In which I paint a still life

[bunn]

No art class pics for a couple of weeks because I've been working on this, which is rather complex and took several sessions.  The idea was to choose three items that 'represent yourself' and paint a still life of them.  Still life is definitely NOT my thing,but I thought I'd learn stuff from doing this this, and selected the 'items' with the idea of learning techniques in mind. 


So, here is Mollydog's old collar, which I chose to learn about painting brass and gold embroidery, as well as because,: sighthounds. 

And a GIANT D20 which I stole from the Shop on the Borderlands because I thought it would be interesting to learn to paint the luminous transparency of it, and it was - I'm really pleased how that has come out.  I put a little lamp behind it to create the shadow and the light coming through it.  Pp took it out of the shop so it's MINE now, which seems fair because I had to look after the shop this week while he was off frivolling with You're Hired.  There were two of these in the shop: I picked the green one to paint, because of the Tolkien resonance of 'a green stone' and also because it went with the collar and the book cover, and coincidentally, the blue one got bought yesterday when I was being In Charge and so I had to parcel it off and send it off...

A treasured copy of 'poems and stories' - the deluxe one that I think they must have printed too many of, long before the LOTR movies, and there were piles of them remaindered in some discount bookshop in Oxford.  It came in a box, so you can see the box and the book, which contains 'Leaf by Niggle' as well as 'On Fairy-Stories' and various other minor works.  The tree on the cover is the Tree from Niggle's Leaf, and it's by Pauline Baynes, who is absolutely my favorite Tolkien artist / illustrator.  More practice with painting gold embossing, and also lettering (I haven't got the lettering quite perfect, but I can live with it.)

And also, the background fabric, which I grabbed quickly because Colin the Art had said 'bring something to display it on' without really thinking about the complexity of the pattern, but I'm actually quite pleased with how it has come out.  It sort of works as another 'item to represent' because that fabric is actually stuff I bought cheaply to make a wall hanging,  on the grounds that Yama Cat sneezes on everything, and it's much easier to wash a fabric wall hanging than a wall.   Also I hadn't tried painting cloth from life before. I should do that again.


Colin the Art thought this was good and said I should put it in the village show.  I might, if I had a frame for it, but I don't seem to have one that is the right size. 

Comments

[hhimring]

I like this a lot. The bits of embroidery and Pauline Baynes' tree in particular came out really well.
What is a GIANT D20 when it's not standing in creditably for an Elessar?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It's a 20-sided dice, for roleplaying purposes. My roleplaying is very much of the lightweight kind and I generally just borrow dice from Pps massive hoard. This is the only one I own, but it makes up for its singularity by being a dice that you could could probably do a lot of real damage with, particularly if you put it into a sock or something :-D

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful! I love the rich background and the intriguing green triangle of collar, dice and tree...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even noticed they'd ended up in a triangle! I spent ages arranging them though, it was probably about half-way through the first class by the time I actually got paint on a brush. Mobile phones are a boon for still-life, you can record how your fabric is arranged!

[timetiger.livejournal.com]

This is a beautiful painting. I very much wish I could see it in person.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The dice looks better in real life. I'm amazed how hard photographing paintings is, and how easily the camera makes things look different!

[angelica-ramses.livejournal.com]

This is great. I specially like how the blues and greens work together. Congratulations!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I like it very much.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Hurray!

[sally_maria]

It's beautiful, and I love the way the background really works as part of the design.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I feel I lucked out, given that I just thought 'cloth... cloth...' and grabbed the thing that was nearest that met that description. :-D

[wulfila.livejournal.com]

(I wandered over from hhimring's journal to yours - I hope it's all right to comment!)

I love the background fabric and the way both the box and the book are displayed in your painting.