This painting is the 16th exercise for Block 2 of Evolve Artist. I’m mostly happy with the composition and drawing, although it took a couple of attempts to get the angle of the pestle right. I did make some mistakes with the painting, and I think I must have forgotten to smooth over the light paint in the foreground, as it looks a bit choppy. I’m normally really careful with paint application, but I guess I got distracted.
Evolve Artist Block 2, #16 – Mortar, Pestle and Bell Pepper. Oil on canvas.
Here’s a WIP photo, taken partway through painting the bowl. I’m a bit annoyed that I messed up the bottom of the pestle at the painting stage after getting it right in the drawing.
I also tried to add too much detail to the reflections on the left side of the pepper, then made it worse while trying to simplify it, which reminds me of Kevin (instructor) talking about the importance of restraint in an earlier video. Sometimes I need to remember that I don’t have to show every little thing (getting bogged down in detail is a bad habit I have with drawing too). Still, it was a mostly enjoyable painting to work on, and I quite like it overall! As with all of these exercises so far, I still feel like I’m learning new things with each painting, and increasing the complexity at a comfortable pace.
See all my Evolve Artist paintings here.
