Thursday, July 17, 2008

End of Eggshells

That's it folks - I decided to go the whole hog, seeing it had gone a bit haywire anyway, and paint in the decorative edge of the plate, which I did quite quickly with dots and dashes, though it may look painfully intricate (and pretty skew)! Thanks for all your encouragement - I do think I learnt a lot - but realise I have much more to learn about reflections and shadows, and that Andrew Wyeth was right, as Sandy Maudlin told in a comment, that eggs and ears probably are the hardest things to paint. I went to a watercolor workshop once, where our homework was to paint an egg, a bone and a rock, and I thought I had it taped - the secret, I told anyone who admired my egg, was not to draw a pencil outline first, but to use the brush edge to swoop around the egg shape - well, let's just say there's more to it than that...
[In the middle of this project, I puzzled over why my 'still-life' looked so different to what I had on the paper - then it dawned on me that one of our resident cooks had deposited a few more eggshells on the plate, probably thinking crazy mother was just collecting them for some other arty pursuit (I've been painting in the kitchen, being the warmest room in the house right now.) Ha ha ha!]

10 comments:

Gillian said...

Your egg shapes are near perfection, however you do it! I like the added ornate edge of the plate next to the simplicity of the broken oviparousness! I tried drawing Vonnie yesterday. Her concentration on her Apple and then her new cell phone, made for a pleasantly still subject - except the slightly downcast eyes were difficult to draw, without them looking funny...

laura said...

Cathy--This really turned out beautifully!! I think what you did with the plate is just right: the laciness of the edge makes a nice contrast to the broken eggshells, which are so sensitively painted. I love the soft glow on the shells, and the limited palette. I have also heard that eggs are one of the hardest things to paint, which is maybe why I've never painted one!

Gillian said...

I meant to say - that I like the bone, rock, egg too... A good motivation to grab something out the garden or kitchen and paint it! Your SA winter sounds so good! I'm tired of being hot and sticky, though very grateful for the A/C.
How this area EVER became populated in the first place - without A/C - is beyond me...??!!

Cathy Gatland said...

Oviparousness!!? Gosh! Look forward to seeing drawings of Von - on the eve of her 21st birthday!

Jeanette Jobson said...

The shells are beautifully done Cathy. And you have such patience to do the plate, but it adds so much to the piece.

Eggs are one of the most difficult things to draw well. And you do do them well...

Desiree's Designs said...

Wow, your blog is wonderful, I am so glad that I found it and got to look around. Wonderful work on the eggs. I am also working on shadows and clean, clear colors within them. It is challenging to not get impatient and make mud. Great work!

Helen Percy Lystra said...

Wow... this is beautifully done! t

Anonymous said...

Such beauty in such ordinary subjects! You really brought out the best of watercolour.. may i be so brave as to suggest that perhaps if you had darken and lighten the internal of the shells, they would look in better contrast?

Anonymous said...

You make it sound so easy but really, if it were we could all do it! Exquisite work...

Lin said...

ABSOLUTELY SUPERB!! SUBTLE COLORING -- JOYOUS!