2007 Ontario Three-Peats Meet Demo No.1

"Realism in Watercolours - a Still Life"

This thread has been set up within www.watercoloursforfun.com for Wet canvas! members to download the basic reference photograph we'll be working from, plus a four-panel full-sized B&W image for tracing purposes. I will be completing this painting to anticipate any problems we might have, and will bring it to the meeting. I will post this as a WIP / Demo after the Meet is over. I ask that all questions, comments and suggestions be made on the main Wet Canvas! thread so all members can follow this project.

(Note: Please be patient as images load. These are full size, so save them directly to your hard drive)

Here is our basic photographic reference. Taken in natural sunlight, this piece is called "Morning Coffee". Although this is a simple still-life, I've tried to set this up to challenge us with textures, shadows, reflected light and transmitted light through the glass coffee plunger pot. In an original trial painting I felt the completely dark background was too heavy, so I'm recommending a break with tradition by having our final painting look as shown in the next panel.

The dark rectangle behind the tray is computer simulated as I've yet to complete this painting, but it will be painted in after suitable masking. The actual shadow of the tray will go beyond the background. We will be using a 1/4 sheet and the image will be 14" X 9" with sufficient white space around to be matted and framed. The effect will be quite unusual and lend itself to your kitchen or dining area. If you intend this for sale I think it will be an unusual and desirable item.

If you've never used this technique before here is what you do: print out each of these panels in B&W to save expensive colour cartridges.

Trim around as shown.  Assemble as a full-sized tracing aid. Tape the sheet to your watercolour paper and use a erasable transfer sheet to get your image on paper. Then carefully re-draw your image ready for misket work and eventual painting. Ignore the background as you won't need it. I will provide each of you with a 5" x 7" professional high-quality colour print to work from at the actual demonstration and workshop.

	Position your basic drawing as shown to allow the image to fit comfortably within the recommended 14" x 9" mat. You will have some flexibility of course, so allow plenty of room around the image for later cropping. This will fit nicely on a 1/4 sheet.

	Here is a very rough first painting using a cup and saucer alternative. I cut this out and placed it on a pre-painted rectangle of dark gray, I decided to use a mug as it simplified the set-up and seemed more appropriate

	Here is the final matted version of "Morning Coffee", our "homework" for the Sutton Meet in June. I used an existing mat, but I'm not happy with it and will change it before bringing it along. There's no way we could complete this project in one three-hour session of course, but we'll have fun trying out some of the techniques used in this sort of painting.