I have been exploring more and more with gouache and to celebrate June 2nd* I'm sharing this still life exercise idea I worked on in April. If you're a painter you can give it a go too!
The exercise consists of setting up objects and painting them from observation (No Photos!). The three elemental challenges in your setup are:
- 1st Is Color in nature which consists of painting a flower of bright natural colour. Unfortunately when I did this there were no noteworthy flowers blooming in my garden, so I went with a Bloodleaf (Iresine Herbstii) specimen I had. It is not a flower but the fact that the leafs are of intense carmine colour made it a fine substitute.
- 2nd Is a Black Object the purpose here is to paint something that Is black in real life without using black paint. That is definitely one of the more challenging things, for it requires you to see that black things aren't black, but a dark shade of a certain colour. I managed to achieve mine using Ultramarine Blue + Orange and White. Don't mind my reflection on the vase.
- 3rd A Human Skull for its complex and yet recognizable shape. Which leaves little to no room for subtle abstractions. And yes one of my many skull models is Orange and about the size of an apple. A white one could have made for a better exercise but I wanted something that would fit best in the colour composition.
