Still Life of Apple and Red Bottle

This is my project for the still-life class taught by John Mac Kah during the 2006 winter quarter at the Fine Arts League of Asheville (FALA). This project consisted of five major steps and the main objective was to teach us about value.

The first assignment was to set up and quickly draw three different still lifes (20 minutes each). From those three, we selected one to do for the project.

The next step was to accurately render a charcoal drawing. Each item in the drawing had to be the same size and shape as the real item. The charcoal drawing can be seen in the photo taped to the wall underneath the still life.

At one point, as I was struggling with the contours of the bottle, I asked John why it had to be so exact. After all, who would ever know when it was hanging on someone's wall someday? His answer, "Because realism is about truth. You are drawing the truth of the object." This is a basic tenet of classical realism.

After doing the charcoal drawing, a tracing was made and the outline of the drawing was transferred to a gesso board prepared in the traditional way.

The next step was to paint a value study of the still life using only one oil paint: raw umber. This produced a sepia-like painting

When that dried, a grisaille was done over the raw umber. To do the grisaille, ten shades of gray were mixed using titanium white and raw umber. This produced a black and white painting similar to a black and white photograph of the still life.

The last step was to paint the still life using the colors of the actual still life over the grisaille. Unfortunately, the quarter ended before I painted the whole still life. You can still see the gray scale in the cloth and the shelf. Had there been more time, the painting would have been completely painted with color several times to get the color and value just right.

After the quarter was over I brought the painting back for John to look at. My hope was that he would tell me how to finish it. This is what he said: "This is a student work. Let is stand as a student work. It is not honest to go in and try to finish it after you have taken the model down." He said that I had achieved what he wanted me to and I felt good about what I had done. Even though it was not finished, it was completed.