Exercise Still life with flowers

Exercise Still life with flowers

‘Set up a still life with flowers that can remain in place for a day or two. Keep your arrangement simple. Notice the outlines around and between things- the negative shapes- and try and create interesting and varied spaces and objects in your arrangement.’

The most basic mistake I made with this exercise is reading ‘Still life OF flowers’ instead of ‘Still life WITH flowers’.

I chose roses for this exercise because of their strong shape, and also I wanted to show the glass for the vase – in particular the refraction in the water and how this shows a ‘from life’ element to the composition. I picked the fruit to show contrasts in colour.

I set up my arrangement making sure it was set up a eye level, and made an initial sketch:

After blocking in colours:

 

Showing further progression especially the reflections on the glass and refraction:

Roses acrylic on board A3

Detail:

Roses Acrylic on board A3