially a color mixing noob, but I'm not giving up . I said "f*** this!" and wiped all the paint off my palette and started over. Much better luck this time, my values were right but the color wasn't brown enough. Remixed the background colors to be true to the cloth, didn't have any red in it before (should have remembered @Ronna‌ said it was purple!). Will have a pic late tonight or tomorrow morning of progress made tonight.

Junebug

Hang in there. It took me 3 paintings to get to where I could get close to the color I wanted. Now I'm hooked on the limited palette.

Ron

Savignano, your work is looking very good. Nice shape on the bottle. >-

savignano

Thanks Junebug, Ron here's where I am now, in the process of changing the background around the stuff.

savignano

Some more

savignano

The color isn't perfect but not too bad, might come back to that part later, but for now I'm moving on

savignano

Not a whole lot of progress last night, but better than none!

savignano

Today's progress, have to get the background done before the paint dries and clean off my palettes to mix up the colors for the rest

Ronna

I think it's looking great!

savignano

Ok background done unless I feel like blending some more. Now time to clean off my palettes and get mixing on the rest

Edit: thanks @Ronna‌

savignano

Took a break for a week, and had to take my kids to the Ft Worth Zoo this weekend, when a 3 1/2 yo asks you every day if she can go to the zoo, you damn well take her lol. Anyway, got the rest of the colors I need all mixed up, and should be finishing this tonight/tomorrow night.

ebs

Great so far! Can't wait to see the rest!

savignano

Well, I've been procrastinating because I was nervous about painting the bottle of bath salt. Who would have thought I was only 10 minutes from relief lol. Now for the mouth then the last little bit

Edit: most of the paint has gone flat, but I'm not going to oil out until I am done except where I am working

savignano

Getting there

Melissa

Me too!

savignano

Vincent said:

Nervous, schmervous! It's not a bottle of bath salt, Savi, my friend. It's just paint ...It's just paint.

Funny you should call me that, that's been my nickname forever since I've always had another friend named Brian.

For a self-proclaimed troll, you sure seem like a nice guy, @Vincent, thanks for the kind words

savignano

Now to add in the highlights on the bottle and blend a little and highlight the wine glass. So close!

Edit: also moved the dark spot in the bottle to actually be in the right spot lol

savignano

Today's progress so far... think I'll have everything but highlights in tonight, then finish it up tomorrow!

"I will not log into Guild Wars 2, I will not log into Guild Wars 2" lol

savignano

Some more, definitely staying up as late as it takes to finish this baby tonight, and as of right now, I am going to be very happy with it

savignano

Before I finish this, I have to say something. @Mark_Carder‌, you sir are amazing. I can't thank you enough for generously making your videos available to all for free. With your help I have discovered something about myself I never thought possible. Never in my life did I think I would actually be able to paint something like this, and I especially didn't think I would be proud of it if I did lol. You are an inspiration and I am extremely happy I stumbled across your method. Not only you, but the community of artists you have here are amazing, and I am definitely here for the long run

Also, @Marcus‌, message me your address and I will see how much shipping will cost to send you the brass pitcher, have a box and packing material ready already.

savignano

Think it's time to call it done haven't stayed up til 330 am to do anything in a long time lol. Will take a better picture with my dslr tomorrow sometime

kierspics

Very nice, @savignano! I enjoyed seeing that come along.

I can totally relate to the feeling you just described. I remember being so shocked when I finished my first still life. I couldn't believe it actually worked. Mark's method really is amazing.

Ronna

You should definitely be proud of this savignano! Awesome job =D>

Marcus

Stunning job @savignano‌ Congrats.

Marcus

I emailled you my address.

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Mark_Carder

Really good!!!

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Melissa

I like it. I'd like to see the addition of some of the brighter white highlights I see in the photo. Just a dab here and there to make it pop.

savignano

Sorry, I read your post while I was driving yesterday and forgot to go back and reply @KevinGE. Initially I had no real meaning behind it, although in the past I was a heavy partyer. I think the empty wine glass would represent that no longer being the case, and maybe the bath salt a fresh start at something new. Although your description sounds more interesting lol, especially with the pitcher being brass, reminds me of something Roman or like in Game of Thrones, and then I could definitely see the bottle being of poison. I suppose the story it tells doesn't have to be about me though, and I enjoyed your reading into it

In truth, I picked the stuff I had that would be hardest for me to accomplish, so if I did it successfully, I would know it's not just because it was something easy and not just one item. That, and if I didn't have the determination to finish it, then why bother going any further and doing portraits? That is why I went with what I did mainly. Transparent glass, brass with reflections in it, and glass with something in it.

savignano

Also, I can now admit that I did end up buying the student grade oils from W&N lol. I wanted to be sure I could even accomplish something before spending copious amounts of money on paint just to fail lol.

I do agree that the colors are hard to mix as I was told they would be in another post. However, the drying of the paints when mixed with the medium is fine, only issue was the white, which I meant to get Rembrandt TW for anyway but had forgotten. For the pitcher where I couldn't get the color exactly right and still have the correct value, I waited til nearly the end and glazed it with a little burnt umber in linseed and then dabbed the excess off so it just gave it the right tint, and ended up looking perfect for me. Same with the table as it moved under the bottle, couldn't get it quite the right value and still be brown enough, so glazed it with brown too so it wasn't that tan color it was.

kierspics

@savignano have you taken a good photo with your dslr yet? Would love to see it if you have.

savignano

It's a little better, but some of it had started to dry already and of course there's still a little glare. One day soon I'll have time to go through David's guide lol. Will be building a drying rack this week or next weekend that'll be enclosed with a white sheet so light and oxygen can get in but no cat hair. There's things I could have fixed in it, but from a few feet away you don't notice anything wrong, so I felt happy enough leaving it how it was.