Started drawings for a new still life setup. I started off with a thumbnail to try out the composition and then I zoomed in on a detail of the pepper and a section of the driftwood. I wanted to work out some ideas I had about the lights and the highlights on the peppers. I know that value based observations won't work for the peppers because their are a lot of false contrasts, so in my sketch I paid careful attention to the form and downplayed the flashy highlights and contrasts. The larger outline drawing is the actual size cartoon for the painting. I'll trace it and transfer it onto an 8"x10" canvas thats been lightly stained with raw umber. I'm going to start painting this one pretty directly without any underpainting because I'm worried about how long the peppers will last. I also plan to do a small scale color poster study which also should eliminate the need for an underpainting. I've decided that if the peppers don't last I'll just replace them, but I won't change the drawing, I'll just match the colors and stay with the original forms that I've mapped out in the block-in.
The color study is on a panel about 5"x7". I took a photo of my block-in drawing, printed it, and then used it to make a charcoal transfer. It made it a lot easier to come up with a mini version to use for a color study. The ebauche on the larger painting (16"x20") has a bit of that dead coloring that comes from working over a wipe-out. I prefer it to doing a color ebauche directly on the white canvas because I kind of like that neutrality to guage my colors against when I do my finishing pass (next stage).
