Small Paintings to Sell
Posted: May 11, 2015 Filed under: subject | Tags: art, illustration, observation, oil paint, still life Leave a commentAlong with the four larger images I made sixteen A5 oil paintings.
Pictures for Exhibition in Paper Gallery
Posted: May 11, 2015 Filed under: subject | Tags: art, exhibition, food, gallery, illustration, observation, oil paint, still life Leave a comment
The theme for the group exhibition was 1.2.3.4 which we could interpret how we wanted. For my images I wanted to make one image with one object, one with two and so on. My first image is of a lobster (which I actually had to buy) frozen in ice. I wanted to show the transparency distortion caused by the ice and its contrast with the emerging lobster. I wanted to use classical still life objects but combine them with more modern elements; in this case the rubber band and the ice, in the others it tends to be plastic packaging.
Two fruit lattices in a paper bag with a plastic strip. I quite like the rendering of the different textures in this painting, during the painting the object was throw away by the cleaner so I had to buy another one. This means that the plastic panel is not as accurate and has been made up a bit. 
This is three plums in a plastic bag, it was quite enjoyable painting this as the plastic provided a challenge. The trouble was that the plums ripened during the process of the painting and thus changed colour, they were probably a nicer colour at the end but it was a bit late as I had already done the highlights.
The last is four fillets of peppered mackerel in a vacuum sealed pack. This was the hardest of the four to paint as it as all the details were tiny even when blown up to this scale (A2). I was also concerned that some people didn’t realise that the actual object was vacuum packed, maybe this effect was too subtle for real life. This one does seem a little bit flat in some areas.
Observational Work
Posted: April 26, 2015 Filed under: subject | Tags: art, biro, observation, oil paint, Paint, paper, still life Leave a comment
Following on from The King in Yellow, I wanted to do some work from firsthand observation. The foil apple proved to be quite challenging as i hoped it would, the amount of tiny highlights were quite tricky. I included the brown section as in my studio the mdf walls were picked up in the reflection which I needed to include, the top section gives a reason for the brown on the foil.
The piece of screwed up paper provided the problem of the very sooth with subtle shadows and highlights. I don’t think the smoothness has been translated very well as in parts it looks more like tissue paper. I do like the composition of this almost abstract shape and on the black background it looks pretty clean.
The Biro’s straight lines of highlights were the main challenge on this piece as they are fundamental to making the painting look realistic. The text was also a hassle especially at this size (A4), I used a scalpel to scrape the paint away to give cleaner edges than what the brush laid down.
Duster
Posted: September 19, 2014 Filed under: subject | Tags: art, artist, duster, illustration, illustrator, observation, oil paint, still life Leave a commentA duster cloth which I screwed up for some practise with material. Yellow is not a nice colour to paint with on black at it is hard to get its full saturation without it going green. I think this looks nice and almost abstract, the red stitching being the only thing hat really makes it recognisable.
Nectarine and a Jug
Posted: September 19, 2014 Filed under: subject | Tags: art, fruit, glass, illustration, jug, nectarine, observation, oil paint, still life, transparent Leave a commentA little bit of extra practice painting from life. A nectarine as, if I want to be doing still life paintings, I should probably get good at doing fruit. The Jug was to have a bit of practice with transparency. I think that the jug is a bit distorted but it does at least look shiny.
The Body
Posted: September 19, 2014 Filed under: subject | Tags: art, corpse, hand, illustration, literature, observation, oil paint, Stand by Me, Stephen King, The Body Leave a comment‘The Body’ by Stephen King is story of four boys who go on a trip to see a rumoured dead body in the woods. My image is of the body but only part of it so as not to be too gruesome. As the book is about the discovery of a body it would be foolish to present the whole body.
The hand was drawn from from life from my own hand and I’m fairly pleased with it as it looks pretty realistic (even if some of the fingers are a bit off). The background is probably a bit simple and isn’t doesn’t really look like soil. In photoshop I have subdued the colours and i think it works better with what is on the whole a more sombre tale and for a dead body which is less colourful.
Painting Practice (start of third year)
Posted: September 18, 2014 Filed under: subject | Tags: art, car, glass, hotwheels, illustration, key, lightbulb, observation, oilpaint, Paint, paintbrush, practice, rust, still life, toy Leave a commentThis is the first post of the year (academic, not calendar) and of the new project. The project is very loose in what it asks for and it basically asks you to do what you want to do. What I intend to do is explore using still life as a means of illustration. So to start with I thought I would practice my painting of objects using oil paint.
I started by painting objects I found around the house on a black background so I was just just focusing on the object. I found painting on black also gives more solidity objects there is no white to show through. This grubby key should have had much more effort put into making sharp edges, the grime also looks more like an attempt at relief than at discolouration.
Next a lightbulb, I wanted the challenge of painting the glass, which was pretty difficult as the lightbulb wasn’t on a black background. Overall I feel the the painting is a tad crude and I would have preferred it more refined.
I quite like this one, it looks a lot like the real object (you will have to take my word for it) and I like the effect of the bristles as even though it is quite minimal it still gives the illusion of texture. The rounded edge of the handle also looks nice and gives the feel of depth.
This toy car provided the challenge of very small and thin highlights as well as making sure that it didn’t look too much like a real car. The colour is a bit boring but that was the colour that the toy was it looks a little fuzzy too for something meant to be so artificial and smooth.
matt beese 
You must be logged in to post a comment.