From tone to colour. Week 3 of a Still life project. Art classes in Oxfordshire.

This post shows the journey from start to finish for one of our learners doing our 3 week (6 hour ) still life project using paint.  

The great thing about this project is that it combines so many skills, broken down into manageable individual processes.
Everyone made great progress and learned something new, from medium use and paint handling, observing and mixing colour and tone, and creative control, composition and lighting.
No matter what previous art experience we have, there is always something new to learn or to be reminded of when returning to the study of traditional art subjects like still life.

Week 1
Students arranged objects in an area in which they could control and manipulate the light. (We used boxes and torches.) Students then played around with arrangement and created thumb nail sketches and quick observational studies, including referencing the tonal values and shadows.

Once a preferred composition and objects had been selected, students used canvas effect paper and painted the background using black and white acrylic paint and large flat headed brushes.

Week 2 

Students continued to paint focusing on the tone and form of the objects, including their shadows and reflections, using large and small flat headed brushes.

Week 3

Students practiced colour mixing using 2 reds, 2 yellows and 2 blues, using transparent and semi transparent paint over their original tonal values, using large and small flat headed brushes and one small round head.  

Next week we move on to portraiture, starting with hand studies.

Email adumbrationarts@gmail.com or call 01865 819869 to join or find out more.