Thursday 13 September 2012

Exercise: Simple Perspective in Interior Studies


In this exercise, we are asked to create an illusion of space by demonstrating perspective in an interior, working with a degree of accuracy and carefully studying proportions.

For this exercise, I decided to paint the corner of my dining room.  The space here has a high ceiling, picture rail, the edge of the bay window and a sideboard (currently loaded with art books!).

I decided to widen the view from my original sketch to include the lines of the ceiling that I felt would define the structure of the room and more of a sense of space.  I drew in the main lines of the room and objects in pencil and had no technical problems in making the lines accurate.

We were asked to keep the colours muted but, having done this, really didn’t like the effect so painted over with the actual colours of the objects.

I feel certain areas of this painting work well – the very corner of the room has a sense of depth and shadow, and I am pleased with the colours and tonal values of the walls and ceiling.

I struggled with the colours of the furniture; it is an art deco style veneered group.  My original colours were too ochre/orangey, so I glazed over the top with umber.  I realised here that to glaze effectively, the paint mix needs a large proportion of linseed stand oil in order to change the colour without showing brush strokes.  I think the top of the sideboard works better than the base – here I had added the reflections from the books before deciding to glaze over the top and this gives the effect of the reflections without them being too evident and obvious.

Relooking at the painting again, although I felt my original measurements were accurate, in the final painting, the sideboard is too dominant and the books should probably have been further forward.  I think the sideboard top looks too deep, although this is difficult to gauge accurately because you can’t see / don’t have the guideline of the back edge to guide you.


No comments:

Post a Comment