Ninth Time's the Charm!

And the winner is, #9!

This morning I reread the first chapter in Patti Mollica's book, How to Paint Fast, Loose, and Bold, in preparation for today's composition practice. I have to admit, doing the pear again sounded pretty boring and I really wasn't looking forward to it, but I'm SO BORED of the day in and day out sameness of sheltering in place that I decided my daily composition couldn't be any worse. Besides, I was curious about one of the methods Mollica suggests: using white and black drawing tools on gray paper.

I knew I had bought a gray sketchbook last year that I'd never used; took 30 minutes to find it. And I remembered the cutest Conte Crayon stocking stuffer I had bought, I don't know, 10 years ago and had never used (seeing a pattern here?), and luckily we still had a pear in the house. (By the way, I've been drawing Packham pears, which are quite oddly shaped.)

Today I decided to work in a square format, thinking that maybe, eventually, I'd have a composition I really liked, and maybe I'd figured out how to paint it in a way I liked, and then I could make a "real" painting on one of the 6" Ampersand boards I've had laying around since I tried oils a couple of years ago. OK, everything is ready to go; let's do this!

First one, values are "real" but it doesn't read as a pear. Second one, reads as a pear but it's a boring 50/50 split of white and gray. Third one, doesn't read as pear. WAIT A MINUTE. Why is this so hard to do? UGH. Fourth one, interesting, but the square is divided in half. Fifth one, mostly mid tone and OK but kind of boring. Sixth one, mostly dark and OK but still kind of boring. THIS IS INSANE. It's just a single stupid pear with a single light on it. Time for lunch.

Back to the drawing board. Made the pear a little bigger in the frame and decided to add a simple table edge behind the pear to break up the space. I also moved the light and decided to take a little creative license with the shadow on the pear. Number seven, I like the two values on the pear but not the light/dark contrast. Eight, used three values on the pear and don't like that at all. Number nine, I FINALLY get a value pattern that I like, that reads pear, that has one value (mid) bigger than the others, and that feels good to me. I could see painting this.

It took me NINE value drawings to get there! I'm a smart person, really. I don't understand why this has been such a challenge for me. Luckily I gave myself only five minutes for each drawing, so I still got this done in less than an hour, but seriously. I can't even imagine how hard this will be when I have two items in the frame. Maybe tomorrow.

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