Go for excellence in portraiture

[Debra Norton]

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.....

[Steven Sweeney]

Three months after this thread began, there are still vehement and vilifying emails and personal messages being distributed in campaigns behind the scenes, and I, having been directed back here by the inquiries of another member, decided to re-read the thread and, in particular, my posts, to see if I had indeed been too blunt or abrasive, as the indictments charge. After several hundred posts over a number of years, it admittedly is possible that one can have an off night (or a bad year) and do unintended damage.

I wouldn

[Claudemir Bonfim]

I was going to say something about still life paintings, but it is not necessary anymore, Debra mentioned some very nice points.

By the way, have you guys seen anyone painting a still life from a photo?

I don't want to offend anyone, but that would be hilarious.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Hello there,

After my last post, I received the following link from a visitor.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5410362

Thanks Thomas.

[Mike McCarty]

That was interesting.

"We are looking, not talking. We're not even listening. We're only looking. And that's not bad because few of us take the time to use our eyes as carefully as we use our mouths."

[Steven Sweeney]

few of us take the time to use our eyes

The whole thread, in a nutshell.

[Mari DeRuntz]

The whole thread, in a nutshell.

Amen. Funny how the flawed messengers get hanged for the message they deliver.