Week 9 - Patience; in more than one sense of the word…
Realism week!
Fun fact about me?
I love cherries and cherry-flavoured anything.
Cherry Pepsi, Cherry Carmex lip balm, cherry red nail varnish, Haribo pic N mix cherries… even my phone case has cherries all over it 🤣
So it seemed only right when choosing a reference for the oil painting task this week, it had to be cherries.
The theme of the week was small-scale realism.
Previously I have been pushed to paint loose, get out of restrictive habits and have a less perfectionist mindset.
To be a standout artist, you need to be different, have impact, challenge the status quo, break the rules.
But before you can break the rules, you need to master them first.
So before I can be expressive and reach my full potential as an artist, I need to ensure I can draw something like-for-like…
‘Tromp l'oeil’ - A style of painting where objects are depicted with photographically realistic detail. This word is of French origin and means “fool the eye.”
So, as you can imagine, my secret (not-so-secret) inner perfectionist was very excited for this week.
You can watch the first part of the process here.
I started my cherries by subtracting out all the textures and highlights with a monochromatic underpainting (one of my fave traditional oil painting methods).
I fell in love with the level of detail at this stage and got as many photos as I could just incase I decided to do prints of it at this stage down the line 🤣
I then built on top of the underpainting with glazing and scumbling techniques until I brought it to life.
Boy, I needed a lot of patience with this piece!
But! A long 8 hours later, I was so happy with my first little 8 by 10-inch hyper-realistic painting…
You can watch the final part of the process here.
The drawing task of the week was essentially the same thing, but in graphite pencil.
So in between drying time for my painting, I decided to draw an adorable photo close-up of a tiger that I had saved in my phone for a while now.
I won’t bore you with the process of this one, but it was really satisfying seeing him come to life.
I just loved the photo so much, I had to draw him.
He is so inquisitive and cheeky and nosy! And I love his little fluffy nose.
I have a real thing for big cats at the moment…
‘Hello there…’, 7 x 9 graphite drawing on fine grain paper ✨
While it rewarding to see the results of both my drawing and my painting, and I am impressed with the outcomes, I am someone who likes to see quicker results.
I have since learned that it’s a temperament thing… if you know anything about DISC personality types, I am definitely a strong D (Direct, Decisive, Doer, sometimes Demanding, Domineering… likes quick results) 🤣 if you don’t… I will explain more in a later blog post 🥰
My main lesson of this week?
Patience.
“Art takes time. Monet grew his gardens before he painted them” ✨
I also felt very proud of myself for creating two highly realistic-looking artworks.
My favourite piece of the week?
‘Cherry Bomb’, 2023
8x10 - oil on canvas board 🍒
Like what you saw today? Both pieces are available, and in print form too 🧡✨
Want to catch up on previous blog posts? Don’t forget they are now all available to read here 🥰
Want to be the first to receive these posts straight to your mailbox?