First Friday Demo, a Slotted Spoon

On Friday, February 4, I did another all-day demonstration for the First Friday festivities at the Upstairs Studio gallery. Thanks to Daniel, of Daniel Jackson Photography, for this photo of me at work! What follows is my step by step progress.

This is the basic sequence I take people through in my weekend classes on classical still life technique. There is still room in the workshops coming up on the next 2 weekends, and beginners are welcome. Please contact me at info@carollambertarts.com if you are interested. There are also classes planned in March, April, and May.


Here is the set-up. This old slotted spoon came from a friend's grandmother's kitchen. Another friend gave me the deer antler. These objects seemed to get along well.


This is the block in for the composition.


At this stage, I am working up the values in monochrome. I am also thinking about the final colors, since this set up was mostly monochrome anyway.


Here is my first color pass.


This is what the painting looked like at the end of a rather long day. It isn't finished: the antler needs more modeling, and I will adjust values and sharpen some edges.

At some point I will post my demo paintings in their finished state. Thanks for your interest!