Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Painting White-cont.

It's been weeks since I began "French Lace."  The challenge was painting the white cloth with a focus on value, edges and temperature.  The only way to paint the antique tablecloth was to squint and squint often.  The first go round of squinting was to determine the light shapes and dark shapes.  Light shapes were in the value range from 1 to 4 (some value charts have 10 as white but not mine).  Darks were 5 to 9.  I forced myself to ignore any of the details.  Once the form of the cloth was established and the clay pot blocked in, then and only then, did I focus on the small areas with an eye to color/temperature.  Details were still ignored.

When working this large-36X48 inches, I had to add clove oil to keep the paint wet for a long period of time.  Because the tablecloth was bought in Paris around 1912, the white had a yellowish warm cast.  The only cool blue white was in the area where the light burned out the color and details.

If you have any specific questions about any part of this process, please contact me or ask in the comment section.

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