Creating the Illusion of surface and texture

These artists created the illusion of surface and texture by using extreme highlights and shaddows in all of the objects. In the painting, Banquet with Mince pie, by Willem Claesz Heda, The fabric looks so real and lively like a photograph because of the way he uses shadows and highlights in texture. It shows the shadows everywhere the shaddows would actually be in real life. In the Still Life With Peaches and a Silver Goblet, Jean Simeon Chardin, the peaches look fuzzy and multicolored, just like they are in person, because of the way the artist uses texture. Same with the highlights on the grapes. they are all hitting the grapes like they came from the same light.

Using Composition as a tool

Still Life With Watermelon, by Fernando Botero, 1992

This Still is most interesting to me because it doesn't look like someone placed these objects down to paint. It looks like somebody was using the objects like the fork and knife and cutting the watermelon, etc. Not only that, but the balance of the objects in the way they are placed makes it look like something is going on, or like a person is somehow involved without actually being in the painting. Same with the contrast, form, and shadows of the objects.

Studies in Smallness

Morandi vs. Van Gogh

The artists' choice in color in these paintings are affected a lot bythe object in the picture and the mood of the picture. Giorgio Morandi's picture has more dull colors and less interesting objects, but is filled with a lot of highlights and shadows which brings the objects to life. In Van Gogh's paintings, the flowers are bloomed and colorful and are more focused on texture and detail rather than having a three dimensional effect. The color palette influences the subject matter because the flowers in Van Gogh's paintings are beautiful colors and show that the flower is blooming. You can tell that the flower has life and is a living organism. The objects in Giorgio Morandi's paintings are less lively colors to show that the objects are not living things, and are just 3-d objects sitting next to each other with different lights hitting them in different ways.

Color Mixing Chart

What I know now

The primary colors are red, yellow, blue. The secondary colors are green, orange, and purple. You create secondary colors by mixing the primary colors. The complimentary colors are purple, orange, red, green, yellow, and blue. Two ways you can emphasize something in a painting is to make the color stand out more than the rest of the painting, or to use a lot of texture on something specific. If i were trying to create a shadow, I would mix the color of the object that is casting the shadow and the color of the base that the object is on. To create the illusion of a highlight on an object, I would make it lighter by adding white and mixing lighter colors into it. If I were trying to make an object look farther away I would make the object smaller. The first step I would take to build a painting is to lightly sketch what I am painting with a watery/grey colored paint. I would mix the colors of the objecets and paint them in. Once i've done that, I would add texture, shadows, depth, etc. I would then paint the backround, and then touch everything up.

A Painting I remember

One painting I like and look at a lot is a painting in my house above my staircase. It is a large painting of an old fashioned woman sitting on a chair whose facial features are very exagerrated. I remember this picture but I see it almost everyday walking upstairs, and I always see something different/interesting about it everytime I look at it.

My Skills as an artist

My strengths as an artist are mixing colors and using them to create the illusion of depth. I sometimes struggle with depth of feild and proportion.

Why I am taking oil painting

I signed up to take oil painting because I enjoy paints and mixing colors. I also have never taken this course before or oil painted before and I wanted to try something new.