From the Artist: I dug out my old palette knives and laid them on the table in a heap. I liked the composition so I sketched it.
Painting with palette knife was difficult. I'd forgotten that shakey hands can cause problems! While painting with the knives, I remembered why I don't enjoy using them.
I also realized after photographing the piece that the darker shade on the bottom would have been better on top with the lighter shades on the bottom against the dark wooden handles. Oh, Well! Another good exercise.
From the Painting Guide: Sometimes techniques or approaches just don't work for an individual, but I'm a great believer in not assuming it won't without trying. And just because something didn't work say five years ago, doesn't mean you should automatically assume it won't work for you today without trying because we all change and our approach to painting does evolve. Sure, you were reminded why painting with a knife doesn't work for you, but it'll have given you renewed appreciation for why a brush does and what a brush can do.
When I first glanced at this painting when it arrived in my email, I thought it was an abstract. It was only on looking again I saw it was a pile of painting knives. (Well, it was early in the morning, before my first cup of coffee!) I love this as a subject for this project! I think the dark colors against the dark handles and the lighter colors against the lighter metal bits of the knives adds to the abstracted feeling. If you did it the other way around, I think it's be far more realistic, quite a different painting.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Composition: Centering a subject on a canvas successfully can be tricky to do -- there's the danger of it pulling the viewer's eye in too strongly to the middle to the detriment of what's going on around the edges. But this composition is successful because the shapes of the knives push and pull your eye across the composition and there's nothing slap bang in the middle.
Painting with palette knife was difficult. I'd forgotten that shakey hands can cause problems! While painting with the knives, I remembered why I don't enjoy using them.
I also realized after photographing the piece that the darker shade on the bottom would have been better on top with the lighter shades on the bottom against the dark wooden handles. Oh, Well! Another good exercise.
From the Painting Guide: Sometimes techniques or approaches just don't work for an individual, but I'm a great believer in not assuming it won't without trying. And just because something didn't work say five years ago, doesn't mean you should automatically assume it won't work for you today without trying because we all change and our approach to painting does evolve. Sure, you were reminded why painting with a knife doesn't work for you, but it'll have given you renewed appreciation for why a brush does and what a brush can do.
When I first glanced at this painting when it arrived in my email, I thought it was an abstract. It was only on looking again I saw it was a pile of painting knives. (Well, it was early in the morning, before my first cup of coffee!) I love this as a subject for this project! I think the dark colors against the dark handles and the lighter colors against the lighter metal bits of the knives adds to the abstracted feeling. If you did it the other way around, I think it's be far more realistic, quite a different painting.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Composition: Centering a subject on a canvas successfully can be tricky to do -- there's the danger of it pulling the viewer's eye in too strongly to the middle to the detriment of what's going on around the edges. But this composition is successful because the shapes of the knives push and pull your eye across the composition and there's nothing slap bang in the middle.