Process: Oil Painting Still Life Grisaille (Week 27)

This week, I finished up my grisaille underpainting. I had to stay after school for a couple of days to really focus and finish it, but I am glad how it finally turned out! I have not seriously painted before this project, so this project has taken a bit longer than expected to find what works and doesn't work in terms of technique. I have used acrylic paint a bit in my past, but it has been really interesting to discover its similarities and differences to oil paint throughout this project.

While finishing up the still life, the most difficult objects for me to paint were definitely the two bracelets. The pop-it certainly proved to be difficult as well, but the repetitive nature of each sphere allowed me to feel more comfortable with depicting the material as I worked. I struggled with the two bracelets in particular because of their small size yet complex texture and shadows. The bracelet to the left is strung with lots of tiny, blue beads, so it was challenging for me to render the detail, shadows, and highlights when paired with the bracelet's small surface area on the actual painting. The other bracelet to the right also troubled me because there is not much surface texture to add other than the small shadows, meaning that shadows had to create the illusion of the bracelet all on their own. I don't think I painted the bracelets perfectly, but I hope to add any small adjustments as I add color and "fattier" layers

Despite the challenge with the underpainting, I am really excited to start adding color! I am pretty nervous to add color to the pop-it because there are simply so many colors to mix and blend, but I think that the colors will truly bring the whole painting together.