Still Life Stuff

[JeffX99]

Thanks Drobyazko! The Ram skull painting was only about 1 hr...maybe 1.5. The Fox skull in the box was significantly longer - 4-5 hours painting time maybe - over a couple days though.

[JeffX99]

A new piece to share...

"Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil" 16x16 Oil on Linen
(I would just like to add those skulls kicked my ass!...I had to draw them about 6 times each before things got happy)

[NecroPhone]

Great work! It'd be awesome if you could post more process pics, they're lovely to look at.

PS, thanks for the encouragement/advice you gave in my thread a little while back.

[Wolf_Daughter]

Great work! I enjoy the details of realism. The shadows and the reflections on the tables are wonderful to look at. Love the skulls hanging in the boxes too. Makes me want to find some old bones to study.

[Larriva Art]

Consider my eyes fooled! Terrific job.

[dpaint]

I like the strings placement in the design, great stuff.

[JeffX99]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone! It's encouraging since this is a bit of a new direction for me. I just updated the final on the last piece - it needed one more pass.

I don't have much in the way of process for that one but I have a few shots of the start...and how off the skulls were!

[JeffX99]

So, by request , here are the few process shots I managed to take of that last piece. Hard to notice here but you can see three different starts on drawing the skulls - they were too low first time, too large the second.

Drawing 1


Drawing 2


Drawing 3


Shadows


Background plywood


Before final glaze and many, many adjustments


And Final (I think)

[dpaint]

Thanks for posting the process shots of that last painting.

[pupiberto]

Hi Jeff. I have a question for you. I'm really an ignorant bastard about still life painting and made this few months ago:



But, well, the question is what makes a good still life painting?, I mean, there are some kind of "rules" or is just about to paint what I like and call it a "still life"?.

Thanks and, btw, sorry for my suck-ass english.

[JeffX99]

Hey pupiberto - good question. I don't think there are any rules for still life. There are some general categories that have developed through history is about all. The categories are such things as:
Vanitas (about death, mortality or time - the transince of teh world)
Game (as in animals of the hunt - usually birds)
Laid Tables (fruit, wine, bread, etc.)
Florals
Fruit
Natural History Collections (sometimes called "Curiosity Cabinets")
Plus a few others...

Trompe L'Oeil is a major sub-category and almost a different thing. There are even sub-categories within trompe l'oeil.

I'm not really sure what category yours might fit in...or mine for that matter! I don't think it is important really. Nice work btw! And your English is just fine!

[bartdeco]

Jeff, I made a anim-gif from the last set of process pics. Hope you don't mind, I figured it would be ok since you were trying to do that earlier. Thanks for sharing your process with us.

bart

[JeffX99]

Wow thanks bart! Yeah, I don't know what I did wrong last time - might have just ended up being too large...it worked on my machine locally. Thanks again! And that is the best account name ever!

[Deadlyhazard]

Holy crap, I mistook that for an actual box with the skulls in it -- I thought you took a picture of the still-life you were going to do. But no, that's a damn painting! Fantastic job with that!

[OmenSpirits]

*shakes head*

I SO dissapointed in you, Jeff my good man.

Still, no Dragons.

*sigh*

Shame...

(that last one is killer!)

[JeffX99]

D'oh! I forgot...have to put dragons on my list for Omen...I'll see what I can do...:

[vineris]

Nice. I really like that vise. I'm a sucker for texture.

[Trixtar]

These paintings look really great!
Now I feel inspired to do still life too

Will there be more updates?
-And I'd also like to see dragons, huge dragons as a huge wall painting

[cquinn]

Trompe Loeils are FUN! Good Job!

[danlucas]

Wow, your oil paintings inspire me - I just don't know where to start.
I've always been partial to graphite, but would like to delve into some
oil painting. Still Lifes and Landscapes would be great.

I've picked up a book by John E. Carlson: Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting.

My problem is oil's are so expensive. I've got PS5 and a tablet Intuos 3. Is it detrimental to start painting digitally rather than with physical oil paints? I just don't have the money for oils ATM.

Thanks for sharing your works. Very much appreciated and admired.
How long did that last one take you to paint?

[JeffX99]

Thanks Dan - nice to hear!

The Carlson book is a real keystone in the landscape world so that's a great start. It really helps to find someone youcan get together with and go out and paint - really helps to bounce theories and understanding off each other. I'm sure you can find a bunch of local Denverites to go out with.

I do think digital is detrimental to learning any basics about painting and drawing...not so much detrimental maybe as just too different. To really get any kind of handle on landscape painting you have to get out in it and do it...a lot.

Oils don't have to be terribly expensive...to get started. A set of primaries and a white...half a dozen brushes (even quality oil brushes are cheap - try to find Robert Simmons "Signet" series - in Flats - get 2 #4s, 2 #6 and 2 #8 - and a #2 if you want). Oh and a quart of Gamsol as turpentine.

Jim Gurney is the guy who got me started in oils (and dpaint who is on here as well). Check out their blogs:
Gurney Journey
Art and Influence

That Coyote Trio piece? It was roughly 8-10 hours as I recall...once I started painting...spread over maybe 3-4 days.