Tag Archives: #stilllife

Copying Masters (5) – John William Hill

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J. W. Hill (1812-1879) was a British born American watercolorist and lithographer. I came across his work in a still life anthology and was taken with soft, serene and tangible feeling he created with watercolor, quite different from the wet-in-wet method I was taught in. Upon close-up examination, it is full of tiny strokes, like an engraving. Some of the strokes in the background created interesting patterns and was applied in a very painterly way. Maybe that’s how you do impasto with watercolor! 😁

In my copy, I didn’t go for the strokes. I was at a moment that my colors often ran wild. I think Hill’s Study of Fruit is a good example of unity and harmony with colors, and that’s what I went for.

I almost missed this: obviously yesterday was J. W. Hill’s birthday. So happy birthday Mr. Hill! 🎂

J. W. Hill, Study of Fruit
J.W. Hill, Study of Fruit, 1877. Watercolor on paper, 6.13 x 10.63 in.

My copy:

JWHill study
After J.W.HIll “Study of Fruit,” Watercolor, 2018

Around the Kitchen (IV) – Ginger

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This was an assignment from a painting class (acrylic) a while ago. The purpose was to learn impasto. I chose ginger because I thought the bumpy, textured surface might go well with the technique, and also I usually bought them in bulk from Costco.

It’s a small painting with a single object, and I figured I could get it done in no time. I was so wrong.

There were two things that I couldn’t get used to. First, as someone who started painting first with watercolor, I wasn’t used to putting a lot of paint on canvas. For the purpose of this assignment, we were supposed to achieve a measurable thickness. And acrylic, a water-based medium, dries flat! I ended up working in layers, waited for a long time (longer then usual acrylic time at least) for the paint to dry, and went back to add more and more.

Another thing was the purpose of impasto technique itself. It supposed to be more about expressiveness than rendering, and I had trouble leaving my strokes in and my details out. So I kept going back and forth adding things in and taking them out. I have done so many paintings on this tiny canvas, and what a heavily loaded ginger! 🙂

Ginger, acrylic
Ginger, acrylic on canvas, 10 x 8, 2018

Throwback (probably) 2015 Continued – Watercolor

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I did some cleaning today and found a few old paintings. None of them was dated and my memory is just a blur. The only thing I could say is they were done around or before 2015. Lesson learned: date your artwork.

This one is after a photo I found online. Here’s the link, but I don’t know how to find the photographer’s information. (Google image search leads me to furniture stores and all sort of club chairs.) So, whoever took the beautiful photo, thank you. You can see back then I wasn’t able to go beyond the reference.

Chair, watercolor
Chair by the window, watercolor, 2015

Now some flowers for the holidays:

Tulips, watercolor
Tulips, watercolor, 2015
Irises, watercolor
Irises, watercolor, 2015

Copying Masters (3) – Paul Cézanne

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Paul Cézanne  (1839–1906) is probably the most influential Post-Impressionist artist, and definitely the most inspiring for me. His colors are layered and strokes deliberate. It takes a lot more work than it seems. In this study I copied only a small section of the original painting.

Original:

File:Cézanne, Paul - Still Life with a Curtain.jpg
Still Life with a Curtain, circa 1898, oil on canvas

My copy:

Cezanne still life study, acrylic
Cezanne still life study, 2015

Try New Things (1) – Ink Resist with Gouache

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I only recently came to know there’s such a thing called ink resist, and was pretty impressed by some of the artworks with this method. So I gave it a try. The result is a meh, but I l had fun and learned something.

Still life, ink and gouache on watercolor paper

So these are the steps I followed:

  • pencil drawing;
  • painting with gouache but leave some area blank; (some people leave only the pencil marks uncovered to achieve neat outlines)
  • after the painting is completely dry, covered the whole page with sumi ink;
  • again, wait till it’s completely dry, wash off the ink (I used the garden hose, no kidding.)
  • and again, wait till it’s dry, and went back to fix here and there. (This step is optional, but I wasn’t that lucky.)

And here are the things I learned:

  • Like drawing on black paper, this method is a bit counter-intuitive. The areas left blank in the first painting round will be the darkest after the wash. So planning ahead is important, which I didn’t do. In my painting, the blacks serve more like random texture than an organic part of the value pattern.
  • The paint should be thick, to “resist” the ink and also because gouache is easy to wash off.
  • This process asks for a lot of patience. 😜