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Painting Techniques: 3



Painting techniques: Third Stage

Now the values throughout are approaching their final stage.

The highlights on the blue jug are just visible, which is about the best compromise. They still have the effect of highlights, but the rest of the work hasn't been too subdued.

The reflection beneath the small group of flowers added at the lower right is quite convincing. Because the table top was only thinly painted in, it is a quick matter to rub in a little yellowish or pinkish grey to suggest the reflections. Had the tabletop been thickly painted this could have caused trouble.

These flowers around the base were planned from the start, as the composition seemed unbalanced without them. There is an 'arch' now of 'whitish' high toned masses from the jug at the left, up through the large mass of flowers and down on the right to the bunch on the table.

This mass is set against an inverted 'T' shaped mass of dark value, (the tabletop and the dark green jug), and a backdrop of a middlish tone (the brownish background).

Composition seems to depend upon such arrangement of masses, which go (consciously) unnoticed by most viewers and yet decide success or failure of the painting more than any other single aspect I can think of.

Books on Still Life Painting, Books on Painting Technique.

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