Week 4 of the Mastery Program…
Week 4 - Still life, working ‘Alla Prima’ and a mindset shift ✨
Last week’s charcoal still-life drawing, of a simple object and a box, was all about understanding that everything the eye can see can be drawn through straight lines and ellipses.
This week was about creating more complex still-life setups, focusing on good composition, and refining the skills learned last week.
I decided to choose objects that suited my personality best:
Michelangelo’s coffee table book shows some intellect, art history and culture…
A wine glass - red wine is typically my tipple of choice, Italian Primitivo to be specific 🍷
Love pineapples, and they’re fun to draw
A lemon and lime? Ok, maybe I just raided my fruit bowl…
A naked lady vase - of course!! If you’ve been around for a while, we all know I love a bit of the feminine form within my artwork, and home…
I just used flat coke in the wine glass for the still-life setup… Not wasting any of the precious red over here!
The real stuff was in my glass next to easel, being drunk while I was doing the drawing 😆
Again, I built the drawing by adding a solid ground of willow charcoal, sketching in the shapes (using my proportion tool), and then subtracting out all of the highlights.
I’ve grown to love this method of working, as it forces me to look at the whole piece and build layer by layer, rather than inch-by-inch like I was doing before this program.
The outcome is so much more sophisticated - it’s airy, loose, and so much quicker to complete.
I’m less precious with my work and more likely to create fun marks. I feel like before, when my work was uptight and rigid, it would make you, the viewer feel uptight.
Now my work is loose and a bit more expressive and free, I would hope that it make you the viewer, feel more free and relaxed too.
Anyway, finally I added in all the darks and used precision erasers to really refine those details.
You can watch the full process video here.
Something that I struggled with this week, as usual, was having high expectations of myself, with little rational thinking.
The charcoal piece started the week off great!
But as the week progressed I had to try something new… and as we have come to learn, this always sets off my perfectionist mindset.
The next few tasks were to paint a various still life using a process called ‘Alla Prima’.
Alla Prima - 'at first attempt'. It refers to a wet-on-wet approach whereby wet paint is applied to previous layers of still-wet paint, often in a single sitting.
I had never done this before, so it was tough.
The hard-on-myself brain tells me that in every painting, some of the objects look very strange, muddy and out of proportion.
But the newly evolving, be patient brain, is telling me that the Corona and the paint tube look pretty darn cool, and the wonky paintbrushes are just a learning curve!
I’m getting there with the compassionate mindset, slowly 🤣
Looking back while I’m writing this blog now, I realise that I was so silly and these paintings really aren’t that bad.
So maybe that’s proof that my mindset really has evolved since the start of this year? If each of these ‘bad’ paintings I create are looking better to me now each time I sit down to review them through this blog… maybe I have finally reached that point.
Or it’s because I can confidently say I’m much better now 🤣 who knows!
Here’s my favourite piece of week 4, ‘Liberated Delights’ ✨
“Liberated Delights” 23x16 / A2 size - original charcoal drawing on fine grain paper
‘Passion, desire, and the intoxication of life converge, beckoning all to revel in the ecstasy of liberated delights.’
She’s available, or maybe an art print is more suited to you! 🥰
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