This painting, for me, is different in two ways. One is the subject. I usually don’t do many still life interior scenes. I like them a lot, but I find myself attracted more to exterior scenes. This jumped out at me the moment I saw it though and I had to give it a go. I knew it would take some time so I did work from a photo.
The second way this differs from my norm is the technique I used to paint it. Generally with something that involves a lot of drawing and composition I would do my thirds grid and pencil in the drawing first. Then grayscale to get shadows and light placement. This painting called me to challenge myself and jump in to paint right away. No preliminary pencil drawing, no grayscale, just start painting and drawing it as I go. I didn’t really think about it too much, I just went for it. I did use the thirds grid for composition placement as there are a lot of small parts that need to line up.
First brush stroke started with the green from outside the window, then the window, then the jars and shadows. Before I knew it the painting was done. About two and a half hours. I like it, I like challenging myself sometimes for growth and something new.
If it had not come out as I had planned, I could easily paint over it.
No worries, Be happy.
As Always,
Paint…Relax…Repeat.
Jeffrey J. Bowers