Blue Swirl Pot2

This one is now done :) yay :) I learnt alot from doing these and i can still see errors in these ones (i am never happy) but i think they came out alright.

I would be a little more confident to tackle the larger piece of this one, the comp will be different. Theres a few things i will do differently (i will go into that when i start the piece).

But just thought i would post the finished one for now and show both of them together. In a nut shell i feel the drawing of the pot is better on the second one, i took much more time with this as well as the cloth (the first one was basically a direct copy of the photograph whereas the second one the basic lines were drawn which i then "corrected" here and there as i went).

However, i think the colours of the background and the wood are much better on the first one, they are much clearer and vibrant. (due to the watercolour underpainting). The first one took much less time than the second in acheiving colour.

The second one's cloth however, has better values however than the first.

I think maybe the basic lesson i have learnt for pieces like this is to mix and match the techniques depending on the purpose it will be used for. If the item is quite light and detailed i think it's better to produce the whole thing in pencil, however for backgrounds and large areas of colour i think a watercolour or some type of wash will work much better with as i am not concentrated on getting down the correct colour value.

Also i need to cencentrate when i have something white or light with dark right next to it. The white of the pot (especially after the fixative) seems to have a blue tinge due to the swirls next to it. The only thing i can think of is a frisket but that wouldnt really be appropriate for something like this. So with my next one i am going to attempt to work cleaner to see if this makes a difference. I think the next one will be larger so it would be easier to get this kind of detail in as well ... its quite hard being so small.

On a side note : i have been doing more sketching of late, mainly quick little 5-10mins poses of the kids as they are doing stuff. The other day i did some potplants as the kids were playing i can really see the positives of doing this reguarly which has been highlighted in various articles i have been reading. So another thing on the long list of things to do is to sketch from life more often!!! :)