Onward!

Here is the next still life I will be painting. This is a photo of the set up. As you can see, I did indeed go back to raid the local candy store. Couldn't resist the sparkly colors of the sugar crystal candy. This little still life tells a bit of the story of our little town in the present time. At least, as how I see it. I will go into a bit more detail once the painting is done.
I have been so busy just learning how to paint over the past year that my drawing has not been getting as much practice. I decided to add a bit more of it back to my art practice and drew the still life with the intent of transferring it to the canvas before preceding with the painting. I actually prefer to draw with the paint right onto the canvas. When I started painting a lot of things clicked for me. I realized that I can judge relationships and shapes better with shapes and forms than with lines. That said, I still went ahead and drew the set up for good practice. Here is the drawing which was done from the live set up, not a photo:

The drawing of course is from a slightly different angle than the photo. The photo itself is crooked in order to get some kind of good enough lighting to show the pencil. This isn't a full rendering but it has the information I need to proceed. I didn't add all the shadows and there are the "see-through" lines of the teapot behind the candy. There are plenty of things that would still need to be corrected if I was going to do a finished drawing. I would also approach the drawing different if that was my final goal, for example the lines wouldn't be so heavy at this point and the shading would be done with more care for tone. This drawing is the same size that the finished paint will be, 9"x12".
I also wanted to mention the faint composition lines. I usually just mark the center but since I was out of practice, I went ahead and drew a box the same size of the painting and marked the center at the sides as well. There are a couple of plum lines here and there too.
I really do enjoy drawing. Perhaps because I have been drawing a lot longer than I have been painting, I find it more relaxing than painting. Painting is wonderful and I really do love the color and effects that paint produces. I look forward to when I feel as comfortable with painting as I do drawing.
This will be fun. I will also do a crayon painting of this setup for a local fun art show. I have been practicing my crayon work!
Finally, relating to the previous post about art books, another one came to the library for me today, American Light: The Luminist Movement 1850-1875, by John Wilmerding. Should be interesting!
-Renee