Light Still Life Demo and Other Hints

Maybe if I talk about a still life, I will paint one.  I hope so. 

Still life painting is interesting.  It is much like painting outside, plein air, as you see things in real life, not in a photo.  It is good training for your eyes and how to see values and contrast.  A good deal of my training in still life came from watching Helen Van Wyk, oil painter, on television.  She always explained the "why" of painting.  Why do you tone your canvas?  Why do you use that brush or that color?  I learned a lot.

Anything you learn from a demo or lesson doesn't do any good if you don't try it.  I have been to many workshops and demos and a few students would say, "Oh, I don't like that or that is too hard, I'll just do it my way."  If that is the case, you should save your money and just paint your way.  I think the purpose of seeing someone else paint is to try their method and maybe you will like part of it or all of it.  Don't know until you try.  (I explained my goals when I take a workshop in this post
https://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/workshop-finishes.html

Artists really need to practice, warm up and have fun.  Try something new.  It doesn't have to end up a masterpiece.  Use small scraps of paper, old canvas, cardboard......  One of the artists on wetcanvas paints on open cereal boxes to practice.  Calendars, paper sacks, even newspaper.  I wipe off pastels and us paper and Pastelbord over and over.

There are many ways to paint, having a high or low intensity, black or dark background, soft, rich, etc.  You can see some demos and read others on my Demo/Video page above.  You can put something in the search box above, too.  I have so many instruction posts that aren't marked as instruction.  Sorry.

Anyway, back to lighting.  Well more the painting light, than the lighting.  I did a demo/lesson on Turning on the Light here:
https://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/review-of-pastel-class-december-9.html

One of the old adages is that you have to have dark to show light. So, light against dark and dark against light.

So for fun I decided to paint/sketch/practice  my old standby .. an apple still life.

The light was to come from my right.  I tried painting it with the light all on the right except for the shadow.  It is one way to do it.  But to make it more dramatic, I put the light coming from the right and hitting on the left.  In other words, it is darker where the light is coming from and lighter where the light hits .. except for the shadow.  See what you think....  I much prefer the dramatic system.

These two were done very quickly just for fun.

In both, the light is from the right.  I did not worry about composition, the apple was pretty much in the middle of the painting!  Not the best comp.

The paper is Canson MiTeintes half sheet from a pad,  making them  8 x 12 inches.

This is the one I like the best with the dark where the light is coming from and the lighter part is where the light is going.

Here is another photo showing the pastels I used.

If you have any questions or comments we can start a discussion of painting ideas.....