I’m now halfway through Block 1 of the Evolve Artist course! I just finished painting #10, which is this vase and tape. The subjects aren’t too exciting, but the point is not to make pretty paintings, it’s to practice the specific technqiues we’ve learned so far.
For this and the rest of the paintings going forward, we have to identify the cast and form shadows (that information was provided for the earlier exercises). This feels like it should have been straightforward, but a couple of areas on the vase were not obvious to me.
Evolve Artist Block 1, #10 – Vase and Tape. Oil on canvas.
The painting part itself was okay – as usual there are mistakes, and I have a recurring issue with patchiness on the light side of my gradients. I need to get better at blending them in a way that doesn’t wear through the paint. But I know this is something that I’ll improve with practice.
I made a mess as I was finishing off. I use a wrist brace when working, which caught in the wet paint and smeared it over a dry part I’d already finished the day before (a flat area, not a gradient, luckily!). I repainted the original bit as best I could, but now it isn’t blended as well as it should be. I was pretty mad at myself, but it’s all experience, and I’ll try to be more careful in future!
See all my Evolve Artist paintings here.
