I am a first time contributor to this forum even though I have been reading, with much interest, the valuable information that so many of you have shared with this community. I bought Mark's videos some time ago and watched his excellent free on-line tutorials multiple times. I have finally set up a studio, following Mark's instructions as closely as my space allows. The studio is a 12' x 9.8' room with a ceiling height of 8.3' and the lighting fixture is in the middle of the room. I have positioned my shadow box and easel as close as practicable to meet Mark's suggestions in terms of lighting angle etc. I painted the walls black and even laid black rubber mats (as found in some gyms) on the floor, which have the added advantage of providing protection to the wood flooring underneath. Two images are attached, showing a part of the studio where I have positioned the shadow box and easel.
I have set up my still life and a photo of this is shown below. Note that I used my iphone which has poor contrast - the highlights are not that bright. Incidentally, I would welcome comments on whether this is a good still life composition. Not sure whether I have bitten off more than I can chew for a first attempt. Having started to prepare my palette one soon realises that nothing is ever as straigh-forward as it might look. One issue which I would welcome some assistance with concerns the following:
My black (60% ultramarine/40% brunt umber) is nowhere as black as the background which, according to MC's method is OK, I'll just paint it with the colour I have mixed. The potential problem that I have encountered is that the inner surface of the broken jar is also darker than my black paint but has a different (dark orange/brown) colour. What does one do in such circumstances? I have balanced the lighting as best as I could and I have not detected glare on my colour checker.
Brian
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Comments
So basically, you're doing it exactly right on the technical side. If, for artistic reasons, you don't want all those things to be black, you'll need to adjust the setup and lighting to bounce some light into those dark areas. This is the exact same thing a photographer would have to do if they were having the same issue (which is not uncommon).
Does that make sense?
There are all kinds of tricks artists can use to "put the color in", but they all involve adjusting the entire value scheme of the whole painting. You can't just paint some color in here and some color in there. If you do it will look all wrong - because value is always much, much more important than tone (color).
So, to keep it simple, I teach only to paint what you see - within the limits of paint, black being the darkest and white being the lightest. This is what a camera does as well, that is why a camera also "paints in areas black" just as the method teaches you to do.
The simple solution is to throw in some more light into the shadows if they are too dark for your taste. But that has to be done before you even get started. This is why it is a good reason to "check your blacks" after you check your whites when setting up a still life. That way you will know where the black areas are and you can make adjustments if necessary.
The composition looks great. The only thing that I see that I would change (completely personal preference) is that the design on the two non broken pots are exactly the same. This tells me that the placement is calculated. Not sure if that is what you would like. I would turn your pot that is on the right slightly turned more inward. So the handle would be toward the viewer a bit more.
Good luck! Every painting teaches you something. Sometimes it's about paint. Sometimes it's about ourselves. Many times, it's both.
Progress has been slow -stealing a couple of hours here and there - mostly on weekends. It's because of this scarcity of time that I have not taken advantage of Mark's online course (as much as I'd like to) as he recommends around 10 hours a week (if my memory serves me correctly).
Four months down the track and I have the painting as good as finished. I have struggled to take a decent photo and the painting does contain a number of matte patches which a good coat of varnish will take care of in a few months time. Nonetheless, I hope that there is enough there for feedback. I still haven't decided whether to put some wood texture on the table surface or leave as is.
This is my first painting using Mark's method, having only ever painted two small oil paintings before (from photos) 8 to 10 years ago. I am actually quite pleased with the result and could not have accomplished this without Mark's instruction. Note how my initial concerns regarding the dark area inside the broken jar proved to be unfounded when following Mark's advice. So thank you Mark for sharing some of your knowledge and insight!
Cannot wait to start the next - but probably not for another month or so.
Excellent work! Perhaps I am being influenced by the lighting/glare on the photo, but it seems to me that the background suffuses too much with the darks of the ceramics. Perhaps you intended this?
The objects are great, really solid. There is a nice flow of light and the perspective and composition is well handled.
Denis
Jimmy, thank you for your encouragement. I started from the right-hand jug (I'm left-handed) and I'll never forget doing my first blending on this, standing back and being astounded at how well it had turned out - all due to Mark's incredible instructions. Hoping to start on my next one soon..