Tools of the Trade, Step 3

Set-up #2

Since I didn't care for the previous arrangement, I tried reversing the major elements...the unicord and the keyboard. I have put the unicord in shadow, which works very well as a lead-in on the left into the painting. It is a large object and by putting it in shadow, its impact is strong but subtle.

I still don't care for the bright light on the keyboard and the sheet music, so I will continue to rearrange the objects.

Another problem with this arrangement is that all the light and white objects are on the right and the darker wood-toned objects are on the left. They really should be better balanced with a better distribution of lights and darks.

I'll try again.

Tools of the Trade, Step 2

Setp-up #1


Setting up still life elements is the most important and challenging part of any still life painting. It is also the most creative. It is critical that the painting has good solid composition, depth, an entryway, a focal point, and an interesting color arrangement.

For the most part, these instruments are either black or in various wood tones. Add the white sheet music and off white of the drum, and it all becomes very monochromatic, if not boring. I introduced a blue drape backdrop, the blue matching the blue in the Portugese pitcher, adding some continuity. I particularly like these blue elements, as they complement the reddish brown tones in the woods.

In this first arrangement, I placed the keyboard on the left and the unicord on the right, with a jumble of the "tools" arranged in between them. I lit the still life lit from the left, which is my usual procedure. I didn't like all the light on the unicord nor all the light on the sheet music, and I felt the pitcher was getting too much attention.

New Painting: Tools of the Trade, Step 1

Constructing the recorder


It has been several months since I demonstrated a painting here on this site. Mainly because I haven't done a major painting since I finished "Evening at Great Bend," which is now hanging at the University of Maryland University College Arts Program Gallery. It is in the Washington Society of Landscape Painters exhibition of Chesapeake Bay watershed properties. My painting of Great Bend PA is on the Susquehanna River on the PA/NY border. The source of the Chesapeake Bay reaches all the way into New York state past Binghamton, NY.

I have been busy giving workshops, participating in plein air competitions and events, and doing small paintings for various exhibits, which have all been rewarding and successful.

In between all of this, a friend asked me if I could do a still life of her musical "tools of the trade." She is a composer and music teacher and wanted to know if I could combine a number of her teaching instruments and music. After we reached an agreement, I went to her home to collect the "tools." What she couldn't lend me was her keyboard, because she wasn't sure when she might need it. But she did give me permission to demonstrate her painting on my blog.

But I came back to my studio with everything else: unicord with bow, gong, tambourine, buffalo drum with soft drumstick, temple bells, a maraca, tone blocks, wood blocks with drum sticks, triangle, bells on blue strap, bird whistles and some pages of her original music. She threw in a favorite pitcher from Portugal for color. In addition, she suggested I might include a recorder, but she didn't have one. But I did, and so you will see it included.

I laid all of these items on a table, and should have taken a picture of the cluttered area. It looked like no way was I going to make a painting out of all this.

Since I didn't have the keyboard, I figured I had to make a reasonable facsimile of one to use in my setup. So with two empty frame boxes taped together, some black and white paper, and a black marker, I made the "keyboard" shown above.

Evening at Great Bend

The Finished Painting

This is the time to look more and paint less. I use my mirror a lot to see what if anything, bothers me. My mirror is my best friend while I am painting.

In this final fiddling stage I made the following refinements:

1. Brightened the houses and added some shutters to their windows. Added some more telephone poles and highlighted some stones on the gravel drive.

2. Glazed with a paste of cadmium red light and white over the entire reflections to lighten them. As I said earlier, I had to paint them the same value and color as the landscape, since I had nothing to go by.

3. Added spots of water sparkles in the water to indicated a little waft of breeze.

4. Added foliage with highlights to the bushes in the rocks. Defined some larger rocks.

5. Massed more of the foreground rocks so they didn't looks so fussy. I went to my file of boulders and rocks and used them for reference.

6. Removed two rocks near the gravel path that looked somewhat like sheep.

So, I'm done and am delighted to have this painting finished for the Washington Society of Landscape Painters' summer exhibition at the University of Maryland University College in conjunction with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Great Bend, Step 14

Developing the Foreground
Before I tackled the foreground, I was bothered by the boring repetition of the trees along the bank and their reflections. They were all pretty much the same size and the spaces between the trees were uninteresting. I'm not sure I'm completely satisfied, but I will work on this problem again when I get to the fiddling stage.

I worked on the rocks in the foreground pretty much the way they were already. I tried to mass as many of them as I could and just pull out a few for emphasis. I added the scrub bushes amid the rocks, but they can use some more red at the base of them. From a distance they disappear, which is not what I intended. Probably a few more sprigs of green in and among the rocks will help. I would have put them in at this stage, but the paint was all wet and I want to do this fine work on top of dry paint.

Meanwhile, I am looking at the painting deciding what needs to be done next. I am happy with it at this point. It just needs a little fiddling here and there, as I have said. At this point, there's nothing screaming at me that it needs attention, and that is a good thing.

Great Bend, Step 13

Resolving the Reflections
After much painting in and wiping out and lots of measuring, the reflections are about done. I got stuck doing the houses in the painting, since I was basically working from memory and my experience. Finally I found up a newspaper section on houses for sale and was able to work from some of them for shapes and details.

When I didn't know what to do with part of a house, I painted a tree or a bush in front of it. Actually that has a good effect, because it keeps the hard lines at a minimum. The trick was to have structure to the buildings but keep all the edges soft. My brush strokes are entirely vertical.

Since I don't have anything specific in front of me, I had to make the values and colors in the reflections the same as in the middle ground. After it all dries, I will probably glaze the darks lighter and the lights darker.

By adding ripples to the area where the top of the mountain reflection met the sky reflection, this area is more integrated and believable. I will also had streaks of light reflections to indicate a some breezy water to break up the solid dark reflection of the mountain.

Great Bend, Step 12

Resolving the Town and Middleground


As I work my way down from the top of the mountain, I am acutely aware that the colors and values will become more vivid. Saying that the other way around, as the trees move up the mountain, they will decrease in value and become grayer. The very top of the mountain should have trees with a rosy-grayish-glow from the sky. The trees have many colors...from green to gold, to gray where the leaves have come off the branches.

Designing the position of the houses and church in the town is important. I need to have enough buildings to say "town" but not too many so that it looks like a Monopoly game. In the first photo above is my initial town design. I decided that the church steeple was too close to the center of the painting, so I have moved it to the other side, so that now the church faces the other houses. I like this a lot better. Again, this is why I can't do the reflections until I figure out where all these buildings are going to go.

I haven't gotten as far as I would have liked...the bushes and small trees next to the river are unfinished, but I'm close. Some of the houses need refinement...I'll save that for another day.