After staring at my black-and-white study for a few days, I decided to make some changes:
1. Make the whole painting longer, adding ½ “ to the bottom
2. Reduce the width of the smaller pot
3. Lighten the value of the onion
4. Lighten the table, horizontal and vertical surface
5. Put the big pot more in shadow
6. Add more reflected lights from garlic (on table, pot, and onion) to bring more focus to it
7. Repaint shallot to correct values and change shape of its shadow
I realize that most of these changes make the study look more like the Polaroid. I had noticed that I wasn’t as happy with the study as I thought I should be. Making it more like my original vision makes it better. So, in this case, my first idea was better. That’s not always the case!
I’m contemplating one more change. Maybe I’ll try replacing the small pot with something else. Perhaps something of the same scale, but with a shiny, reflective surface. I’ll try it is reality, in the studio, before I bother to change my study.
Here is the setup with a glass bowl instead of the second pot.
I sure am taking my time with starting this painting! That’s intentional. I realize that sometimes in the past, I was so eager to start painting, that I wasn’t critical enough of my compositions. This, obviously, resulted in some paintings that I was unsatisfied with. My method of working doesn’t allow for major last-minute changes, so I need to be pretty sure of myself before I start. Of course, I make lots of changes along the way, darkening, lightening, highlighting, muting, adding or taking away color, all to improve the image, but these can be done without major repainting of the large forms. I like to be sure before I begin to put paint down.
Now that this stage is nearly done, I feel, in a sense, like I’ve already finished the hard part. Now, all I have to do is paint it!
Linda Mann Artist 