Couple of works in progress

Some WIP images of a couple of pieces I am working on at present. I am working on a few landscapes, as I had this uncontrollable itch to do some. It was so bad that I had to abruptly stop whatever else I was doing, and plunge into these. Huh! Happened to take some progress shots, so here they are.

Summer fields - work in progress
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Finding my way through - WIP
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Bringing the pears alive

Now it is time for the pears to rise from the dead, and so finally I get to see some hues other than black and white. I have added one layer of color in the first 2 pieces. I will be adding color layer by layer, so as I mentioned earlier, I will be working on all pieces in parallel.

Let me know what you think of it.

Pears series #5 - Work in progress

Last of the first installment of the Pears. When I did the apples, I did not expect I would do beyond 5 pieces. It was only when I was doing the paintings I realized how much I enjoyed them and decided to do few more after the initial five. This time around it is different. I am quite sure I will be doing some more, so this is the first set I can say. I kinda lost patience, as always in this one. So hurried up an underpainting thats a mix of umbra and penumbra layers. I couldn't wait to add color, so I decided it was enough!

Here is the progress so far. Click on the image for a bigger view.

Pears and Fabric #5 - WIP
Acrylics on Canvas, 24 * 30 cms
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Pears series #4 - Work in progress

Some progress shots of the 4th piece in the Pears and Fabric series. Click on the image for a bigger and better view.

Pears and Fabric - WIP
Acrylics on Canvas, 24 * 30 cms
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Pears series #3

I am completing the first few layers upto the dead layer in all the 5 pieces, and then I will add color to them one by one. So all pieces are still in progress. Like the previous two pieces, this one too shows the progress from pencil drawing to the dead layer. All we need to do now is to add in color.

Pears and Fabric #3 - WIP
Acrylics on Canvas, 24 * 30 cms
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Pears series #2

Here is the next of my Pear paintings, making use of the Flemish technique as described earlier. One prerequisite for working in this method is that each layer must be completely dry before the next layer is done. It greatly aids my approach of working on multiple pieces in parallel. When my first painting is done with one layer and it drying, I work the same layer in the next painting. And so on.

I have completed upto the Dead layer and will start adding color next.

Seen above are the first 3 steps where I have done a preliminary drawing, then washed it with burnt sienna. I have then done the shadows with burnt sienna, black and marked the lighter values with a little bit of titanium white. To the left here is the dead layer, or the greyscaled version of the painting.

New series - using the Flemish Technique

I am starting a new still life series. It is an extension of my still lifes using fruits and fabric, this time using pears as the central object. The other objects used should be familiar to my readers, they are the same blue plastic container and my olive oil bottle used in the Orange and Glass series. I have planned to use the Flemish Technique of painting for this series.

The Flemish Technique was used by the Old Masters, and it is an approach to build up color in layers. This gives the painting great depth and helps achieve a very high degree of realism. A long time back there was a Virtual class on how to use this technique, in the Acrylics forum of WetCanvas. I could not participate then, but I thought this could be a good time to try my hand at something new, so I am giving it a shot. It is very different from how I work. I do a very rough underpainting, nothing detailed. Here that will change.

The technique is a 7 step process. They are :

1. Drawing - transfering the sketch to the canvas. I directly sketch on the canvas freehand. Traditionally though, a detailed drawing is to be done on another paper and is to be transfered to the canvas.
   
2. Toning the canvas - This step is called "Imprimatura", where the canvas is painted with a mid tone color. This is done so that the values can be marked better than painting on a plain white surface.
   
3. Marking the shadows - The shadows are marked using a dark pigment, like Burnt umber. Opaque highlights are then added. So this step becomes a two value process, where only the darkest and lightest values are marked. The painting will begin to emerge reasonably three dimensional in this step itself.
   
4. Dead layer - This layer, also called Penumbra, is painting the entire painting in black and white. It is a very detailed underpainting to mark all the values, so that the coloring part becomes much simpler. The values are clearly separated from the colors.
   
5. Color glazes - After painting everything in black and white, colors are added in glazes. This forms the steps 5 and 6 of the technique.
   
6. One more layer of Color
7. Final highlights - Some highlights are added in the end. While painting the dead layer, pure white is not really used. It is reserved to add in the final step.

The pictures from left to right depict the steps 1 to 3 in my first painting. I have done the sketching very roughly, washed it with a very watery burnt sienna. Then using a combination of burnt sienna and black, I have added the shadows. In the next step, I have completed the dead layer. The dead layer could be done even more detailed, but I have stopped it here and I will begin to add color next.

It was completely new to me, to refer to a greyscale of my image and do it completely in black and white. I enjoyed it, though it was quite time consuming. I hope it will not be as time consuming if I get used to the technique.

I would recommend visiting the blog of Mark Woodland, who does amazingly realistic works using this approach. The virtual classroom was conducted by him and that's what inspired me to try this. I will fetch the link to that thread and update this post later.

Apples and Glass #8 – Completed

So finally, we are done! This piece was the most difficult for me in terms of motivation. It was like preparing for an exam on the last day during school and college. During every exam, while preparing for the last paper, invariably my thoughts would be more focused on the impending holidays than on the exam at hand. Similarly, I was thinking about what to start next, rather than trying to finish this piece well. So with great difficulty, I got myself to concentrate again and do justice to it.

Apples and Glass #8,
Acrylics on Canvas, 18 * 24 cms,
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

I will put up a gallery of all the apple pieces together soon. In the meantime, your feedback is welcome on this one, and the series as a whole. As in the previous pieces, I have put together the various stages the painting has gone through. It might be of interest to you, enjoy. Click on the image for a better view.

Apples and Glass # 8 - Work in progress
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Apples and Glass #8 – yet another update

This is the last update before I post the completed image, I promise. With this piece, we are done with apples for a while. Until my obsession begins to show its face again. This one’s a rather boring arrangement compared to all the previous ones. There are no folds in the fabric, no complex reflections etc. However, the shadows are very interesting in this one. The fruits are almost entirely in the shadow, and it helps me experiment a lot with color. I have already used a lot of blues and greens in this, and I will use more of them as I go further. I love deciphering colors in shadows, it is absolutely exciting.

In all probability, I will complete this one tomorrow, and then later this week, I will post all the 8 pieces together. That will be interesting, I hope. Stay tuned.

Apples and Glass #7 – Completed

We are slowly inching there :) I have completed the penultimate piece in the apples series, as of now that is. I have completely run out of small sized canvas panels, and until I replenish my inventory, the apples wont resurface. But I have already shortlisted couple of more from my reference set and I am itching to make it a round number, like 10 :D Let’s see when I am able to get to those.

Apples and Glass #7
Acrylics on Canvas, 18 * 24 cms,
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

I am quite pleased with this one, I tried a different arrangement of the fabric from the previous ones. The glass was also a nightmare in this piece. Took me a lot of time, even though I had done SIX similar glasses before! I am happy with how it has turned out. Please have a look at the work in progress below, from start to finish. Click on the image for a better view.

Apples and Glass #7 - Work in progress
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Apples and Glass #6 – Completed

This is the first among the rectangular apple pieces. The set up is very similar to Apples and Glass #1, with just the angle being a more toppish view. I had great fun working with the glass in this. I thought it has a lot more color than the other glasses.

Your comments are welcome.

Apples and Glass #6
18 * 24 cms, Acrylics on Canvas
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Since it is easier to see the work in progress in one shot than to navigate through separate posts to see the various stages of the painting. So, I have put together the work in progress, please have a look. I could take the maximum number of pictures in this piece, so it shows the transition quite nicely I must add. Click on the image for a better view.

Apples and Glass #6 - work in progress
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Apples and Glass #5 – Completed

The weekend was lousy, I was down with a stiff neck and I just could not paint at all. Got to work on the 5th apple piece and complete it today. This piece, though I started with the first batch, was getting really delayed for no reason. This piece has a lot of shadows in the fruit and I really went wild with the color here. I have used a lot of greens and blues in the shadows. I tried to keep the fabric folds a little abstract by just indicating some blues.

Apples and Glass #5
8 * 8 inches, Acrylics on Canvas
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

A snapshot of the work in progress for you. All your feedback is welcome. Click on the image below for a better view.

Apples and Glass #5 - Work in Progress
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Apples – next update

   I don’t want to number these paintings until they are completed. I know how confusing it can be to the reader, to keep seeing painting #x, stage #y over and over again. In my system, I know what number this painting is, so that’s enough. So yeah, this is one among the next four apple still lifes, and it is about 90% completed. I have completed the glass and the fruit behind. Some more work is pending on the fruits in the foreground, and the fabric. The shadows all look similar, I need to bring in some variation in them.

  I am next planning to start a new series of still lifes with pears and some white fabric. I have so far done only one painting of pears, and I loved it. So I am eager to move on to the next series, and I hope to complete this ongoing series asap. Stay tuned.

Apples - some progress

The apple still lifes are taking time, this time as expected. This is my progress today on one of the new apple paintings. I have almost completed the fruits, started work on the glass. I hope to complete the glass to a large part tomorrow, and tweak everything together one last time. Your comments are welcome.

I have just opened a twitter id and am still in the process of figuring out what on earth twitter is. I am just testing the waters, to see if it will direct more eyes to my art. Blogging itself is time consuming, and it takes a lot of effort to keep a blog alive with new stuff. I don't really think I will have time for something like twitter, but lets see. Just in case you wish to follow me, I can be found here.

Deep woods – a minor update

In between the apples, I got to work on the landscape for sometime today. Here is an update on the same. I have defined the foliage in between the birch barks a little more so that the trees stand out clearly. I have also started some work on the rocks in the foreground.

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time downloading a fancy template for my blog and customizing it to my liking. It was then that I realized that there were a lot of tweaks to be done in the template, much more than what I had time for. It did not even have the feature to display the post categories. But the biggest drawback however, was that it had images in the background and was loading very slowly. So I decided to do away with all fancy templates and have gone back with gold old denim template of blogger. I have just customized the colors so that they look good with my new header. All your comments are welcome.

Update on the apples

Here is a small update on the three new apple paintings. I have completed work on the fabric. The apples get their turn tomorrow.

Apple obsession continues

I had taken a lot of references when I set up the apple still life. Initially I started with 5 paintings, 4 of which are completed now and the 5th one is almost done. I was just browsing the remaining references to check if I can manage decent paintings from any of the, and I have started not one but three new paintings! I am totally having a blast with this set of references. So here goes, apple paintings 6, 7 and 8. The first stage of the WIP that is. Your feedback is welcome.

Deep woods - WIP

There is a virtual classroom on doing Trees and Foliage happening in the WetCanvas Acrylics forum, and here is my painting that I am doing along with the class. Though I do a lot of landscapes, I always make foliage quite messy, so this was a good opportunity to learn from an experienced painter. I am one confused soul right now as I am unsure how the painting will shape up. But here is a step by step process so far.

I am using two references merged for this painting. One is of a woods scenery in my neighborhood here, and the foreground is from a scene in India.:) The woods are largely with winter trees, with some hint of dried up fall leaves here and there. To begin, I directly sketched the trees on the canvas with a very watery burnt sienna. Have done the sky also quite watery now, with cerulean blue and titanium white. I plan to have some trees in the background, very shallow waters in the foreground with some rocks here and there. I also have a fallen branch in the foreground.

And then I have started adding dark foliage in between the trees. The colors used are olive green, some crimson and burnt sienna. The trees are mainly birch trees, and they are quite fun to paint.

Then I suddenly decided I wanted couple of more bigger trees in the foreground, and have sketched them with some olive green. Thats generally how haphazardly I work :D Since the background foliage is not supposed to be so dark, I have added a layer with titanium white, mauve and olive green. Very loosely mixed on the canvas itself. This is a night photo and it not so good.

Then I realize that the trees all look very evenly spaced, so define them a little more in clusters. Have added another layer of the sky too, as the first layer was too watery.

And then with some yellow ochre, burnt sienna and a hint of orange, I have added some foliage in the background. It is a winter scene with only dried up fall leaves, so no bright colors used really.

With some flesh tint for the brighter side, and pthalo blue + burnt sienna for the darker sides, I have done the trees again. After my daughter's portrait last year where I spent a lot of time getting the flesh tones right, I bought this tube of flesh tint. My daughter's portrait is done with mixed flesh tones, no flesh tint straight off the tube. But ever since I have got this color, I have used it for everything but portraits. I am finding a great use for it in still lifes, and now in landscapes as well. Huh! Here is how it looks right now.

Today I will be working on the trees some more, I hope to pull out my palette knife too. Then I will start working on the water. Look forward to an update in a couple of days.

Apples and Glass #4 - Completed

This one is a top view for a change, so will be the next one too. I used a little more blue in this compared to the previous pieces, and I need some time to see if it works well. The shadows are largely warm, with only a hint of blue so far. I will have a look at this piece after a while, and change it if the blue doesn't go well. I had a great time doing the apple, and the glass too.

Apples and Glass #4
Acrylics on Canvas, 8 * 8 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan



Here is a look at the work in progress. Click on the image for a better view.

Apples and Glass #4 - Work in Progress
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Apples and Glass #3 - completed

I am really happy with the left most apple, but not at all happy with the slices. No amount of work seems to make them okay. So I am just calling this done.

Apples and Glass #3

Acrylics on Canvas, 8 * 8 inches

Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Here is the work in progress, as a set of images. Click on the image for a better view.

Apples and Glass #3 - Work in progress
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan