Exercise: Tonal study on white ground

We are asked to find a few simple objects which are plain and un-patterned to form the basis of this tonal study, and only to use two quite low-key colours plus white.  Therefore the objects I chose for this exercise where a full bottle (Pimms!) plus an enameled jug and a wine glass.  I was not originally sure about the addition of the wine glass, but decided to include it as I felt it would be a good opportunity also to study reflections (as both the other objects were reflective) and the tonal values of a transparent object.

I first did a sketch in charcoal pencil including two further objects: an enamel kettle and a citrus press.  However, I felt this was a little too crowded, and the composition was a little too processional.

My second sketch was completed in graphite pencil (4b) and included just the jug, bottle and glass:

The proportions here are fairly accurate, except that the wine glass is too big.  I also felt that the tonal variation was a little boring as both the bottle and jug were more or less the same tone.

Both of the above drawings were done from more or less eye level so I decided next to do a sketch (graphite again) standing up at my easel.  I always find drawing standing up quite difficult as I am more used to sketching using my drawing board at an angle so this one took me a little longer to complete!  When I did this study it was dark, and so the tonal contrasts were more defined, as were the highlights from the reflective surfaces.  I found this composition more interesting as it showed the reflections more – especially the glass on the jug – which was not visible from the straight-on view.  The reflection of the jug and bottle on the window made interesting additions to the composition and the shadows on the desk were more defined.  A further benefit to this composition was that it showed the cylindrical/circular nature of all the objects more, and so allowed me to practice drawing ellipses more (always struggle with these!)

My notes on this composition.

Indigo or Payne’s Grey are suggested as possible dark tones for this exercise but, as I currently have neither of those in my palette, I decided to go with Prussian Blue as the dark tone.  Although not particularly low-key, it is not a bright colour and I felt it would work well for the subject.  The other colour I chose was buff and white.

For my support, I had a large piece (A3) of quick thick, corrugated cardboard, so I decided to trying painting on this after coating with a couple of layers of white gesso (had to flatten out under a book when dry as it buckled slightly).  The surface texture of this is quite interesting – almost like cheesecloth – so it will be interesting to see how this affects the finished painting. 

I painted most of this quite quickly (probably about 4 hours in total over 2 days) but will now have to wait for it to dry to add the final white highlights and make a couple of corrections so hopefully will be able to post the photograph in a day or so.