Project : Still Life P.56

Project : Still Life P.56

When starting this project, I began to go through my regular routine of playing about with the composition, moving the mug in front of the bottle, then swapping it over with the apple and I stepped back a few times to look at the composition. Once deciding on formation I wanted, I began to meticulously start sketching in my usual way with a pencil. I stopped myself, and thought, I am going to do this in a totally different way to what I am used to doing, so I put the pencil down, and picked up a light grey Oil Pastel. I very quickly sketched in the basic shapes and began to colour what I could see, starting from light to dark, not so much looking at any real detail, just the loose forms I could see. To be honest, it does not feel like one of my paintings but I am quite happy with it. 

From my view point, slightly higher than the photograph, I could see the reflection of the apple in the mug  creating a green glow which I tried to suggest in the painting. I am happy with the layer of colours popping through from light blue to purple and I particularly like the loose tone on the apple. 

I think, with this piece, even though it is littered with inaccuracy (the mug and position of the apple), the composition is quite good, I think a change of background would benefit the picture as would less use of black shadow (which I gave into on this painting). I feel it is probably worth having another attempt at this painting, making the improvements suggested, with the carefulness not to loose expressive feel this picture has.