Painting the white jug
Lesson I: Still life & Value studies
The bowl of fruit, the white jug, the delightful flower vase, Still life seems to be a common theme for art
students in any appearance it takes. As simple as it might seem, the still-life study can help whit developing
our artistic abilities further.
In today's lesson, we'll cover the art of Still-life in co-relation whit light, tone value, and simple composition.
De-construction: Composition and grouping elements.
Whit a simplistic style that goes beyond a subject or message, Still-life has created a simplistic view of art,
household items, fruit, and other trinkets can be found on these lovely arrangements. Sure, such elements play
a crucial part in the general piece is the composition what ties together the still-life. Here, we can apply
something as simple as the rule of thirds:
However, we can push further the main elements of our study subject and find the convergent lines that group
all the components:
-let's try and find out how the internal compositional lines interact whit each other.
Pay attention on overlapping elements inside the photo/arrangement of components.
By working whit lines, we get a more compound grid whit direction, a sense of space, and the way
proportions and balance interact whit each other.
Let's add the compositional grid to our canvas: we get a better base to work whit rather than paint blankly into
the white space. We now get a sense of direction. Notice as well how the parts assemble and create a sense of
harmony via triangulation.
The composition is the way our elements interact together in the canvas: Light, style, overlapping, and
interactivity. In this particular case, the core triangle is dictating said principles, even the light source on the
tip of the triangle.
In conclusion:
when doing a study of any kind, establish a core grid ( rule of thirds)
analyze how the elements overlap and create crosssections in the grid, don't shy away create as many
conductive lines as needed
Understand that composition is the core vision of design and painting.
Practice makes perfect!
The principle of Light: Tonal values
Certainly, Tone can be a full entry in itself. However, we'll take advantage of the simplicity of the still life to
understand the basic functionality of Tone, grouping values, and simplifying the color process. This part of the
lesson is when we find out the reality of still-life studies and the practicality of learning. Instead of reading
complex text to understand a subject, it offers a suitable practical way of understanding the principle and how
it affects our style and panting process.
Let's recapitulate: we tackled the subject of line and composition. Let us append the principle of Tonal
value: Tone or Tonal value is the degree of lightness and darkness concerning a determined light source. It's
the visual appearance "of the moment" as affected by light and reflected on any given surface.
Tone moves in a scale of intensities of light vs. shadow, and it has four core components to it:
1. The concentration of light concerning the shadow
2. Relationship of adjacent values or tones
3. Identification of the nature and quality of light
4. Incorporation of the influence of reflected light.
Let's remove the quality of color from our picture and study how value moves around in the current
composition. Notice that darker values concentrate on the far left side of the picture. Meanwhile, the mid-
tones and highlights correlate to the tip of our triangle on the middle and right corner.
By distributing our tonal scale in thirds, we simplify the scale of our painting, and we obtain our three core
values for this study.
Let us start the process of painting: keep simple structures and shapes in the initial stages, and notice how the
values work on the thirds scale inside the elements as well. If you're having trouble whit identifying how the
scale is wrapping around the components, trace a grid over them and simplify the regions where the dark, mid,
and high tones start and end.
As you start to work, you'll notice how by blending the core tones (the dark, mid and light values), we obtain
secondary values. These are Contact otr Transition tones:
A contact tone is the intersectional light value obtained by merging or blending two core values. You see: it's
not necessary to keep adding an undetermined number of grey tones to our painting. But understanding that as
long as we work whit our three core sources, the intersectional values will appear organically in our painting
process. Is an effective way to reduce and understand how light works:
By applying this principle, we'll continue our study: this is how we use still-life painting to our advantage,
whit just a modest arrangement of fruit and ornaments we tackled:
1. Composition.
2. Structural line and the way it affects light sources, overlapping, space, and proportions
3. To simplify the subject of Tone.
4. Lighting and painting whit reduced values.
They are a great source to simplify and check the basics of illustration all at once.
Master the process: final results and applications to color.
In conclusion, there is only one thing to do: How are we sure that our study was successful? Because
something as simple as applying a gradient map to our greyscale still-life makes it look vibrant and finished.
What should I do now?
Practice makes perfect! Choose a couple of items and start to draw.
identify the main compositional lines
Understand how the objects interact whit each other.
If you're tackling value studies, turn your image into greyscale and identify the core values (dark, mid,
and highlight)
Do not use any other tone! Challenge yourself to paint and blend whit these three values only.
Take as much time as you need: try adding a gradient map and studying how the values move on the
element.
Keep on drawing!
