Sunday, February 10, 2013

Update on the Perishable Still Life


Since my last blog post a month ago, I've taken the perishables (apple, pumpkin, and gourd) as far as I want to. I've been working on the wooden basket, correcting the curvature of the handle and trying to get the colours right, inside and out.  The inside of the basket picks up the reflected oranges of the pumpkin and nearby red cloth. The outside handle picks up the red cloth as it approaches the apple. But  I noticed yesterday how the curving handle also mimics the pattern of light on skin tones.  Moving from bottom right to top left, the handle follows a 4 colour pattern of warm darks, cool (greyish) half tones, warm local colour, and a cool highlight, before hitting a grey cast shadow and then returning to a warm shadow again. When I first painted this handle yesterday without any of the cool bands, the results were disappointing. When this area is dry, I'll add the pattern of the weaving...


Close up view:


The full setup: