Wine and Cheese, step 10

Filling in some blanks


As I said in the last step, I was going to have to let the painting tell me what it needed. It cried out for me to fill the large empty space on the table between the silver dish of grapes and the cheese board. I made the dish overflowing with grapes...so many that they spilled onto the table. These additional grapes make a nice transition and fill an unsightly area.

The background looks cooler, but I haven't touched it. It's a variable in the photography.

I then did the writing and illustration on the wine glass...they are only suggested. It looks like writing, but it is unreadable. I did the same with the label next to Andrei's painting.

Wine and Cheese, step 9

Some more decisions


I redid the background in a warmer tone, adding glow to the painting. Then I darken the water in the vase to correspond with the warmer and darker area.

I refined the drawing of the wine glasses, added some highlights and cast shadows. For the record, when I am not painting, the wine glasses and wine bottle are covered with saran wrap to keep the wine from evaporating.

I painted in the tag next to the painting, which I had auditioned in the previous step.

I still have two particular areas to resolve: on either side of the cheese board and in front of the vase. At some point I'll figure these out. The painting will eventually speak to me and let me know what I have to do.

Wine and Cheese, step 8

Making more decisions



You can see I have put the corkscrew back in, but I have turned it differently so that it doesn't look as heavy. In fact, it is rather interesting, being able to look inside of it. I was having a great problem drawing it until I arranged a sight-size set-up that I wrote of earlier.

Also I had the brilliant idea to put in a glass vase...I had scoured my shelves looking for the perfect vase, and of course, I don't own such a thing. I remembered this glass vase that works just fine. Seeing the flower stems gives interest to the vase, plus the fact that it is dark. Not that white staring me in the face! Once I got the vase problem solved, I developed the flowers further.

Since this painting is about an artist reception and I have painted Andrei Kushnir's painting on the wall, I thought I'd take it one step further and consider putting a tag on the wall next to it. To audition the tag, I cut a piece of paper and stuck it on the painting with a piece of tape. Right now there is a yellow post-it note stuck on the canvas.

I have suggested a small stack of napkins on the far left to break up the straight line of the table.