The Alphabet Paintings: S

I'm back to my alphabet paintings and for S I chose "Still Life"
There were plenty of options around my house to choose from and this lucky plant got the vote :)

So here for  you to enjoy:

Still Life

Raw Cider

Its the monthly challenge time of the Painting Friends Forum.. and this month's challenge was a still life.

So here I am showing you all the thought processes which went on behind this painting. I don't usually write all this down, but the judgements are made before any painting starts. Planning can be useful, as I found out when trying out the realistic abstracts. More chance of a successful painting if you know where you are going with it.


Firstly I set some goals for my thumbnail sketches.

These were :

1. do a thumbnail showing the scene as is
2. on the next two thumbs, change the background and foreground to remove clutter and try to contour draw too
3. on the last thumbnail, keep the focal point, but be completely off the wall in the scenery
4. Choose which one of these thumbnails to paint.

Choosing (2), the choices for the painting were to try to

a) paint in a tight style
b) or a loose one

I chose to paint the scene (b)
I wanted to achieve a painting that had a cohesive mix of broad strokes and realism.
I also wanted to test out some colour choices so did this very rough colour sketch:

So, here's the painting:

Raw Cider

What works and what could be improved.

I think the apples work, and the background too..
What could I improve? Probably the folds on the cloth, they are almost pointy.. if I did it again, I'd make them more curved - that has a softer appeal.

Challenges Faced

The challenge in painting this was to leave the background alone once painted and let the rest of the painting form around it.

Share Personal Goals and whether you felt you Met Them

My goals were to make the four thumbs again, to test out some colours on a small piece of paper and then to be as bold and decisive as I could in one stroke with everything but the apples.

I did meet that, after deciding that I wasn't going for an exact replica of the cloth – more a feeling of it.

How I created the Painting.

I created the painting by wetting the background first and making several one stroke passes with a 1in flat brush.

Then I made one stroke passes for the cloth, using the flat brush, both flat and on its side for the thinner stripes.

The apples were made with thin washes one after the other. The farthest having fewer washes and the nearest having the most.

Size of Painting, Medium, Palette and Brushes.

The painting is on Arches Aquarelle Rough 140lb and is quarter sheet. 15”x11”

The medium is pencil for the under drawing and watercolour for the painting. W&N artists quality .

Palette colours used : French Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, Aureolin, Burnt Sienna, Winsor Yellow, Sap Green, Terre Verte and Cerulean.
Brush: Sceptre Gold 1” Flat brush. Kolinsky number 12