what's happening in still life class

I took some photos of what we are working on in still life class (taught by Tony Curanaj). This class meets every morning, five days a week in the core program. Most of the students are in their 3rd year of studies. One of the things we are learning is the importance of patient preparation before getting into the final painting. A lot of painting problems can be prevented by spending more time on the compositional thumbnails, drawing, wipe-out, value study, and color study. After going through each of these stages with thoughtful consideration, the final painting should go much more smoothly.

These are thumbnails by Neal Esplin. In this stage of the process, he is trying out several different compositions using the same objects.

Neal chose this composition and now he is spending time making a very accurate drawing.

Neal's set-up

For mine, I tried out these three different compositions...

eventually focusing on this one.

After I finished doing a very accurate drawing, I transferred it to this canvas and did a wipe-out using a thin wash, allowing the white of the canvas to show through for the light parts.

next I did this small value study which I will refer to throughout the final painting to keep my value range in check.

the set-up

Here is Victoria Herrera's drawing for the painting she is working on

those are some crazy reflections in the porcelain!

Chris Rigney's drawing

Here, Chris has just transferred his drawing to his canvas. Next he will do a small value study and maybe a color study too.

Tony Curanaj brought in a recently finished still life from his studio for us to check out

this is the painting that Connie Netherton is working on

up close

her set-up

Connie's painting with the color study on the right