Theme

After my research into chiaroscuro, I decided I wanted to continue to explore this theme but with a much more contemporary composition. I therefore did some more research into current artists using this technique. This can be found on my research page of my blog.

https://jansocapop.home.blog/2019/03/16/assignment-1-research/

The weather is very wet and stormy so the items would need to come from inside the house. The obvious subject when painting light and dark would be to use a light source. I have an angle poise lamp to help me in winter which can be positioned in many different ways. I then thought of what I would like the lamp to illuminate and I suddenly thought of an egg. The smooth surface would reflect the light back and also create shadows underneath.

Composition

I started by doing a number of sketches to decide on my composition. I have a stool on which I placed the Lamp and egg. Using a 6B pencil and a graphite stick, I very roughly drew some tonal sketches of the objects from different angles.

 

After some time I moved the lamp and egg onto the floor and after moving the object around I finally came to a composition I liked.

The lamp is angled so you can see some of the illuminated inside, there are cast shadows on the wall behind and I particularly like the shadows that form on the radiator. I feel this will make an interesting picture.

Preparation

After the previous monochrome studies I wanted to work on a fairly light ground. I chose A2 cartridge paper and stretched it then gessoed it with a couple of layers, the second layer, mixed with some natural grey acrylic paint to take the harsh white away. I had intended to go a little darker with my ground but changed my mind as I want the extreme contrast of dark and light and in my previous exercise; I found it much harder to bring out the light from a dark ground.

The instructions say that the painting should be representational and so I will be trying to replicate the actual colours, the brown of the lamp stand, the cream of the wall and radiator, the blue of the carpet and I may even use some actual black paint for the very darkest areas rather although I will try to mix it instead.

I will be using a mixture of traditional and alkyd oils, only because I may need to do this over a couple of days due to my busy weekend. I will be interested to see how well the oils respond to the gessoed paper. I am anticipating that if this works ok I will be using paper as a support for most of my work, bearing in mind it all needs to be posted off for tutor feedback and later for formal assessment.

I wanted to get a feel for the colours I would use. Whilst not a massive lover of chalk pastels, I do find they are great for doing very quick sketches to get a feel for how the colours will work.

I have decided I would like to use a limited pallet and create all the shades I require using black, white and then a blue, ochre, and dark brown. I may also introduce a touch of yellow. I want to reflect the blue of the carpet elsewhere in the painting, perhaps in the lampshade. The wooden arm of the lamp complements the egg and the darker greys and blacks as well and the pale creams and greys are in the wall, radiator and skirting board.

Final Painting

I started by lightly sketching the outline of the lamp and egg a number of times until I was happy with the compositions. The charcoal lines have got a little confused as I drew over them quite a few times but hopefully applications of paint will remedy this.

My colour choice is white and black, lemon yellow, yellow ochre, raw umber and after a couple of colour checks in my sketchbook I have chosen Prussian blue.

I decided to start by simply covering the entire painting with a light wash to establish the colours and tones. The alkyd oils I am using are supposed to be mixable with water, but to be honest I am not happy with the way they are diluting so I have reverted back to turpentine which gave a much smoother wash. I have also decided to add some ultramarine to my pallet as the Prussian blue is slightly too green.

Next I wanted to establish the dark tones so using a mixture of black, blues and raw umber a put a layer of paint in the areas of darker tone. I struggled with the brush marks showing the lighter ground through and have realised I may need to place a couple of layers to get the depth I want.

I next worked on the arm of the lamp and with the leftover paint on the pallet worked on the thermostat of the radiator. I am finding the finer detail difficult to achieve with my hog bristle brushes and so have requisitioned an old, fine watercolour brush to see if this helps with detail a little further along.

My pallet was getting a little muddy so at this point I cleaned it and the brushes to start again.

Standing back from the painting I decided that I needed to get to grips with the wall and its shadows to enable be to proceed further. On looking at the objects I could see that the area behind that lamp where light was reflecting back formed the illusion of a halo and so I mixed a tone that was still dark but that would be lighter than the lamp. I started with the lightest part of the wall and gradually added tiny drops of the darker paint, working in all areas of the wall where I felt the tone applied. I eventually finished with total black in the top left hand corner, the area not illuminated by the lamp at all. Having completed this I now feel a little happier and feel the painting is progressing much more the way I had hoped. I wanted to get this done in a day but unfortunately time has got away from me and it is at this point I will have to put down my tools and come back to it later.

There has been another week’s delay before I was able to get back to this. I chose to work on the radiator next and started with the lighter bottom area choosing pale tones to indicate the reflections off the indentations. A mixture of Prussian blue, raw umber and black was used for the darker part of the radiator with a hint of reflected light at the top indentations. I have found it is easier to start with light paint blending to dark . If I do it the other way round I seem to lose the lighter areas and it is much harder to get the lightness back, particularly using oils.

I then turned my attention to the skirting board where my fine brush came in handy for the finer detail. The egg was next and whilst painting it, I was quite happy with it. It is only once the whole painting was finished that I became aware that I don’t think I have quite got the shows right. The lesson here it to stand back and observe the whole painting before I clear away my materials!

The lamp stand and cable was next then finally the carpet. For this I used a fan brush to give a slightly rougher texture although in retrospect it looks like have painted waves.

At this point I have decided to stop here. I am not completely happy with it at the moment but as this assignment is not assessed I feel I have already spent over the required time on it.

Reflection on Assignment

Use of Colour and Medium

The note to the assignment were to make the painting representational so for this reason I used a limited pallet of blues and browns to get the tones that I wanted to produce the chiaroscuro effect I was aiming to achieve. I researched the difference between Zinc and Titanium white as I wanted to get a very bright white in the lamp and found out that zinc white is more transparent so the Titanium white would be best to use. I did read that zinc white can be good for blending. I did not use it in this picture but is something I will look at in future paintings.

My choice of alkyd oil paints worked well as I was able to continue to blend the paints when returning to it in one sitting as the layers take longer to dry than if I had used acrylics which would dry immediately. The oils will however be dry enough for me to post this assignment to my tutor.

Composition and context

I believe I have achieved my aim of creating a painting using chiaroscuro. It was inspired by the research point on that subject and also the previous monotone exercises. My choice of subject was to simply try a modern twist on the theme. I feel the composition is well balanced. I like the triangular slice of light through the middle, emphasised by the angle of the arm of the lamp, which dissects the darker areas. I wanted to create mood, a feeling of night time which I think has been achieved.

Mark Making and Contrast of Line and Tone

I feel like I am learning to paint all over again. I was a fairly prolific painter when I was at school but over the years this has pretty much dissipated and if I did pick up a brush I would be using watercolour. Consequently, even with oils, I have a tendency to use them well diluted and in thin layers. I struggled a little with the control of painting thin lines which I need to practice.

Form and Experimentation

As stated above, the brief was to be representational and I do think I have achieved this. There are a couple of areas which, I can now see, have gone wrong. I have not quite got the perspective of the bottom of the radiator correct and the shadows on the egg are again not quite right. I am pleased that I experimented with a more modern take on the chiaroscuro theme and think this has worked well. I am also pleased I chose to work on A2. I think this may be the largest painting I have ever tackled and so I am glad to have done this early in this course as I feel it will help my confidence as I work through the course.

I haven’t really experimented with the materials yet. I do want to try impasto techniques but for this Assignment I simply wanted to paint what I see and my desire to make things look real has come through as per usual.

Reflection on My Progress

It is very early on in this course for me to feel I can give a view on my progress. I have really only completed a couple of paintings so far but am pleased, particularly with the tonal study paintings of the bowls. I already feel I have learnt a lot about colour mixing and the different ways that paint reacts on the paper. I am looking forward to trying new techniques with paint application.

My one concern is timescale. I am struggling to paint during the week, mainly due to the short amount of time available in the evenings. I realise I will need to prepare ahead, read each part and try to do preparatory drawings, preparation of ground or research during the week so I can devote the longer time available at the weekends to completing exercises and assignments.