So I finally finished the next exercise for Evolve Artist. This is Block 3, #8, and was painted from life.
Evolve Artist Block 3, #8 – Egg, Cylinder and Heart. Oil on canvas.
It’s been over a month since I posted the last one, so this is the longest I’ve taken with any painting in the course so far. I’ve been super busy with house renovations this summer, which has really eaten into my painting time, plus I’ve been finishing off my latest colouring book. I thought I’d get this exercise done in the first week of September, but made the mistake of painting the heart after a terrible night’s sleep. I was so tired I completely screwed it up, even though it’s such a simple object! Then I had to wait more than a week for the paint to dry so I could start over. This slow drying time is the thing I really dislike about oils, although it was worse than usual because the paint was quite thick from my failed attempts to fix it in the first session. Anyway, by the time the paint finally dried, I was due to go away for a week, and then I hurt my neck and couldn’t paint (or do much of anything!) for a few days. Because of all that I couldn’t finish it until this week. What I’ve learnt from this is never to work on these paintings when I’m only half awake 🙂 It’s ironic because I only pushed myself to paint on that day because I wanted to finish it more quickly, but I ended up delaying it by a few weeks instead.
I think the painting is okay-ish, although there are some bits that didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. I had a really hard time with the pink egg, which should be a lot brighter than this. I think this is just a case of not having the colours I need to get a completely accurate mix. The pink on the heart was easier, as were the other colours. My values aren’t as accurate as I’d like, and I keep second guessing myself when mixing the shadows. I really want to just paint what I see, and have to keep reminding myself that we’re not supposed to do that yet, and instead need to stick to the simplified system that Evolve is teaching. But it’s all good practice and I’m just happy to be back in my painting routine and moving on. I’ve been feeling a bit bogged down with my slow progress over the summer, but hopefully I’ll get back up to speed now.
See all my Evolve artist paintings.
