During isolation I have been out of commission with lower back issues for several weeks and standing, sitting and walking were painful. The recovery is slow because I didn’t want to risk a visit to the chiropractor and I was really missing painting. Today I made a travel kit to have near my sofa and painted while my daughter cooked pierogies and kielbasa. The onions were starting to sprout because I hadn’t been cooking recently and they have interesting shapes. And now it is time to eat!!
But at the beginning I don’t realize the difficulty!! LOL. Does that sound familiar?
After my pomegranate sketch starting the new year off right, I chose these vintage salt and pepper shakers which I love. What could be hard?
Well, for one, perspective, the change of shape of the ellipse/oval of the top of a cylinder…or say a coffee cup or vase…or this shaker with its cute S or P of holes on top. That led me down a rabbit hole of books on my shelves re-learning about perspective which I need to practice way more to really “get’.
My mind was fuzzy with the effort, so I knew it would take at least two sittings perhaps more to figure it out. After mulling it over while painting other things and experimenting, I realized the bottom is a sphere, the top is a cylinder and realizing where my eye level is is key to figuring out how much of the ellipse to show at the top of the (admittedly squat) cylinder that sits on the sphere.
I’m also realizing that I need to paint or sketch before opening my laptop because again, the rabbit hole phenomena. So that’s why I didn’t search for videos on perspective of spheres or cylinders until another day.
Although I think I got the values fairly well on the sphere by just really looking, this was a useful page to review: https://www.artistsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/sadie-valeri_draw_value-sphere.pdf
While this is pretty technical, it’s helpful and this one is a good overview of the perspective of cylinders. I don’t know about you, but I like to know the bones behind the theory, so I want to understand perspective rather than guessing on what type of ellipse is needed.
So that’s it for now, I will eventually paint these shakers, but not right now. Also, I can tell you which books I have on my shelf for perspective, if you’re interested.
My goals for the new year are to sketch and paint daily. No pressure, right?? LOL. I know I won’t succeed every day but I believe in aiming high.
New Year Pomegranates ink sketch with watercolor wash
As you can see from the buckling pages, this sketchbook isn’t made for wet media, but these pages aren’t anything precious. Just daily practice in drawing and noting the pigments that were used.
Happy New year to all! May it be one of peace and enjoying the daily goodness of life.
Rachel Murphree Watercolors 