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Hmmm. This thread is so long I feel guilty taking the time to read it, since I really should be across the room working on the still life I wanted to finish last night. My point, which I think Paul(?) already made, is this - do a still life. You work on the same issues - lighting, composition, drawing, value, edges and color. And it won't cost you a thing if you glean the objects from your home, or your neighbor's home.
I hear my teachers saying the same things to me about my still life paintings as they do about figures and portraits. What I'm hearing recently is this: make the forward things come forward and the back things go back. Whether the forward thing is an arm or a teapot spout makes no difference, the practice of making it hold its proper place will increase one's skill in all areas of painting.
Once I asked one of my teachers what would be a good thing to paint that would prepare me for working on skin; she told me to paint a sea shell. So I added a sea shell to my next still life; she was right, it helps.
Back to the still life.....
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